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Matthew 5:6. Concerning πεινῆν and διψῆν, which regularly govern the genitive with the accusative, where the object is conceived as that which endures the action, see examples of this rare use in Kypke, Obss. I. p. 17; Loesner, Obss. p. 11; and especially Winer, p. 192 [E. T. 256]. The metaphorical meaning (Isaiah 55:1; Psalm 42:3; Sir 51:24) of the verbs is that of longing desire. See Pricaeus and Wetstein in loc.; as regards διψ., also Jacobs, ad Anthol. VI. p. 26, VIII. p. 233. The δικαιοσύνη, however, is the righteousness, the establishment of which was the aim of Christ’s work, and the condition of participation in the Messiah’s kingdom. They are designated as such whose “great earnestness, desire, and fervour” (Luther) are directed towards a moral constitution free from guilt. Luther, besides, strikingly draws attention to this, that before all these portions of the beatitudes, “faith must first be there as the tree and headpiece or sum” of righteousness.

χορτασθήσονται] not generally regni Messiani felicitate (Fritzsche), but, as the context requires, δικαιοσύνης: they will obtain righteousness in full measure, namely, in being declared to be righteous (Romans 5:19; Galatians 5:5, and remarks thereon) at the judgment of the Messiah (Matthew 25:34), and then live for ever in perfect righteousness, so that God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). Comp. 2 Peter 3:13. On the figurative χορτάζ., Psalm 17:15; Psalm 107:9.

Matthew 5:7. Οἱ ἐλεήμονες] the compassionate (Hebrews 2:17; Hom. Od. v. 191) in general, not, as de Wette arbitrarily limits it, in opposition to the desire for revenge and cruelty against the heathen, which were contained in the ordinary Messianic hopes.

ἐλεηθήσονται] that is, in this way, that they get assigned to them the salvation of the Messiah’s kingdom, which will be the highest act of the divine compassion, Luke 1:72; Romans 9:16; Romans 5:17. The divine maxim, which lies at the foundation of the statement, Matthew 7:2; Matthew 25:35. Kienlen is wrong when he says the ἐλεηθ. refers to the forgiveness of the sins which still cleave even to the regenerate; it points to this, that the entire bestowal of Messianic salvation is the work of divine grace, which follows in its procedure its own moral rules (faith working by love).

Matthew 5:8. Οἱ καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ] denotes the moral blamelessness of the inner life, the centre of which is the heart, in conformity with the view that πᾶσα ἁμαρτία ῥύπον ἐντίθησι τῇ ψυχῇ, Origen, Hom, in Joh. lxxiii. 2. Comp. Psalm 73:1; Psalm 24:4; 1 Timothy 1:5; 1 Timothy 3:9; Plat. Crat. p. 403 E, ψυχὴ καθαρά, p. 405 B, al. How this purity is actually attained (by justification and the sanctification of believers) remains even now left over to the future.

τὸν θεὸν ὄψονται] certainly refers, according to the analogy of all the other beatitudes, to the αἰὼν μέλλων, but is not (in accordance with the Oriental idea of great good fortune in being an intimate friend of the king’s, 1 Kings 10:8; Esther 1:14) to be taken as a typical designation of the Messianic happiness in general (Kuinoel, Fritzsche, and others), nor as an inward seeing of God (knowledge, becoming conscious of God, inmost fellowship with God), as de Wette also understood it to mean direct spiritual fellowship with God here on earth and there in heaven; but, as the words do not allow us to understand it differently: of the seeing of God who gloriously reveals Himself in the Messiah’s kingdom, a seeing which will be attained in the condition of the glorified body, Revelation 7:15; Revelation 22:4; 1 John 3:2; Hebrews 12:14. Passages like Exodus 33:20, John 1:18; John 6:46, Colossians 1:15, Romans 1:20, 1 Timothy 6:16, are not opposed to it, because they refer to seeing with the earthly eye. The seeing of God, who, although Spirit (John 4:24), has His essential form of manifestation (Php 2:6), will one day be the consummation of the προσαγωγή obtained through Christ (Romans 5:2). Comp. Clem. Hom. xvii. 7.

