The Common Beatitudes: Part 3

The final beatitude in both Matthew and Luke is also the longest, spanning two verses. It is debatable as to whether the second verse should be seen as part of the beatitude or an additional comment attached to the beatitude. Regardless, the instruction to rejoice is closely linked to the final beatitude and gives Jesus’ followers additional motivation for why they should desire to be blessed by God despite the suffering that it could entail (as helpfully outlined in this beatitude).

First up, the beatitude itself:

Matthew 5:11 – Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute and say all kinds of evil against you lying on my account.
Luke 6:22 – Blessed are you when the people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.

In their final beatitudes, Matthew and Luke have their own ways of describing how Jesus’ followers will be hated and cast out of their communities because of their allegiance to him. 

Matthew	Luke
revile (oneidizō)	hate (miseō)
persecute (diōkō)	exclude (aphorizō)
say evil (eipon ponēros)	revile (oneidizō)
lying (pseudomai)	cast out name (ekballō to onoma)

Each includes four consequences of remaining loyal to Jesus but only have one in common: being reviled. Revile is not a word you hear every day in English (at least, I don’t come across it very often). The Cambridge Dictionary defines revile as “to criticise someone strongly, or to say unpleasant things to or about someone.” This fits quite well with definitions of the Greek word oneidizō: “to speak disparagingly of a person in a manner which is not justified” (Louw-Nida 1989, 432). Jesus’ followers are to expect some insulting and harsh words from their communities. One only needs to read the book of Acts to discover that this was indeed the case for many of the early Christians. 

The fact that the two versions of this beatitude don’t agree on the exact nature of the response to Jesus’ followers fits with what we have seen in the rest of the common beatitudes. Matthew and Luke (or their sources) focus on different aspects of that response. Luke is strong on the emotional and social response: they will be hated by those around them and become social outcasts, shunned and considered to be evil because of their faith. Matthew also focuses on the false and harmful things that will be said about Jesus’ followers, but he also includes persecution: systemic oppression and harassment (Louw-Nida 1989). The consequences are not only social and verbal, but also include physical suffering and the possibility of violence.

Matthew is more direct with “on my account” while Luke is more guarded (“on account of the Son of Man”). Both Gospel writers regularly use “the Son of Man” as a title for Jesus, so it is not immediately clear why Luke has used it here, but Matthew has not (other than the possibility that it was included in Luke’s source but not Matthew’s). Noticeably, Matthew doesn’t start using “Son of Man” until after the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 8:20) while Luke first uses it earlier than the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 5:24). As it is an established title in Luke before this beatitude, it makes sense to use it here, whereas in Matthew it might cause unnecessary confusion to include “Son of Man” here (not that the use in Matt 8:20 is much clearer really).

Now on to the final verse of the beatitudes:

Matthew 5:12 – Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven; for in this way they persecuted the prophets before you.
Luke 6:23 – Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven; for according to these things their ancestors did to the prophets.

The final statements in Matthew and Luke bring the beatitude lists to a close. Both are expressed in different ways, but say more or less the same thing. Both repeat twice the command to rejoice, promise a heavenly reward, and connect current sufferings to those of the prophets.

Both begin with the command to rejoice when these things happen. Matthew follows this with the command to “be glad” while Luke prefers “leap for joy.” Luke’s inclusion of “in that day” is interesting. I wonder whether this is an indication that his readers have not yet experienced persecution or if he is just keeping the focus tight on rejoicing while such suffering is taking place rather than after the fact. 

One of the hardest parts of both beatitudes to decipher is the promise of a reward in heaven. Such a statement, I find, raises many questions. Is this reward for the suffering experienced, so that the more a person suffers for their faith, the more they are rewarded? Is this reward the future promises of the beatitudes, that the hungry will be filled and the mourning comforted? Or is it something else? What exactly does a heavenly reward consist of? Interestingly, the tense of this promise is present, not future: “your reward is great in heaven” not “your reward will be great in heaven.” Does this suggest that the reward is in heaven now? Digging into these questions further may require a whole post of its own. For now, all I can say is that the “reward” (mithos) is a payment that a person has earned (Louw-Nida 1989). This seems to suggest that the heavenly reward is in some was compensation for the suffering endured.

Once again, Matthew is more specific than Luke regarding persecution, comparing the persecution Jesus’ followers will receive to the treatment of the prophets. Luke is vaguer with “these things.” However, Luke also distinguishes between the people who will persecute the disciples and those who persecuted the prophets. It was the ancestors of those persecuting the disciples who persecuted the prophets. Ultimately the glimmer of hope for Jesus’ suffering followers is that they will be rewarded in heaven (whatever that looks like) and they are classed alongside God’s prophets, the chosen messengers of God throughout Israel’s history.

Wow. Covering the common beatitudes ended up provoking more questions and thoughts than I expected. When placed alongside each other, the noticeable differences provide an interesting insight into these two Gospels. Luke’s emphasis on those on the fringes of society (where Jesus’ followers would also end up for being counter-cultural) compared to Matthew’s image of the appropriate attitudes of people of God’s Kingdom is actually stronger than I thought. I have often wondered how big the difference between the two was as it is so easy to class Matthew’s beatitudes as “spiritual” and Luke’s as “social” or “economic” (with a spiritual element in there). Through looking at the common beatitudes a little closer, I am surprised how stark some of those differences really are, but also how much they share in common despite that. Hopefully, this exercise has been of some help to you too. 

My aim now is to do one more post in this series on the different settings and audiences of the Sermons on the Plain and Mount. Stay tuned.

Reference list
Louw, Johannes P. and Eugene A. Nida eds. 1989. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains. 2nd Logos ed.  Vol. 1. New York: United Bible Societies.