Ver. 6. If the object of the hunger | and thirst had not been mentioned this fourth Beatitude would have been parallel in form to the second: Blessed the h , for they shall be filled. We should then have another absolute affir- mation requiring qualification, and raising the question: What sort of hunger is it which is sure to be satisfied 2 That might be the original form of the aphorism as givenin Luke. The answer to the question it is similar to that given under titude 1, The hunger whose satisfaction is sure is that which contains its own satisfaction. It is the hunger for moral passion for righteousness is righteous- ness in the deepest sense of the word.— πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες. These verbs, like all verbs of desire, ordinarily take the genitive of the object. Here and in
The | Y-
7---το.
c 3 aA οἱ ᾿εἰρηνοποιοί: ὅτι αὐτοὶ] Ἱυϊοὶ Θεοῦ κληθήσονται. ε = , A οἱ δεδιωγµένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης: ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν
lavrot omitted in ΝΟ it. vul. syr., bracketed in W.H,
29
©. µακάριοι p here only. κ ο % The verb Col. i. 20. q viol Θ. in Lk. xx. 36. Rom. viii. 14,19. Gal. iii. 26.
It may have been
omitted by home@oteleuton and it seems needed for emphasis.
other places in N. T. they take the accusa-
, tive, the object being of a_ spiritual \nature, which one not merely desires to /participate in, but to possess in whole. Winer, § xxx. 1ο, thus distinguishes the two constructions: διψᾶν φιλοσοφίας = to thirst after philosophy; διψ. Φιλοσοφίαν = to thirst for possession of philosophy as a whole. Some have thought that διὰ is to be understood before δικ., and that the meaning is: ‘** Blessed they who suffer natural hunger and thirst on account of righteousness ”’. Grotius understands by Sux. the way or doctrine of righteousness.
Ver. 7. This Beatitude states a self- acting law of the moral world. The exercise of mercy (ἔλεος, active pity) tends to elicit mercy from others—God and men. The chief reference may be to the mercy of God in the final awards of the kingdom, but the application need not be restricted to this. The doctrine of Christ abounds in great ethical prin- ciples of universal validity: ‘‘he that humbleth himself shall be exalted,” ‘ to him that hath shall be given,” etc. This Beatitude suitably follows the preceding. Mercy is an element in true righteous- ness (Mic. vi. 8). It was lacking in Pharisaic righteousness (Matt. xxiii. 23). It needed much to be inculcated in Christ’s time, when sympathy was killed by the theory that all suffering was penalty of special sin, a theory which fostered a pitiless type of righteousness (Schanz). Mercy may be practised by many means; ‘‘not by money alone,” says Euthy. Zig., ‘‘ but by word, and ifyou have nothing, by tears” (διὰ δακρύων).
Ver. 8. ot καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ: τ. καρδ. may be an explanatory addition to indi- cate the region in which purity shows itself. That purity is in the heart, the seat of thought, desire, motive, not in the outward act, goes without saying from Christ’s point of view. Blessed the pure. Here there is a wide range of suggestion. The pure may be the spot- less or faultless in general; the continent with special reference to sexual indul- gence—those whose very thoughts are clean; or the pure in motive, the single-minded, the men who seek the
kingdom as the summum bonum with undivided heart. The last is the most relevant to the general connection and the most deserving to be insisted on. In the words of Augustine, the mundum cor is above all the simplex cor. Moral simplicity is the cardinal demand in Christ’s ethics. The man who has attained to it is in His view perfect (Matt. xix. 21). Without it a large numerical list of virtues and good habits goes for nothing. With it character, however faulty in temper or otherwise, is ennobled and redeemed.—rév θεὸν ὄψονται: their reward is the beatific vision. Some think the reference is not to the faculty of clear vision but to the rare privilege of seeing the face of the Great King (so Fritzsche and Schanz). ‘The expression has its origin in the ways of eastern monarchs, who rarely show them- selves in public, so that only the most intimate circle behoid the royal counten- ance’’ (Schanz) = the pure have access to the all but inaccessible. This idea does not seem to harmonise with Christ’s general way of conceiving God. On the other hand, it was His habit to insist on the connection between clear vision and moral simplicity; to teach that it is the single eye that is full of light (Matt. vi. 22). It is true that the pure shall have access to God’s presence, but the truth to be insisted on in connection with this Beatitude is that through purity, single- ness of mind, they are qualified for seeing, knowing, truly conceiving God and all that relates to the moral universe. It is the pure in heart who are able to see and say that ‘truly God is good” (Ps. Ixxiii. 1) and rightly to interpret the whole phenomena of life in relation to Pro. vidence. They shall see, says Jesus casting His thought into eschatologica form, but He means the pure are th men who see; the double-minded, the two-souled (δίψυχος, James i. 8) man is blind. Theophylact illustrates the con- nection between purity and vision thus: ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ κάτοπτρον, ἐὰν ᾗ καθαρὸν τότε δέχεται τὰς ἐμφάσεις, οὕτω καὶ ἡ καθαρὰ ψυχὴἠ δέχεται ὄψιν θεοῦ.