Matthew 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. Colossians 1:20; Proverbs 10:10), who as such minister to God’s good pleasure, who is the God of peace (Romans 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:11), as Christ Himself was the highest Founder of peace (Luke 2:14; John 16:33; Ephesians 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 Luke 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 John 1:12; John 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. Romans 8:19; Romans 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, Matthew 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, Matthew 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 Matthew 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, Matthew 5:3. In this way Matthew 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 (Matthew 5:3-5) and the whole endeavours and life (Matthew 5:6-9) of the future member of the kingdom. For as to his position, he is full of lowly feeling (Matthew 5:3), a bearer of suffering (Matthew 5:4), in quiet patience (Matthew 5:5). But as to his endeavours and life: full of fervour after moral perfection (Matthew 5:6), he cherishes towards others the feeling of compassionate love (Matthew 5:7), and by the purity of heart which he attains (Matthew 5:8), his outward actions tend towards peace (Matthew 5:9), whether he also suffer persecution (this by way of transition to Matthew 5:11) for righteousness’ sake—all springing from the one root, faith in his Lord.

Matthew 5:10. Comp. 1 Peter 3:14; 1 Peter 4:14.

δικαιοσύν., as in Matthew 5:6 ἕνεκ. δικ., is, as to substance, not different from ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ, Matthew 5:11. In communion with Christ there is righteousness, and in this ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ is expressed the full Messianic consciousness,[396] the certain holy self-feeling of which for the persecuted begins (Acts 9:4).

To take the αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλ. τ. οὐρ. differently from Matthew 5:3 (Kienlen in d. Stud. u. Krit. 1848, p. 678: Matthew 5:5 is the entrance into the kingdom of God; Matthew 5:10, the consummation in the same, comp. Lange) is purely arbitrary. See rather the preceding remark.

[396] This putting forward the person as Lord and Master is, in Weizsäcker’s view, p. 151, a reason for regarding ver. 11 f. as a later explanation to the original text. But even in the whole train of the discourse that follows from ver. 17 onwards, such a personal assertion comes out strongly enough; comp. especially the constant symmetrical recurrence of ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν, and immediately in ver. 17 the expression of the Messianic consciousness, ἦλθον, κ.τ.λ.

Matthew 5:11-12. Comp. Isaiah 51:7 ff. Application of Matthew 5:10 to the disciples. To explain ὀνειδίζειν, to make reproaches (Wurm, Dinarch. p. 77), and διώκειν (comp. 1 Corinthians 4:12), with Beza, Raphel, and Wolf, of indignities and accusations before the court, is an unwarrantable limitation. The whole of the hostility which is to assail His disciples stands even now before the soul of the Lord, and He prepares them for it; there is accordingly no reason to see in Matthew 5:10-12 an addition by the evangelist (Hilgenfeld).

The ψευδόμενοι, which is to be defended as genuine (see the critical remarks), easily and appropriately connects itself with καθʼ ὑμῶν, so that the latter forms with ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ an emphatic correlative; the whole participial definition, however, from εἴπωσι to ῥῆμα, is appended as a statement of modality, “in their speaking falsely against you for my sake”—that is, because you belong to me, which is their motive for making lying statements against you. On ψεύδεσθαι with κατά, contra, comp. Jam 3:14; often thus amongst Greek writers.

Matthew 5:12. Ὁ μισθός] comp. κατεργάζεται, 2 Corinthians 4:17, and remarks thereon. The article denotes: the reward which is destined, kept in readiness for you (Matthew 25:34; Colossians 1:5), and that for the indignities, persecutions, and lies borne through faith in me.

ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς] is great in heaven. A reference to the book of life (Fritzsche, Gratz), Php 4:3, Revelation 3:5; Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:27, Daniel 12:1, is not yielded by the text, which only presents the idea that the reward is laid, up in heaven until the future communication of it, which begins with the establishment of the kingdom, and therefore not ἔσται, but ἐστί, is to be supplied; and this is to be taken not as irrespective of time (de Wette), but as present.

γάρ] assigns the reason from the recognised certainty (Matthew 10:41) that to the prophets, who formerly were persecuted in like manner (Matthew 23:29 ff.), great reward is reserved in heaven for future communication in the kingdom of the Messiah.

