Whether all the Beatitudes which now appear in Mt 5312 originally stood at the beginning of the Sermon cannot be affirmed with certainty. The fact that the parallel section in Lk 620-23 presents but four Beatitudes, suggests that the four additional Beatitudes in Matthew (the meek, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers) may not have belonged historically to this connexion, but possibly were a part of the composite material which came later to be associated with the historical nucleus of the Sermon.t Even on this theory these four Beatitudes would be authentic utterances of Jesus. And since on many occasions He used the beatitude form of expression, the theory is by no means impossible that the eight Beatitudes of Matthew are a compilation. Yet there are good reasons for the contrary opinion, that they constitute an original unit: (1) the absence of four of the eight Beatitudes from the Lukan account can be explained as a part of the drastic treatment which Luke's material had received in course of transmission. The material- istic import which has been forced upon the four Beatitudes in Lk 620-23 gives evidence of such treatment. Since the other four Beatitudes of Mt 55-7-9 will by no means admit of a materialistic interpretation, it is not improbable that for this reason they dropped out of the narrative in that line of trans- mission. (2) The Third Gospel has not in any connexion recorded these four Matthzan Beatitudes; neither does the Second Gospel have them. So that as the First Gospel has them only in this connexion, no other setting is suggested for them. (3) Their truth is quite too searching and sublime to allow us to regard them as a later creation. They must have come from Jesus. And He must have given them in some significant connexion, such as the Sermon. (4) These four Beatitudes are necessary to the connexion in which they stand in Mt 53-12, since without them the ideal of life which the Beatitudes seem designed to characterize would be essentially incomplete and ineffective. If, as has been argued above, the Beatitudes of Matthew present the theme of the Sermon, and in a way epitomize all that the following discourse contains,
question nothing else than our Lord’s own character put into words, the human character of our Lord corresponding always in flawless perfection with the teaching which He gave. Here are two reasons why our Lord’s teaching is capable of universal and individual application: (1) because it is not made up of detailed commandments, but is the description of a character which, in its principles, can be apprehended and embodied in all circumstances; (2) because it is not only a description in words, but a description set side by side with a living example.’
* Harnack, Das Wesen des Christentwms, 1901, p. 47 [Bng. tr. p. 74], says: ‘Should we be threatened with doubts as to what He [Jesus] meant, we must steep ourselves again and again in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. They contain His ethics and His religion, united at the root, and freed from all external and particularistic elements.’ __
+So Resch, Wendt, H. Holtzmann, Adeney (Eapositor, 5th ser. vol. ii.), O. Holtzmann (Leben Jesu, 1901, p. 186 f.), and Bacon (Sermon on the Mount, p. 129). J. Weiss (Predigt Jesu, pp. 127, 187) excludes the three Beatitudes of Mt 57-9. _Kldpper,
eitschr. f. wiss. Theol. 1894, thinks that the eight Beatitudes were originally scattered through the Sermon, but were col- lected and placed at the beginning by the First Evangelist ; an improbable supposition.
one cannot well suppose that the four Beatitudes found only in the Matthwan account were absent from the original group.
As to the number of Beatitudes in Mt 53-12 there is difference ofopinion. Itis customary to count them as either seven or eight, and prevailingly the latter.* Of the first seven, in vv.3-9, there is little question : the disagreement relates to the enumeration of vv.10-12, whether they should be counted into the group atall ; or if counted, whether they contain more than one additional Beatitude. The occurrence of the word ‘Blessed’ (seaz0épios) is not generally regarded as determining the number of the Beatitudes, for it appears nine times (vv.3-); instead, the enumeration is by subject-matter—since vv.10-12 all treat of persecution for righteousness’ sake, they are counted as one Beatitude.t Then is the teaching concerning persecution for righteousness’ sake to be classed with the preceding seven ideas as fundamental to ideal manhood, so that these verses present an eighth Beatitude? Such classification seems preferable, and it is strongly supported by the fact that Luke also gives this teaching concerning persecution in his account as the closing Beatitude. Exact correspondence of idea and form among the eight Beatitudes is not to be required.
The order in which the eight Beatitudes of Mt 53-12 stand in relation to one another does not appear to be a closely wrought one, such that any other arrangement would have been illogical. They do not seem to present an ascending, climactic order.{ Nos, land 4 pertain to the longing for God and righteousness, Nos. 2 and 8 pertain to patient endurance and spiritual growth under affliction and persecution, Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7 pertain to the outworkings in character and service of the internal righteous- ness. The desire for righteousness, of course, precedes the achievement of righteousness, so that Nos. 1 and 4 should pre- cede Nos. 5, 6, 7; but logically the place of Nos. 2 and 8 seems to be after No, 4. This transposition is made in Luke’s account, where the two Beatitudes of desire (620- 212) precede the other two (621b. 22.23), If this order of the Beatitudes has the semblance of originality, it may be that Matthew’s Beatitudes were rearranged in transmission. It scarcely seems necessary,