Vv. 3-12. The Beatitudes. Some general observations may helpfully intro- duce the detailed exegesis of these golden words.
1. They breathe the spirit of the scene. On the mountain tops away from the bustle and the sultry heat of the region below, the air cool, the blue sky over- head, quiet all around, and divine tranquillity within. We are near heaven here.
2. The originality of these sayings has been disputed, especially by modern Jews desirous to credit their Rabbis with such good things. Some of them, é.g., the third, may be found in sub- stance in the Psalter, and possibly many, or all of them, even in the Talmud. But what then? They are in the Talmud as a few grains of wheat lost in a vast heap
96
νε
g the nameT® πνεύµατι' ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ Ε βασιλεία τῶν "οὐρανῶν. 4.
for the k
of G. in µακάριοι 1 οἱ " πενθοῦντες: ὅτι αὐτοὶ παρακληθήσονται. 5. µακάριοι
Mt., put
into the Baptist’s mouth, in iii.2. His, not Christ's, acc. to Weiss εί al.
b Ch. ix. 15.
1 The 2nd and 3rd Beatitudes (vv. 4, 5) are transposed in D, most old Latin texts, and in Syr. Cur. Tisch. adopts this order.
of chaff. The originality of Jesus lies in putting the due value on these thoughts, collecting them, and making them as prominent as the Ten Commandments. No greater service can be rendered to mankind than to rescue from obscurity neglected moral commonplaces.
3. The existence of another version of the discourse (in Lk.), with varying forms of the sayings, has raised a question as to the original form. Did Christ, ¢.g., say ‘‘ Blessed the poor” (Lk.) or * Blessed the poor in spirit” (Matt.)? Thisraises a larger question as to the manner of Christ’s teaching on the hill. Suppose one day in a week of instruction was devoted to the subject of happiness, its conditions, and heirs, many things might be said on each lead- ing proposition. The theme would be announced, then accompanied with expansions. A modern biographer would have prefaced a discourse like this with an introductory account of the Teacher's method. There is no such account in the Gospels, but there are incidental notices from which we can learn somewhat. The disciples asked questions and the Master answered them. Jesus explained some of His parables to the twelve. From certain parts of His teaching, as reported, it appears that He not only uttered great thoughts in aphoristic form, but occasionally en- larged. The Sermon on the Mount contains at least two instances of such enlargement. The thesis, “I am not come to destroy but to fulfil” (ver. 17), is copiously illustrated (vv. 21-48). The counsel against care, which as a thesis might be stated thus: “ Blessed are the care-free,”’ is ergs ded (vv. 25-34). Even in one of eatitudes we find traces of explanatory enlargement; in the last, '' Blessed are the persecuted”. It is perhaps the most startling of all the paradoxes, and would need enlargement greatly, and some parts of the expansion have been preserved (vv. -- On this view both torms of the first Beatitude might be authentic, the one as theme, the other as comment. The theme would always be put in the tewest possible words ; the first Beatitude there-
fore, as Luke puts it, Μακάριοι οἱ πτωχοί, Matthew preserving one of the expansions, not necessarily the only one. Of course, another view of the expansion is possible, that it proceeded not from Christ, but from the transmitters of His sayings. But this hypothesis is not a whit more legitimate or likely than the other. I make this observation, not in the spirit of an antiquated Harmonistic, but simply as a contribution to historical criticism.
4. Each Beatitude has a reason an- nexed, that of the first being “ for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. They vary in the different Beatitudes as reported. It is conceivable that in the original themes the reason annexed to the first was common to them all. It was under- stood to be repeated like the refrain of a song, or like the words, ‘‘him do I calla Brahmana,” annexed to many of the moral sentences in the Footsteps of the Law in the Buddhist Canon. “ He who, when assailed, does not resist, but speaks mildly to his tormentors—him do I calla Brahmana.” So ‘‘ Blessed the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”; “blessed they who mourn, for,” etc. ; “blessed the meek, the hungry, for,” etc. The actual reasons annexed, when they vary from the refrain, are to be viewed as explanatory comments.