The prophets (comp. Matthew 7:12) are a typical example for the disciples. On the conception of μισθός, which κατὰ χάριν λογίζεται (Romans 4:4), comp. Matthew 20:1 ff.; Luke 17:10; see generally Weiss in d. Deutsch. Zeitschr. 1853, p. 40 ff.; Bibl. Theol. p. 104 ff.

Matthew 5:13. Τὸ ἅλας τῆς γῆς] A figure of the power which counteracts corruption, and preserves in a sound condition—the effect which salt has upon water (2 Kings 2:20), meat, and such like. Thus the ministry of the disciples was destined by the communication of the divine truth to oppose the spiritual corruption and powerlessness of men, and to be the means of bringing about their moral soundness and power of life. An allusion to the use of salt in sacrifices (Mark 9:49) is not hinted at here (in answer to Tholuck). Comp. rather Colossians 4:6; Theodoret, Heracleon (in Cramer, Cat. p. 33): ἅλας τ. γῆς ἐστιν τὸ ψυχικὸν ἄρτυμα. Without this salt humanity would have fallen a prey to spiritual φθορά. Fritzsche, overlooking the positive efficacy of salt, derives the figure only from its indispensable nature. Observe, moreover, how the expression τῆς γῆς, as a designation of the mass of the inhabitants of the earth, who are to be worked upon by the salt, is as appropriately selected for this figure as τοῦ κόσμου for the following one. And Jesus thus even now throws down the thought of universal destination into the souls of the disciples as a spark to be preserved.

μωρανθῇ] will have become savourless, Mark 9:50 : ἄναλον γένηται; Dioscorides in Wetstein: ῥίζαι γευσαμένῳ μωραί.

ἐν τίνι ἁλισθήσεται;] by what means will it again receive its salting power? Theophylact: διορθωθήσεται. Laying figures aside: If you, through failing to preserve the powers bestowed upon you, and by allowing them to perish, become in despondency and torpidity unfaithful to your destiny and unfitted for your calling, how will you raise yourselves again to the power and efficiency appropriate to your vocation, which you have lost.[397] Your uselessness for your calling will then be an irreparabile damnum! “Non enim datur sal salis,” Jansen. Grotius well says, “ipsi emendare alios debebant, non autern exspectare, ut ab aliis ipsi emendarentur.” Augustine, de serm. in mont. Matthew 1:16. Luther differently: Wherewith shall one salt? Erasmus, Paraphr.: “quid tandem erit reliquum, quo multitudinis insulsa vita condiatur?” Putting figure aside: Who, then, will supply your place? However appropriate in itself this meaning might be, nevertheless εἰς οὐδὲν ἰσχύει stands opposed to it.[398] See also Mark 9:50.

ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρ.] ab hominibus “obviis quibusque,” Bengel.

[397] Whether the salt can really become quite insipid and without power, and thus lose its essential property, is not at all the question. Jesus puts the case. We need not therefore either appeal, with Paulus, to the salt which has been exposed to the weather and become tasteless, which Maundrell (Reise nach Pal. p. 162; Rosenmüller, Morgenland, in loc.) found in the district of Aleppo, or make out of the common cooking salt, saltpetre (Altmann, Vriemoet), or asphalt (v. d. Hardt, Schoettgen), or sea-salt (Ebrard).

[398] This εἰς οὐδὲν ἰσχύει, etc., clearly sets forth its utter uselessness for the purpose for which it was designed, not the exclusion from the community, or the being rejected by Christ (Luther, Chemnitz, and others), to which the idea, “it is fit for nothing but,” is not appropriate. It would be different if Christ had said βληθήσεται ἕξω, etc. Theophylact understands exclusion from the dignity of teacher; Chrysostom, Erasmus, and others, the most supreme contempt.—Observe, moreover, that the expression ἰσχύει (has power for nothing except, etc.), and so on, contains an acumen in its relation to the following passive βληθῆναι, etc.

Matthew 5:13-16. The course of thought: The more important and influential your destined calling is, all the less ought you to allow yourselves to be dispirited, and to become faithless to your calling through indignities and persecutions; you are the salt and the light! Weizsäcker rightly claims for this section (in answer to Holtzmann, Weiss) originality in this connection, in which it attaches itself with great significance to the last beatitude and its explanation.