BEATITUTDES

• Beatitude


  Latin beatitudo, Greek makarismos (macarism) from Makarios meaning "blessed or happy"
• Moses went up to the mountain (Sinai/Horeb) to meet YHWH

  Exodus 19:2-3
• Jesus went up to the Mountain (unknown-symbolic theological setting is more important) and addressed the disciples and the crowd


  Mt 5
• Decalogue


  Expressed God's will, Moses - conveyer of the law
• Beatitudes


  Reveal the values Jesus prioritized, Jesus the new lawgiver, calls a deeper observance of the law than Moses
• Author


  • Beyond doubt, member of the Jewish community, has Jewish Christian community as an audience
• After 70-85AD- a time of crisis for Jewish community, having difficulties with "law-free" Christians


  Time
• Place


  Antioch, Syria- a large Greek-speaking city with a substantial Jewish community had settled
• Fundamental Purpose


  To point out that Jesus is the "authoritative interpreter of the Torah and the fulfillment of Israel's hopes"
• Beatitudes in Theological Writings

  • Saint Augustine - the Beatitudes holds "all the precepts needed for our guidance in the Christian life,' and thus has a complete, perfect teaching on Christian Morality."
  • Ambrose – claimed that the four beatitudes common to Luke and Matthew reflect the four cardinal virtues (justice, temperance, fortitude, and prudence)
  • Thomas Aquinas - in the Beatitudes is the "culmination of a succession of human responses to the question of happiness"
  • Luther – "the beatitude is a command for all Christians"
• Beatitude


  An ethical imperative calling for cultivation of certain character traits and for regulations for the community life
• Beatitudes


  Eschatological ethics – conciliatory and implies the notion of grace
• Beatitudes


  Seen as both a series of ethical virtues and promises because they are future-oriented and pronounced in the present
• Poor in spirit


  In Hebrew writings, the fainthearted, those who opt for voluntary poverty, or spiritually poor, lowliness of spirit
• Poor


  Aramaic 'ányâ (bent down, afflicted, miserable, poor; Connected to humility; "beggars before God" humbly acknowledging their need of Divine help
• Poor


  Ptochos-beggar- poor with few possessions and socially and economically needy and dependent
• The poor are in special need of God's help (Ps 12:5), absolutely relying on God (Amos 2:-6-7). Religious poverty (Rom 15:26)
• Poor in spirit


  Those who acquire internal attitude of humility, will be made happy in the coming Kingdom of God
• Mourning


  Humility means accepting the complete poverty of our human condition, the lowest and most elementary virtue, the parent and generation of virtues
• Jesus as model of humility. "Take my yoke upon you and earn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart (Mt 11:29)
• Mourning


  In Luke (6:25) opposed to laughter and similar frivolous worldly joy, Greek "Pentho" – to mourn, refers to the grief of death and great loss, could also mean-mourning for one's sins and other's
• Jeremiah 31:13 – God turns our sorrow into joy- common theme in Jewish tradition
• Mourning


  Not all mourners are blessed, only the mourning which is a sign of waiting for the Kingdom of Heaven, the practice of mourning points to the virtue of solidarity, we mourn over the suffering of others caused by injustice
• Meek


  From Hebrew 'ánaw, bending oneself down, humble, meek, gentle, the anawim, they who humbly and meekly bend themselves down before God and man, shall "inherit the land" and possess their inheritance in peace (Psalm 36:11)
• Meekness


  In Jewish literature, synonymous with humility and a characteristic of a sage and ruler, "as a condition, it refers to the poor, the powerless, and those who mourn. But as a moral attitude, it considers also the rich and the powerful"
• Righteousness (dikaiosuneh)


  Rendered as restorative justice in a covenant community setting, and its use is in conformity to the Jewish understanding, the realization of God's goodness in the world and points to 'the gift of a right relationship with God'
• Hunger and thirst for justice


  A strong and continuous desire for progress in religious and moral perfection, the reward of which will be the very fulfillment of the desire, the continuous growth in holiness
• Dikaiosuneh


  Clarifies the object of our hunger and thirst, our hunger and thirst for righteousness is the response to our unrighteousness human condition, it is concerned not just with personal but also with social righteousness, it implies the not-yet: the blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, rather than those who think they have achieved it
• God's righteousness


  Not the same as God's mercy and love in strict sense: the former 'stresses the idea of rectitude, uprightness, and the harmonious ordering of things which are fitting, while love and mercy point more directly to spontaneity, generosity, and abundance in the gift'
• Merciful (Greek-eleehmon)


  In OT and Jewish literature, "the practice of mercy often refers to deeds done out of compassion for the unfortunate and helpless, especially in terms of almsgiving (Tobit 4:5-7), the disposition toward mercy is first understood as an attribute of God (Ex 34:6)
• Eleos (mercy)


  Used also to render the Hebrew term hesed (steadfast, covenantal love of God for the people), connotes the idea of loyalty within a relationship, especially loyalty to God
• Misericordia


  Denotes one's compassionate heart (miserum cor) for another's unhappiness
• Corporal Works of Mercy

  • Giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, welcoming a stranger, Sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick, and the imprisoned, plus burying the dead
• Spiritual Works of Mercy

  • Giving counsel, praying for the dead, admonishing the sinner, forgiving the offenses, bearing wrongs patiently
• Heart (Greek "kardia", Hebrew "Leb")


  A comprehensive term, at times used interchangeably with the soul, can refer to the true self, place of emotions, the desire or will, the intellect or inner space one encounters the deity
• Pure in heart


  Within the Jewish tradition as 'an undivided obedience to God without sin' and is an important virtue, pointing both to singleness of intention and to will only God's will with one's whole being
• Seeing God


  In Judaism "seeing God is equivalent to knowing God and that knowledge or vision of God is usually associated with the promise of the future (Isa 52:6), one tradition focuses on the possibility of physical sight of God in this world (ex 3:6), another tradition, the dominant one, emphasizes the blessed goal of acquiring spiritual sight of the world to come (Ps 17: 15)
• Shalom


  The Hebrew concept fundamental to both the OT and Jewish religions, points to abundance and all-round right relationships, the fullness of God's gift and involves a cosmic dimension in which the Creator intends a cosmic order
• Peacemakers


  Genuine peace does not mean to compromise, desert, or evade confrontation but rather to acknowledge the inevitability of conflicts, it is only achieved by the transformation of all human relationships and the resolution of conflicts, built upon justice, achieved by means of neither force nor passive acceptance of injustice at any cost, requires virtues of meekness and fortitude, solidarity, mourning, humility, mercy, and reconciliation
• Persecution


  Among the Hebrew texts, the persecution of the prophets was a dominant theme that later became part of the martyrdom ideology, the Greek word "eneken" (on account of) denotes that the righteousness demanded by God prompts the persecution, 4 various interpretations: persecution is constitutive of discipleship, "persecute" is used peculiarly to imply that persecution could come from within, persecutions are rather general and could be applied to various situations, the proper cause of persecution is Jesus and his teachings