Matthew 5:17-18

The context

The Sermon on the Mount opens with the beatitudes and the sayings on salt and light. Verses 17–18 come just before the six antitheses, where the hearer is told what was said of old and what is now said. Jesus is speaking to disciples with a crowd listening, and the Sermon's setting is a mountain in Galilee.

What it establishes

The claim is one of continuity. The Sermon's demands are not an abandonment of the law and the prophets but their fulfillment, and the verse states that in the strongest terms: not one smallest letter or stroke passes away.

What it does not establish

It does not specify how fulfillment works. Which commands remain in force, in what sense, and how the antitheses relate to the law are all disputed, and the verse does not resolve them. It asserts continuity without supplying the hermeneutic.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• How can you take the gospels as inspired when they don't even make that claim for themselves?
• I only trust the words of Jesus. Why should I accept Paul and the rest of the New Testament?

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.