Translated by Claude
Section - Proclamation of the Great Message of the Kingdom of God. 5:1 to 7:29.
Luke 6:20-49.
In the summary report about Jesus' ministry in Galilee, the Evangelist has said that it consisted of teaching and healing activity. In this section the Evangelist reports extensively and in detail about the first type of Jesus' activity. For this purpose he communicates an extensive teaching discourse of Jesus, the so-called Sermon on the Mount, which has the kingdom of heaven as its subject matter in its various relevant aspects.
Mt 5:1-2. Description of the situation in which the following highly important speech was held. "When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them." The crowds are those which were mentioned in 4:25. The Evangelist designates the place by τὸ ὄρος [the mountain]. The article τὸ seems to point to a specific mountain, known to the readers from tradition.¹ A tradition going back to the time of the Crusades designates the so-called Kurun (Karn) Hattin, that is, the Horns of Hattin, as the Mountain of the Beatitudes. It lay about four hours south of Capernaum and consisted of a ridge about 400 paces long, which was closed off on both sides by mountain peaks that gave the entire mountain ridge the shape of horns. Because the mountain closes off the Hattin valley to the south, it is called Kurun Hattin.²
After the Savior had seated himself there according to the manner of Jewish teachers,³ "his disciples" came to him. We will take the expression "disciples" here, with regard to Luke 6:17, in the broader sense, so that it includes the apostles and the other disciples of Jesus. Since according to 7:28 the crowds also heard Jesus' speech, we have three classes of listeners: the apostles, who probably stood closest to the Lord; somewhat further away the other disciples; and finally in a wide circle the great crowds. Corresponding to the importance of the moment in which the fundamental features of the messianic kingdom were to be proclaimed, the Evangelist introduces Jesus' speech in a vividly solemn manner: "He opened his mouth."
Concerning the time of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew gives no indication at all. Although the Evangelist connects it immediately to his report about the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Galilee, we may nevertheless conclude from the content and purpose of the speech with considerable certainty that it was held after a relatively long ministry of Jesus, after longer preparatory instruction in the narrower circle of disciples. This probability becomes certainty through the position that the Sermon on the Mount occupies in the Gospel of Luke. According to this, it was most probably held at the beginning of Jesus' second year of teaching.⁴
With the majority of exegetes, it should be maintained as highly probable that the Sermon on the Mount communicated by Matthew is identical with the account of Luke 6:20ff. The external circumstances are essentially the same, and likewise the content of both speeches speaks for their identity. The existing differences can be sufficiently explained from the different purposes of both Gospels.⁵ If according to Matthew Jesus ascended the mountain to hold the speech, and according to Luke 6:17 held it when he had descended from the mountain, the difference can be easily reconciled. Jesus had spent the night on one of the peaks of the Mountain of the Beatitudes and had there in the morning made the apostolic choice.⁶ After the choice of apostles, Jesus descended with the disciples from the mountain peak to the ridge connecting both peaks, which rose 40 meters above the adjacent plain, and there held the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew, who does not report the choice of apostles, could naturally report nothing about the descent from the mountain height, but he had to communicate that Jesus ascended a mountain, a height, for the purpose of his speech.⁷ According to Matthew, Jesus spoke "sitting"; according to Luke 6:17 it appears as if he held his speech standing. But that is only appearance, for the standing of Jesus in Luke refers to his miracle-working; the self-evident circumstance that Jesus sat down when he began to teach, the Evangelist passes over in silence.
The Eight Beatitudes (Mt 5:3-12; cf. Lk 6:20-26)
They express the moral conditions to which participation in the Messianic Kingdom is bound, as well as the goods that become the portion of its members. Practically, they are closely connected with the call to repentance with which Jesus began his teaching ministry; they show into what moral disposition a person is placed through true penitent attitude, and they specify the goods of the Messianic Kingdom to which reference was previously made. One may rightly claim that the fundamental principles of the entire Christian moral teaching are laid down in the eight Beatitudes. In form they are two-part sentences; the first part states who has a share in messianic blessedness, and the second states wherein it consists. The truths laid down in the Macarisms stand in sharp contrast to the views and expectations that had made themselves generally prevalent among the Jewish people.
Mt 5:3: First Beatitude
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
All people strive for blessedness, and corresponding to this impulse of the human heart, Jesus begins his long teaching discourse with a beatitude. He teaches wherein true blessedness consists and by what way it is attained.
