5. It has been maintained that only certain of the Beatitudes belong to the authentic discourse on the mount, the rest, possibly based on true logia of Jesus spoken at another time, being added by the evangelist, true to his it of massing the teaching of Jesus in topical
oups. This is the view of Weiss (in
att. Evan., and in Meyer). He thinks only three are authentic—the first, third, and fourth—all pointing to the righteous- ness of the kingdom as the summum bonum: the first to righteousness as not yet possessed; the second to the want as a cause of sorrow; the third to righteousness as an object of desire. This view goes with theory that Christ's discourse on the hill pry) files ence exclusively to the nature οι true and ialse righteousness.
6. A final. much less important ques-
«--6.
οἱ ᾿ πραεῖς: ὅτι αὐτοὶ κληρονομήσουσι τὴν γῆν.
97
6. µακάριοι oti Ch. xi. 29;
τα αχ
πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες τὴν δικαιοσύνην ΄ ὅτι αὐτοὶ χορτασθήσονται. Pet. iii. 4.
tion in reference to the Beatitudes is that which relates to their number. One would say at a first glance eight, counting νετ. IO as One, vv. 11, 12 being an en- largement. The traditional number, however, is seven—vv. 10-12 being re- garded as a transition to a new topic. This seems arbitrary. Delitsch, anxious to establish an analogy with the Deca- logue, makes out ten—seven from ver. 3 to νετ. 9, ver. IO one, νετ. II one, and νετ. 12, though lacking the µακάριοι, the tenth; its claim resting on the exulting words, χαίρετε καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε. This savours of Rabbinical pedantry.
Ver. 3. . µακάριον. This is one of the words which have been transformed and ennobled by N. T. use; by association, as in the Beatitudes, with unusual con- ditions, accounted by the world miser- able, or with rare and difficult conduct, ¢.g., in John xiii. 17, ‘if ye know these things, happy (µακάριοι) are ye if ye do them”. Notable in this connection is the expression in 1 Tim. i. 11, “The Gospel of the glory of the happy God”’. The implied truth is that the happiness of the Christian God consists in being a Redeemer, bearing the burden of the world’s sin and misery. How different from the Epicurean idea of God! Our word “ blessed”’’ represents the new con- ception of felicity.—ot πτωχοὶ: πτωχός
in Sept. stands for Pars Ps. cix. 16, or
‘IY Ps. xl. 18: the poor, taken even in
the most abject sense, mendici, Tertull. adv. Mar. iv. 14. πτωχός and πένης originally differed, the latter meaning poor as opposed to rich, the former destitute. But in Biblical Greek πτωχοί, πένητες, πραεῖς, ταπεινοί are used indis- criminately for the same class, the poor of an oppressed country. Vide Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek, p. 76. The term is used here in a pregnant sense, absolute and unqualified at least to begin with; qualifications come after. From πτώσσω, to cower in dispiritment and fear, always used in an evil sense till Christ taught the poor man to lift up his head in hope and self-respect; the very lowest social class not to be despaired of, a future possible even for the mendicant. Blessedness possible for the poor in every sense; they, in comparison with others, under no disabilities, rather contrari-
Ch. xxv
J 34. Heb. vi. 12. k Ch. xiv. 20.
wise—such is the first and fundamental lesson.—t@ mvevpatt. Possibilities are not certainties; to turn the one into the other the soul or will of the individual! must come in, for as Euthy. Zig. quaintly says, nothing involuntary can bless (οὐδὲν
τῶν sh gn eho µακαριστόν). “In spirit’’ is, therefore, added to develop and define the idea of poverty. The
comment on the theme passes from the lower to the higher sphere. Christ’s thought includes the physical and social, but it does not end there. Luke seems to have the social aspect in view, in accordance with one of his tendencies and the impoverished condition of most mem- bers of the apostolic Church. To limit the meaning to that were a mistake, but to include that or even to emphasise it in given circumstances was no error. Note that the physical and spiritual lay close together in Christ’s mind. He. passed easily from one to the other (John Iv. 7-10; Lk. x. 42, see notes there). τῷ tv. is, of course, to be connected with πτωχοὶ, not with µακάριοι. Poor in spirit is not to be taken objectively, as if spirit indicated the element in which the poverty is manifest—poor intellect: “‘homines ingenio et eruditione parum florentes”’ (Fritzsche) = the νηπίοι in Matt. xi. 25; but subjectively, poor in their own esteem. Self-estimate is the essence of the mutter, 1nd is compatible with real wealth. Only the noble think meanly of themselves. The soul οἱ goodness is in tiie mau who is reallv humble. Poverty lxid to heart passe~« into riches. A high ‘dea of life li « beneath all. Ard ‘hat ideal \s the fin between the soeial aid the spirituai. The poor man patsew ir to the | ,lessedness of the kingdom as soon as he realises what a man is or ought to be ~—— Poor in purse or even in character, no mn is beggared who has a vision of man’s chief end and chief σοοά.-- αὐτῶν, emphatic position ; tieirs,note it well. τλο in the following verses αὐτοὶ and αὐτῶν.---έοτι, not merely in prospect, but in present possession. The kingdom of heaven is often presented in the Gospels apoca- lyptically as a thing in the future to be given to the worthy by way of externa! recompense. But this view pertains rather to the form of thought than to the essence of the matter, Christ speaks οἱ the kingdom here not as a known quan-