The Opening of the Sermon on the Mount
Because the Gospel reading for this upcoming Sunday is the "Beatitudes," I thought I'd share with you my translation of them (with my notes), from the ever-growing "Ashland Bible." --Tony
Book One: Jesus Begins his ministry
Part Two:
The Sermon on the Mountain[1]
Chapter Five
Opening Words – True Blissfulness
1When Jesus caught sight of the crowds, he went up onto the mountain and sat down; his disciples approached him. 2He began to teach them[2], beginning with these words[3]:
3“Blissful are those who are destitute
(in spirit)[4],
for
Heaven’s Dominion belongs to them.
4Blissful are those who suffer grief,
for
comfort will come to them[5].
5Blissful are the gentle,
for
the earth will be their inheritance[6].
6Blissful are those who hunger and thirst (for uprightness),
for
they shall eat and drink their fill.
7Blissful are those who show compassion,
for
compassion will be shown to them.
8Blissful are those with unsullied hearts,
for
they will see God[7].
9Blissful are those who build peace,
for
‘God’s children’ is what they will be called.
10Blissful are those who are hunted down because
they sought uprightness[8],
for Heaven’s Dominion belongs to them.
11Blissful are you when they insult you, hunt you down, and say every kind of rotten thing against you [falsely][9] on my account. 12Rejoice and leap for joy: in heaven your reward will be great. And it was just in this way that they hunted down the prophets who preceded you[10].”
[1]Matt 5:1-7:29 // Luke 6:20-49. Matthew’s Sermon on the Mountain is the first of five collections of teaching sayings that mark the structure of the main body of this gospel. It is the discourse section of the first book and contains sayings derived the Q source shared with Luke. The Lucan parallel is in that gospel’s “Sermon on the Plain” (Luke 6:20-49), although some of the Q sayings in Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” (here rendered ‘Mountain’ to stress the image it conveys, Moses giving Law from the Mountain) find their parallels in other parts of Luke. The Matthean sermon’s careful topical arrangement comes not only from Matthew’s editing; Matthew seems to have relied also on an underlying discourse source that included this structure: four beatitudes (Matt 5:3-4, 11-12), a section of Halachic pronouncements stressing intention and providing illustrations (Matt 5:17, 20-24, 27-28, 33-48), a section on intentionality in performing good works (Matt 6:1-6, 16-18) and a peroration giving warnings (Matt 7:1-2, 15-21, 24-27).
[2]Lit., “he opened his mouth and was teaching them, saying.” Luke’s sermon is addressed only to Jesus’ close disciples (Luke 6:20); Matthew says it is addressed also to the crowds (Matt 5:1; cf. Matt 7:28).
[3]Blissful are. Gr. makarioi hoi … “happy/blessed/blissful are those who ….” Makarios “blissful” is translated as beatus “blessed” in the Vulgate, giving these aphoristic affirmations the name “beatitudes” (“statements of true blessedness.”) Macarisms or beatitudes occur frequently in Jewish Wisdom literature and the Psalms. Matthew here shares with Luke four of them from the Q sayings source: Matt 5:3 // Luke 6:20; Matt 5:4 // Luke 6:21b; Matt 5:6 // Luke 6:21a; and Matt 5:11-12 // Luke 6: 22-23). On the lips of the historical Jesus, they were striking and seemingly impossible expressions of God at work where we least expect (“Blissful are the poverty-stricken, those who mourn, those who are starving, those who are persecuted”.) Where Luke has softened the starkness of the juxtapositions by adding a “now / then” framework as well as a list of “woes” or “alases”), Matthew softens and rationalizes them by inserting words that construe them in spiritual or moral senses (e.g., “poverty-stricken in spirit”; “hungry and thirsty for uprightness,” “persecuted on my account.”) The other macarisms added here by Matthew were probably composed by him. A few mss and many versions and patristic quotations invert the order of the second and third macarisms (vv.4-5).
[4]Destitute (in spirit). There is a commonplace in Hebrew scriptures that sees those in poverty (’anāwîm) as particularly aware of their dependence on God (see Isa 61:1; Zeph 2:3). Matthew has added “in spirit” to the Q macarism to specify that it is devotion to God, not literal absence of material goods, that marks the blissful. The phrase “poor in spirit” is a technical term in the Dead Sea Scrolls for the devout of the Qumran community (1QM 14:7).
[5]Comfort will come to them. Gr. paraklēthēsontai “they will have people called to their side / be comforted.” See note on John 14:16.
[6]Cf. Psa 37:11 “…the gentle shall possess the land,” where “the land” means the land of Palestine. In Matt, it means “Heaven’s Dominion.”
[7]Unsullied hearts … see God. Cf. Psa 24:4, where “clean hands and unsullied hearts” (moral innocence and clear intentionality) are seen as the prerequisite for honorable worship in the Temple, and Psa 42:3, where worship in the Temple is described as “seeing God’s face.” Matt transfers these descriptors of Temple worship to approaching and inheriting “Heaven’s Dominion”.
[8]Because they sought uprightness. Gr. heneken dikaiosynēs “on account of uprightness/justice/righteousness,” an addition to the logion by Matthew. Dikaiosynē is the abstract noun referring to the quality of someone who is dikaios “upright, righteous,” the usual translation of Heb. tsadik whose core meaning is compassionate care for others and attentiveness to one’s duties before God. See notes on Matt 3:14-15.
[9][falsely]. Lit., “lying.” This word is absent in the western mss and versional tradition.
[10]Prophets who preceded you. Contrary to the Deuteronomistic idea that the righteous are blessed and the wicked suffer (see Deut 28), Yahweh’s prophets on occasion suffered persecution and death precisely because they followed God’s instructions (e.g., 1 Kings 19:10; Neh 9:26). This incongruity—the righteous suffering while the wicked prosper—is an idea lying behind the macarisms of Jesus, that see blissfulness and God at work precisely in people’s sufferings.
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