The expression "blessed are the poor in spirit" (μακάριοι οἱ πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι = beati pauperes spiritu) recalls the beatitudes in the Psalms, in Proverbs, and in Ecclesiasticus. It is to be understood not as a wish-formula but as a statement, and what is to be supplied is not the future but the present tense. However, the Macarism has been and is interpreted variously.
πτωχός = mendicus, beggarly poor; then generally: poor as opposed to rich. This meaning is to be maintained here because it is suggested as the nearest word-meaning and is required by Luke (cf. 6:20 with 6:24).
τῷ πνεύματι is a dative of reference and more precisely determines those poor in earthly goods who are the object of the beatitude. πνεῦμα stands as in Romans 3:6 = the human spirit, which is enlightened and strengthened by the divine Spirit.
Poor in spirit are therefore those people who, because in and with their spirit they rightly estimate the value or worthlessness of earthly goods, have detached their heart from them, so that they either patiently endure the poverty in which they find themselves, or are ready to become poor for the sake of a higher good, or finally do not hang their heart on the earthly goods in whose possession they are.
On the other hand, other exegetes explain the Macarism directly in terms of humility. Still others deduce humility from poverty, or they find both directly expressed in the scriptural words.
Mt 5:4: Second Beatitude
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land."
These words are also found in Psalm 36:11, but not in the form of a beatitude.
πραεῖς (from πρᾶος, also πραΰς) = mites, mansueti, that is, people who possess a mild, gentle disposition and confirm it following the example of Christ (cf. 11:29) through patient endurance of various afflictions.
These meek ones are blessed because "they shall possess the land" (quoniam ipsi possidebunt terram). According to the nearest historical sense, the words in Psalm 36:11, from which they are borrowed, contain for the Israelites the promise of undisturbed possession of the holy land by the meek after the destruction of their enemies. But Palestine is a type of the Messianic Kingdom, and in this typical significance the expression "to possess the land" is used in the mouth of Jesus, so that here the inheritance of the Messianic Kingdom is named, which is promised to the gentle sufferers.
Mt 5:5: Third Beatitude
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."
This too connects with a promise in Isaiah 61:1-3.
πενθοῦντες = qui lugent (those who mourn). The expression is stated generally and therefore may not be narrowed in its interpretation. All mourners are meant, whether they mourn on account of sins or because of the manifold misery in this world. Self-evidently, however, one should think of a mourning to which a higher motive is fundamental.
παρακληθήσονται - they shall be comforted. What is meant is the messianic comfort, just as the Messiah among the rabbis was simply called Menachem = the Comforter. The fulfillment of this beatitude began with the appearance of Christ, the Comfort of Israel (cf. Lk 2:25); it continues in the Church, which dispenses the fullness of means of comfort, and finds its completion in the kingdom of transfiguration, where all mourning of the blessed is transformed into joy.
The question of wherein the promised comfort consists can be easily answered. It consists in the actual forgiveness of sins, the ultimate source of all suffering; in the communication of the goods of salvation; in the removal of many earthly evils through Christianity; further, in the fact that the evils that still remain are transformed into a source of great comfort in view of the future recompense (cf. Rom 8:18); finally, in the blessed communion with God in heaven.
Mt 5:6: Fourth Beatitude
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."
πεινᾶν and διψᾶν stand, as often, metaphorically = to have the most ardent desire.
The accusative "righteousness" (justitiam) designates the object of the longing desire, not the reason for the hungering and thirsting (Maldonatus).
By δικαιοσύνη = justitia is to be understood the inner, true righteousness that manifests itself outwardly through the corresponding virtuous conduct, which here comes to the foreground. Therefore many exegetes rightly explain justitia simply as virtus et sanctitas (virtue and holiness). Most Greek exegetes understand justitia as that righteousness which respects the rights of one's neighbor.
χορτασθήσονται, namely τῆς δικαιοσύνης = they shall be satisfied, namely with righteousness, that is, righteousness will be imparted to them in rich measure. The expression brings two moments to expression: the actual possession of righteousness and the full satisfaction of spiritual needs through it. The messianic goods of salvation are often represented under the image of food and drink; their appropriation occurs by means of faith as a manducatio spiritualis (spiritual eating).
Mt 5:7: Fifth Beatitude
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
οἱ ἐλεήμονες = misericordes (the merciful); in the narrower sense: the compassionate; then the merciful in general, that is, those people who have compassion for the bodily and spiritual needs of their fellow humans, are ready to help, and as far as their powers reach, also help.
