{"id":98547,"date":"2023-02-04T15:18:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T22:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=98547"},"modified":"2023-02-04T19:41:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-05T02:41:17","slug":"introducing-a-blog-focus-for-the-sabbath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2023\/02\/introducing-a-blog-focus-for-the-sabbath.html","title":{"rendered":"Introducing a Blog Focus for the Sabbath"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Tissot<\/a>
A depiction of Christ delivering the Sermon on the Mount by James Tissot (1836-1902).\u00a0\u00a0
Wikimedia Commons public domain image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve long had it in mind to do a brief book on the Beatitudes of the New Testament.\u00a0 I\u2019ve made several starts on it, but \u2014 in a triumph of hope over experience \u2014 I think I\u2019ll make a running leap at it once again, perhaps making it a special focus for the Sabbath.\u00a0 (Hawai\u2019i very powerfully makes me think of \u201cthe Isles of the Blest.\u201d)\u00a0 With that in mind, I share yet again some prefatory remarks on the topic, in very slightly modified form:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The so-called Beatitudes, as they are known to mainstream Christians, are principally found in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, as part of the \u201cSermon on the Mount.\u201d Each is a proverb-like proclamation, without narrative. Four of the blessings also appear in the \u201cSermon on the Plain\u201d in the Gospel of Luke, followed by four woes that mirror the blessings.<\/sup><\/p>\n

In St. Jerome\u2019s Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, each Beatitude begins with the three-syllable plural adjective beati,\u00a0<\/i>which is rendered in the King James translation of the Bible (and in many, though not all, other translations) with the word blessed<\/em>. The corresponding and synonymous word in the original Greek is \u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03b9 (makarioi<\/i>).\u00a0 The Latin noun\u00a0be\u0101tit\u016bd\u014d<\/i>\u00a0apparently first appears in the writings of the Roman orator, politician, and philosopher Cicero, where it describes a state of blessedness.<\/p>\n

I choose the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible for the sake of freshness:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

3\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n 4\u00a0<\/sup>Blessed are those who mourn,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for they will be comforted.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n 5\u00a0<\/sup>Blessed are the meek,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for they will inherit the earth.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n 6\u00a0<\/sup>Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for they will be filled.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n 7\u00a0<\/sup>Blessed are the merciful,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for they will be shown mercy.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n 8\u00a0<\/sup>Blessed are the pure in heart,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for they will see God.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n 9\u00a0<\/sup>Blessed are the peacemakers,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for they will be called children of God.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n 10\u00a0<\/sup>Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

11\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cBlessed are you when people insult you,\u00a0persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.<\/span><\/span>\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup>Rejoice and be glad,\u00a0because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As can be seen in the NIV\u2019s formatting of the verses shown above, most careful readers of Matthew have numbered the Beatitudes as eight.\u00a0 Although 5:11 also begins with the word blessed<\/em>, 5:11-12 can be easily read as simply expanding upon the beatitude given in 5:10.\u00a0 And that is how I read them.<\/p>\n

The Beatitudes are also partially found in the so-called Sermon on the Plain that is located in the Gospel of Luke, at 6:20-26.\u00a0 The relationship at this point between the two texts, Matthew and Luke, has been much discussed, but that discussion is beyond my present purposes.\u00a0 Four of the Beatitudes are plainly present in the same \u201cblessing form\u201d as that in which Matthew gives them, but then those four are given again in what might be called an \u201canti-Beatitude\u201d form, prefaced by the word woe<\/em>:<\/p>\n

20\u00a0<\/sup>Looking at his disciples, he said:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBlessed are you who are poor,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for yours is the kingdom of God.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n 21\u00a0<\/sup>Blessed are you who hunger now,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for you will be satisfied.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Blessed are you who weep now,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for you will laugh.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n 22\u00a0<\/sup>Blessed are you when people hate you,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>when they exclude you\u00a0and insult you<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and reject your name as evil,<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>because of the Son of Man.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

23\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cRejoice in that day and leap for joy,\u00a0because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

24\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cBut woe to you who are rich,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for you have already received your comfort.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n 25\u00a0<\/sup>Woe to you who are well fed now,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for you will go hungry.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Woe to you who laugh now,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for you will mourn and weep.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n 26\u00a0<\/sup>Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,<\/span><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Sunset<\/a>
Wikimedia Commons photo by Christopher Michel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a series of forthcoming comments on the Beatitudes, I\u2019ll be using Matthew as my primary source, but I\u2019ll also be drawing from the Gospel of Luke and from a source peculiar to the Latter-day Saints: The risen Savior delivers a slightly modified version of the Sermon on the Mount to the Nephites \u2014 to distinguish it from the Sermon on the Mount and the Lukan Sermon on the Plain, Jack Welch calls it the \u201cSermon at the Temple\u201d \u2014 that is recorded in the Book of Mormon at 3 Nephi 12-14.\u00a0 In that account, the Matthean Beatitudes occur, with some changes, at 3 Nephi 12:3-12.<\/p>\n

More than once, critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> have demanded of me to know why we need the Book of Mormon or additional revelation, when we can\u2019t even live up to what we already have in the Bible.\u00a0 But if our own inability to live up to the commandments in the Bible renders additional scripture superfluous, I am tempted to respond that the Beatitudes themselves contain so much, they impose so demanding a standard \u2014 a standard so far beyond our ability to live up to it \u2014 that all of the rest of the Bible itself, both the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, must also seem redundant and unnecessary, even something of a cruel joke.\u00a0 In fact, since nobody has ever lived up to the injunction of Matthew 5:48 \u2014 \u201cBe ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect\u201d \u2014 one could argue on the same basis that every other verse of the entire Bible is superfluous.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s return, briefly for now, to the word blessed<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The Greek makar<\/em> or makarios<\/em> meant \u201cblessed\u201d or \u201chappy,\u201d and was properly used to refer to the gods.\u00a0 They were the makares<\/em>, or \u201cblessed ones.\u201d\u00a0 With respect to men, the word meant \u201csupremely blest,\u201d \u201cfortunate,\u201d but also \u201cprosperous,\u201d and \u201cwealthy.\u201d\u00a0 For humans, it was especially the dead who were called\u00a0 \u201cblessed ones,\u201d since they were beyond the reach of pain and death.\u00a0 They dwelt in the abode of the blessed, makaria.<\/em>\u00a0 The makaron nesoi<\/em> or \u201cislands of the blest\u201d were, interestingly enough, placed by the later Greeks in the ocean at the extreme West of the world.\u00a0 [See Liddel and Scott, s.v. makar,<\/em> makaria<\/em>, and makarios<\/em>.]<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Waik\u014dloa, Hawai\u2019i Island, Hawai\u2019i<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve long had it in mind to do a brief book on the Beatitudes of the New Testament.\u00a0 I\u2019ve made several starts on it, but \u2014 in a triumph of hope over experience \u2014 I think I\u2019ll make a running leap at it once again, perhaps making it a special focus for the 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