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Mat_5:3-10. The beatitudes in general, in order to set forth, first, in a general way, the moral conditions of future participation in the Messiah’s kingdom.—“That is, indeed, a fine, sweet, friendly beginning of His teaching and sermon. For He does not proceed, like Moses, or a teacher of the law, with commands, threats, and terrors, but in a most friendly manner, with pure attractions and allurements, and pleasant promises,” Luther.
μακάριοι ] “Initiale hoc verbum toties repetitum indicat scopum doctrinae Christi,” Bengel. What the blessedness is ( àÂùÑÀøÅé ) which He means, is stated by all the causal sentences[395] with ὅτι in Mat_5:3-10, viz. that which is based on this, that they will attain the salvation of the kingdom, which is nigh at hand.
οἱ πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι ] the òÂðÈåÄéí , àÆáÀéåÉðÄéí (see Isa_61:1; Isa_66:2, and the post-exilian Psa_37:11) were those who, according to the theocratic promise of the O. T., had to expect the Messianic blessedness (Luk_4:18). Jesus, however, according to Matthew, transports the idea of the poor (les miserables) from the politico-theocratic realm (the members of the oppressed people of God, sunk in poverty and external wretchedness) into the purely moral sphere by means of the dative of more precise definition, τῷ πνεύματι (comp. Mat_5:8): the poor in reference to their spirit, the spiritually poor—that is, those who feel, as a matter of consciousness, that they are in a miserable, unhappy condition; comp. Isa_57:15; Pro_29:23. The ΠΤΩΧΕΊΑ intended is then subjectively determined according to the consciousness of the subject, so that these latter (comp. Mat_5:4-6) are conceived of as those who feel within them, the opposite of having enough, and of wanting nothing in a moral point of view; to whom, consequently, the condition of moral poverty and helplessness is a familiar thing,—as the praying publican, Luk_18:10 (the opposite in Rev_3:17; 1Co_4:8), was such a poor man. We have neither to supply an “also” before τῷ πνεύματι , nor, with Baur, to explain it as if it meant οἱ πτωχοὶ , ἀλλὰ τῷ πνεύματι πλούσιοι ; comp. 2Co_6:10. Chrysostom is substantially correct (comp. Theophylact): οἱ ταπεινοὶ κ . συντετριμμένοι τὴν διάνοιαν . Comp. de Wette in the Stud. von Daub und Creuzer, III. 2, p. 309 ff.; de morte expiat. p. 86 f. Jerome strikingly says: “Adjunxit spiritu, ut humilitatem intelligeres, non penuriam.” Comp. ὑψηλὸς πνεύματι , Ecc_7:8. They are not different from the μὴ βλέποντες in Joh_9:39. They know that in point of knowledge and moral constitution they are far from divine truth. The declaration that such are blessed, however, at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, is in perfect accordance with the fundamental condition of participation in the kingdom of the Messiah, the ΜΕΤΑΝΟΕῖΤΕ , with the call to which both Jesus and John began their public appearance. The ΠΤΩΧΕΊΑ Τῷ ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΙ , is the precondition of ΠΛΟΥΤΕῖΝ ΕἸς ΘΕΌΝ (Luk_12:21), and of becoming a true ΠΛΟΎΣΙΟς Τῷ ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΙ (Barnabas 19). These poor people are humble, but we are not to say that πτωχ . τ . πν . signifies the humble (in answer to Kuinoel and older interpreters); for which reason we have not to appeal to Isa_66:2, where øåÌçÇ does not agree with òÈðÄé . Fritzsche, in a way that is not in harmony with the moral nature and life of the whole discourse, limits the meaning to that of discernment: “Homines ingenio et eruditione parum florentes;” so also Chr. Fritzsche, Nov. Opusc. p. 241, in which meaning (consequently equivalent to οἱ πτωχοὶ τῇ διανοίᾳ , as Origen, de princ. iv. 22, calls the Ebionites) the saying was already made a subject of ridicule by Julian. Older Catholics (Maldonatus and Corn. a Lapide), after Clement of Alexandria and many Fathers, taking ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΙ of the self-determination, misused our passage in support of the vow of voluntary poverty. On the other hand, Calovius strikingly remarks: “Paupertas haec spiritualis non est consilii, sed praecepti.” Others (Olearius, Michaelis, Paulus) connect τῷ πνεύματι with μακάριοι : the poor are spiritually happy. Opposed to this is the position of the words and Mat_5:8. Moreover, no example is found in the N. T. or in the Jewish writings, where, in the case of beatitudes, to the ΜΑΚΆΡΙΟς , or àÇùÑÀøÅé , or èÉåÌáÅé , any more precise designation of fortune was immediately subjoined. Comp. especially, Knapp, Scripta var. arg. pp. 351–380. According to Köstlin, p. 66, the τῷ πνεύματι , which is not expressly read in the Clementines (see Homily xv. 10) and Polycrates ii. (as also τὴν δικαιος . Mat_5:6), is said to be a limiting addition proceeding from later reflection, one of the many changes which must be assumed as having taken place in the original collection of discourses; comp. also Hilgenfeld, Ewald, Bleek, Wittichen, Jahrb. f. D. Theol. 1862, p. 323; Holtzmann, p. 176; Schenkel, and others. But see on Luk_6:23.
Ἡ ΒΑς . Τ . ΟὐΡ .] the kingdom of heaven belongs to them (see on Mat_3:2), namely, as a certain possession in the future. Comp. the following futures. Observe in all the beatitudes, Mat_5:3-10, the symmetrically emphatical position of αὐτῶν , αὐτοί ; it is just they who.
[395] These causal sentences justify also the usual enumeration of the Makarisms as the “seven beatitudes.” For vv. 3 and 10 contain the same promise, which, therefore, is to be counted only once in order to retain the number seven; comp. Ewald, Jahrb. I. p. 133; also Köstlin and Hilgenfeld. Others, like Weizsäcker and Keim, counting ver. 10 specially with the others, arrive at the number eight. But Delitzsch, to bring out an analogy with the Decalogue, reckons, besides the μακάριοι in ver. 11, the χαίρετε κ . ἀγαλλ . also in ver. 12, as “the full-sounding finale,” and in this way knows how to force out ten beatitudes.