ἐλεηθήσονται = they shall obtain mercy (misericordiam consequentur). Because God's mercy (Lk 6:36) is the model of our mercy, it is richly rewarded. As reward there is held out the prospect of obtaining mercy, that is, of the messianic salvation, which is a gracious gift of the merciful God for sinful humanity.
Mt 5:8: Sixth Beatitude
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
Pure in heart are those people when their heart is free from all sin and guilt of sin, for every sin is a defilement of it (cf. Jas 1:21). Self-evidently, virginal souls are also included, though the Macarism can hardly be referred primarily or exclusively to them. Likewise, to the sinless people also belongs the quality of childlike simplicity, which many exegetes think of here primarily.
Reason for the beatitude: For the pure in heart stands in prospect the highest happiness for humans: αὐτοὶ τὸν θεὸν ὄψονται = they shall see God. The expression "to see God" is to be understood as the actual seeing of God (visio beatifica) on the part of humans in the state of transfiguration by means of the lumen gloriae (cf. 1 Cor 13:12).
This "seeing of God" in the state of transfiguration has, however, its preliminary stage in seeing God already here below with the eye of spirit and heart. We should think primarily, but not exclusively, of the spiritual seeing of God in the latter sense and of the blessedness connected with it (cf. Jn 17:3). Now, the purer the spiritual eye of a person is, the more perfectly it already sees God on earth, and the more the human soul is an image of God, the more clearly is the divine archetype reflected in it.
Against this understanding the passages Exodus 33:20; John 1:18; 6:46; 1 John 4:12; 1 Timothy 6:16 do not speak; for in these passages there is discussion of a seeing of God with the bodily eyes in the present state of humans.
Mt 5:9: Seventh Beatitude
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."
οἱ εἰρηνοποιοί = pacifici, that is, pacem facientes (those making peace), that is, people who do everything to restore disturbed peace, the peace of people among themselves and the peace of people with God. In order to be able to perform the office of a peacemaker with success, a person must first make peace within himself.
The expression "sons of God" (filii Dei) is to be understood primarily in the figurative moral sense = they shall become like God (similes Deo erunt. Maldonatus); through peacemaking people become like God, who is indeed a God of peace. But we may not remain with this figurative meaning of the words, but must also grasp them as the designation of that divine sonship into which we have been placed through Christ. As the Son of God brought peace to humanity, so the dignity of divine sonship, to which his followers have been elevated, becomes particularly manifest precisely by the fact that believers realize the messianic peace in themselves and strive to spread it also among their fellow humans. Through peacemaking they receive still another quite special title of right to the messianic inheritance, to which they are called as children of God.
Mt 5:10: Eighth Beatitude
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
δικαιοσύνη stands as in v. 6: the inner state of being righteous before God, which naturally manifests itself outwardly through conduct in word and deed corresponding to the will of God. Now those who for the sake of the high good of righteousness, that is, for Christ's sake, who imparts righteousness, for the sake of the kingdom of Christ in which it is obtained, for the sake of virtue and piety through which righteousness manifests itself outwardly, suffer persecution, are to be praised as blessed.
The promise is still the same as in the first Macarism. But while there the thought of the fullness of the goods of salvation is suggested, which the poor receive, here the dignity and distinction come to the foreground which become the portion of the despised and persecuted (cf. vv. 11-12).
Mt 5:11-12
"Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven; for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
As is already evident from the direct form of address, Jesus makes from the last beatitude (v. 10) a special application to the apostles because of its importance. Three kinds of hostilities against the disciples are cited by Matthew: revilings, actual persecutions, and evil lying slander.
ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ = propter me (for my sake), refers to the entire preceding sentence and corresponds to the propter justitiam in v. 10: Righteousness can only be obtained through Christ and preserved through following Christ.
Under two conditions are the disciples blessed on account of persecutions: when they suffer for Christ's sake and when they are persecuted slanderously.
V. 12 grounds the beatitude contained in v. 11 in a twofold way. The persecutions for Christ's sake are reason for joy and exultation, because through them an abundant reward is earned, which is already now stored up in heaven for future reception, and because through them an intimate fellowship with the prophets of the Old Covenant is established, who were persecuted in the same way. μισθός - the (corresponding) reward; but the reward presupposes a merit. V. 12 thus contains a biblical proof text for the meritoriousness of good works.
How many Macarisms, beatitudes, are to be counted? Although the expression "blessed" occurs nine times, since the ninth Macarism has the same object as the eighth and presents itself as a special application to the apostles, only eight beatitudes are to be counted.
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