Chapter 192 of 404

Beatitudes

Beatitudes appear elsewhere in the Mediterranean world,⁵³ but were a characteristically Jewish rhetorical form. They appear most obviously throughout the Hebrew Bible and Septuagint⁵⁴ and afterward continued in use in early Judaism.⁵⁵

Although back-translation into another language is always precarious, it is likely more than coincidence that some of the verbal differences between Matthew’s and Luke’s beatitudes reflect different possible ways of translating Aramaic expressions into Greek.⁵⁶ A common Aramaic original would suggest that these particular beatitudes, at least, go back to our earliest traditions about Jesus.

Many of Jesus’ beatitudes resemble traditional Jewish formulations and ideas; thus his claim that the merciful would receive mercy (i.e., from God; Matt 5:7) fits the traditional Jewish notion that “God is merciful to the merciful.”⁵⁷ It has been argued that Jesus’ same beatitude, when translated back into Aramaic, reflects a particular rhythm characteristic of some of Jesus’ teaching.⁵⁸

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