Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Matthew 5:9 - 5:9
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat_5:9. Οἱ εἰρηνοποιοί ] not the peaceful ( εἰρηνικοί , Jam_3:17, 2Ma_5:25; or εἰρηνεύοντες , Sir_6:7), a meaning which does not appear even in Pollux, i. 41, 152 (Augustine thinks of the moral inner harmony; de Wette, on the contrary, of the inclination of the contemporaries of Jesus to war and tumult; Bleek reminds us of Jewish party hatred), but: the founders of peace (Xen. Hist. Gr. vi. 3. 4; Plut. Mor. p. 279 B; comp. Col_1:20; Pro_10:10), who as such minister to God’s good pleasure, who is the God of peace (Rom_16:20; 2Co_13:11), as Christ Himself was the highest Founder of peace (Luk_2:14; Joh_16:33; Eph_2:14 ff.).
υἱοὶ θεοῦ κληθής .] again a characteristic designation of community in the future kingdom of the Messiah, so far, namely, as the participators in it have obtained the υἱοθεσία , a relation which begins with their reception into the kingdom; comp. on Luk_6:35. If we import the conception of being loved by God (Kuinoel), or of resemblance to God (Paulus, de Wette), and the like, then we are not in harmony with the expression, and, contrary to the context, we identify it with the conception of the temporal Sonship of God, as it appears in John as a being begotten by God; in Paul, as adoption; see Joh_1:12; Joh_1:14. Certainly this temporal Sonship is the moral premiss of that future one; but it is only the latter which can here be meant; comp. Rom_8:19; Rom_8:23.
κληθήσονται ] What they are is designated as expressly recognised by the (honourable) name in question, by which they are called. That καλεῖσθαι does not stand for εἶναι , see Fritzsche on i. 16; Winer, p. 571 f. [E. T. 769]. Comp. Eur. Hec. 625: ὁ δʼ ἐν πολίταις τίμιος κεκλημένος ; and Pflugk on the passage; Hom. Il. ii. 260; and Nägelsbach in loc.
REMARK.
In the beatitudes, Mat_5:3-9, the various characteristic designations of the Messianic happiness ingeniously correspond to the various designations of the subject, so that in the first declaration, Mat_5:3, the subject of the promise, the kingdom of the Messiah, is named expressly, and as a whole, and in the following it is always those individual sides of the happiness of this kingdom that are brought forward which correspond to the subjects designated. Thus, to those who mourn corresponds the state of being comforted; to the patient sufferers, who now allow themselves to be oppressed, the future condition of possession and mastership; to the hungry, that of being filled; to the merciful, the receiving of mercy; to the pure in heart, the seeing of God, of which no impure person is capable; to the founders of peace, the sonship of God, who Himself in His own Son has reconciled men to Himself, and to one another. Merely different beams of light from the same glory. At the close, after the seven independent beatitudes, in Mat_5:10, which is the foundation and transition to the following direct address, the Messiah’s kingdom is once more expressly named, and as a whole, as in the beginning, Mat_5:3. In this way Mat_5:3-10 form an ingenious and profound harmonious whole. To this unity and completeness belongs also the series of the subjects, which, taken together, set forth the whole position (Mat_5:3-5) and the whole endeavours and life (Mat_5:6-9) of the future member of the kingdom. For as to his position, he is full of lowly feeling (Mat_5:3), a bearer of suffering (Mat_5:4), in quiet patience (Mat_5:5). But as to his endeavours and life: full of fervour after moral perfection (Mat_5:6), he cherishes towards others the feeling of compassionate love (Mat_5:7), and by the purity of heart which he attains (Mat_5:8), his outward actions tend towards peace (Mat_5:9), whether he also suffer persecution (this by way of transition to Mat_5:11) for righteousness’ sake—all springing from the one root, faith in his Lord.