We live in a world of things we have heard.
I heard someone say it on a podcast. I saw a pastor explain it on Instagram. There was a TikTok about it. Someone posted it on Facebook.
Pretty soon a statement gets repeated often enough that it begins to feel true. We may not remember where we first heard it. We may never have checked the original source. But somehow it becomes part of what “everybody knows.”
Maybe we’re not as different from Jesus’ first listeners as we might imagine.
Six times in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus used some variation of a striking phrase:
“You have heard that it was said…”
And then: “But I say to you…”
I’ve read those words for years. But recently this word caught my attention…
Heard.
A World That Heard Scripture
Jesus did not say, “You have read…” He said, “You have heard…”
That distinction matters.
We live in a culture where Bibles are everywhere. Many of us have several in our homes, another on our phone, and dozens of translations available within seconds. We can easily assume people in Jesus’ world were engaging Scripture just like we do.
They didn’t.
Literacy estimates for the first-century Roman world vary widely, partly because literacy itself is difficult to define. Someone might have been able to recognize a name, read a short inscription, or conduct basic business without being able to read and interpret a Torah scroll.
What seems much more certain is that sophisticated reading ability belonged to a minority. For most people, Scripture was something they heard.
The synagogue played an important role. People gathered, Scripture was read aloud, and teachers explained what had been read. Torah was heard, interpreted, remembered, discussed, and passed along.
So when Jesus said, “You have heard…,” he was speaking into a world in which people’s understanding of Scripture was intertwined with what they had been told Scripture meant.
Does that sound familiar?
What God Said – and What We Say God Said
There was also a developing body of interpretation surrounding Torah.
The first-century Jewish historian Josephus described traditions the Pharisees had received from previous generations – teachings and practices not found explicitly in the written law of Moses. The Gospels referred to something similar as the “tradition of the elders.”
That doesn’t make those traditions necessarily sinister. Any community that takes Scripture seriously has to interpret it…
What does this command mean here? How do we apply it there? What happens when two principles seem to collide?
Over generations, interpretations accumulate. Practices develop. Teachers explain what earlier teachers taught. Eventually it can become difficult to tell where the biblical text ends and our explanation of it begins.
We still do this.
- “The Bible says…”
- “Christians have always believed…”
- “My pastor taught…”
- “I’ve always heard…”
Sometimes what we hear is actually Scripture. Sometimes it is a fair and thoughtful interpretation of Scripture. Sometimes it is an inference built on an interpretation that someone else handed down. And sometimes an idea has simply been repeated so often, for so long, that we stop asking whether God actually said it at all.
When Interpretation Starts Sounding Like Scripture
Jesus’ words in Matthew 5 were more complicated than simply, “You’ve been taught incorrectly, so let me tell you what the Bible really says.”
Much of what followed Jesus’ “You have heard…” came directly from Torah:
- Do not murder.
- Do not commit adultery.
- Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.
- Love your neighbor.
But one example stands out. Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’”
The first half came directly from Leviticus: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”(Leviticus 19:18)
The second half did not. Nowhere did Torah command, “Hate your enemy.” Nowhere.
Yet ideas like it were circulating. The Qumran Community Rule found among the Dead Sea Scrolls instructed members of that Jewish community to “love all the sons of light” and “hate all the sons of darkness.”1.
It shows how easily interpretation can begin to sound biblical.
Love your neighbor. That is Scripture.
But if “neighbor” simply means my people, my group, my tribe, then maybe those outside the group are another matter. Before long, we end up with Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
The first part was God’s command. The second part could sound like a perfectly reasonable conclusion. Until Jesus said: “But I say to you, love your enemies.”
Suddenly the assumption was exposed.
Our Own “You Have Heard” World
We may own more Bibles than any generation before us, yet we still live largely in a world of things we have heard.
Today “our synagogue” fits in our pocket. Thus, a 45-second reel explains a difficult passage. A meme summarizes a theological debate that has lasted centuries. A podcast clip gets separated from a two-hour conversation. Context gets lost, and a single verse becomes a stand-in for the whole story.
We share it. Someone else repeats it. Soon thousands of people “know” something few of them have actually investigated.
The technology has changed. Apparently the human tendency hasn’t.
We can confuse what we have heard about Scripture with Scripture itself. Christians can be especially susceptible to this. Once an idea is labeled “biblical,” challenging it can feel dangerously close to challenging God.
“But I Say to You…”
Which makes Jesus’ next words all the more striking: “But I say to you…” Jesus was not simply adding another interpretation to the pile.
Matthew wrote that the crowds were astonished because Jesus taught “as one who had authority.” Again and again, he took what his listeners had heard and urged them to listen more closely – to Torah, to their assumptions about Torah, and ultimately to him.
That may be where these words still confront us. Some of the most difficult misunderstandings to recognize aren’t outright lies. They’re the things we’ve heard so often – from pastors, parents, churches, books, podcasts, and now social media – that we no longer stop to ask: Did God actually say that?
Or maybe the harder question: Is that what God meant?
Jesus’ invitation remains: You’ve heard what people say…
But listen to me.
1Community Rule (1QS 1:9–11), Dead Sea Scrolls
