HAPPINESS.— This word, in its subst. shape, does not appear in the Eng. Bible, either in AV or in RV, anil its synonym btesseclness (occurring thrice in AV of NT) has now (see Blessedness) been changed by the Revisers (in accordance with the form /uaKapicrMis) into 'blessing' (Ro4''') and ' gratulation ' (Gal 4'^). The adj. /naxapios (almost invariably in OT representing Heb. -Kfx 'ashrr, lit. happinesses of) is common enough in both Testa- ments. But while, in NT, the ReWsers have re- duced (cf. Jn 13") the renderings by ' happy ' to three (Ac 26'-, Ro \4^, 1 Co 7"), and might consist- ently have reduced them to one (Ac 26- — the ex- ternal happiness of St. Paul in pleading before Agrippa), the OT Revisers have left happy and blessed just where they were, except Jer 12', where the Heb. word (here alone in AV of OT rendered happy) is changed to at rest, its proper meaning. Even in Ps 128'- ^ liappy and blessed are left side by side to represent the same word ; cf. also Pr 16-" with Ps 34". If Carlyle's dictum {Sartor Resarttis) has any force, 'There is something higher than happiness, and that is blessedness,' blessed is the word for the spiritual region ; and the retention of happy so often in RV of OT tends to merge this distinction in a way defensible only on the ground that outward prosperity entered largely into the OT conception of bliss.
The more usual word for happy in profane Greek, fiialiiav, does not occur in LXX or N T. Probably, the Salfiuf component Avas a stumbling-block to Greek-speaking Jew and Christian ; but the prefer- ence for fuiKipioi is altogether suitable to the
atmusjthere, since fuindpioi, and not ei'iSatjua^i', represented to the Greeks the happiness of the divine life.
In the course of the gradual elevation of the word /uiKdpio!, and the idea of happiness from the pagan to the Christian level, from Greek tragedy to the Sermon on the Mount, more than one point is worthy of note. While the ordinary pagan notion was pvirely external, and the tragedians, among the exponents of Gr. thought, will call no man hapnv till a hapjiy death has set its seal ujwn a happy life (Soph. Trarh. 1 11'., cf. Hdt. i. 32) ; yet, in their view, continued prosperity was conditioned bj' natural piety and reverence (Soph. did. Ji. passim, and Hdt. iii. 40) ; and hence their jireference for (vSalfjLui', ' with a good genius attending.' The Gr. ]ihilosopluc.al schools, on the other hand, look- ing for a happiness secure from 'the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,' discerned its possi- bility, some niaiidy in the moral, as Socrates, who detined happiness as eiirpa^la, well-doing, rather thaxx (irruxia, good luek {Xen. Mein.in.Q. 14); others, more strictly in the intellectual, as Plato, whose notion of happiness reached its clima.x in the wisdom consisting in the cognition of the Ideal Good {Rep. 5in), this cognition being the crowning point of the ' resemblance to God as far as pos- sible' {Theat. 176A) ; others, as Aristotle, in the intellectually practical, ' the life in obedience to the intellect,' ' the rational virtuous activity of the soul in a life fully provided,' ' the performance by man of the peculiar work which belongs to him as man' {Eth. Nic. i. 6, ii. 5, x. 4) ; while the Stoics looked for happiness in a life ' conformed to nature,' and combined with arapaiia, abscnre of all emotion.
The difference between such philosophical notions of happiness and the biblical, lies not so much in inwardness, as in the fundamental conditions of that inwardness, its relations, its developments, its possibilities. The bles.'!edn«ss even of some of the noblest conceptions of the OT is linked to the external (Ps 34"- "• "• "), though sometimes the ex- ternal seems to be transcended (Ps 84'-' 4' 119'- '"), and, even when the external is foremost, it always connotes righteousness and the consequent favour of God towards individual, family, or race, in the present or in the Messianic age (see Blessi-:i)XEss). But the element in biblicsil hai)pine.ss which had been lacking to all previous thought was the j/rr- sonal relation, and that not only as faith in God, personal and ever-present (Ps 33'^- *"•-'), but as love lor Him, this bein" the highest requisite (Dt 6''', Jg 5^1 Ps 4'- ') ; and the most satisfying blessedness is to be in His presence and to behold His face (Pss 16. 17. 49). In NT we reach the 'roof and crown.' The happiness is now clearly inward, spiritual and present (Mt 5^") ; and now the way to the personal relation is opened up through Jesua Christ, personal, loving (Jn 15°), ever-living (Jn 14^ He lO'-^). Whatever the outward may be (Ro 8^'), He is God with vs (Mt 1=" IS-'"); nay, verit- able evils endured for Him and with Him actuallj- make us blessed now (Mt 5'"-, 1 P4'''). More than this, He is Christ in its, the hope of glory (Col l") , for the time shall come when, all hindrances being taken away, and the internal embodying itself in external realization,* 'we shall be like him' (I Jn 3'-', cf. Plato above cited) in the full enjoyment of the eternal life (1 Jn 5", Mt 25'", Mk lO*", Jn 17-""). (See articles by the present Avriter, Expositor, lut series, vols. ix. x. 'A Word Study in the NT, piaKapios '). J. MasSIE.