圣经注释书

The report of him went forth into all Syria (απηλθεν η ακοη αυτου εις ολην την Σψριαν). Rumour (ακοη) carries things almost like the wireless or radio. The Gentiles all over Syria to the north heard of what was going on in Galilee. The result was inevitable. Jesus had a moving hospital of patients from all over Galilee and Syria. " Those that were sick " (τους κακως εχοντας), literally "those who had it bad," cases that the doctors could not cure. " Holden with divers diseases and torments " (ποικιλαις νοσοις κα βασανοις συνεχομενους). "Held together" or "compressed" is the idea of the participle. The same word is used by Jesus in Luke 12:50 and by Paul in Philippians 1:23 and of the crowd pressing on Jesus (Luke 8:45). They brought these difficult and chronic cases (present tense of the participle here) to Jesus. Instead of "divers" say "various" (ποικιλαις) like fever, leprosy, blindness. The adjective means literally many colored or variegated like flowers, paintings, jaundice, etc. Some had "torments" (βασανοις). The word originally (oriental origin) meant a touchstone, "Lydian stone" used for testing gold because pure gold rubbed on it left a peculiar mark. Then it was used for examination by torture. Sickness was often regarded as "torture." These diseases are further described "in a descending scale of violence" (McNeile) as "demoniacs, lunatics, and paralytics" as Moffatt puts it, "demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics" as Weymouth has it, (δαιμονιζομενους κα σεληνιαζομενους κα παραλυτικους), people possessed by demons, lunatics or "moon-struck" because the epileptic seizures supposedly followed the phases of the moon (Bruce) as shown also in Matthew 17:15, paralytics (our very word). Our word "lunatic" is from the Latin luna (moon) and carries the same picture as the Greek σεληνιαζομα from σεληνη (moon). These diseases are called "torments."

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He went up into the mountain (ανεβη εις το ορος). Not "a" mountain as the Authorized Version has it. The Greek article is poorly handled in most English versions. We do not know what mountain it was. It was the one there where Jesus and the crowds were. "Delitzsch calls the Mount of Beatitudes the Sinai of the New Testament" (Vincent). He apparently went up to get in closer contact with the disciples, "seeing the multitudes." Luke (Luke 6:12) says that he went out into the mountain to pray, Mark (Mark 3:13) that he went up and called the twelve. All three purposes are true. Luke adds that after a whole night in prayer and after the choice of the twelve Jesus came down to a level place on the mountain and spoke to the multitudes from Judea to Phoenicia. The crowds are great in both Matthew and in Luke and include disciples and the other crowds. There is no real difficulty in considering the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and the Sermon on the Plain in Luke as one and the same. See full discussion in my Harmony of the Gospels.

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Taught them (εδιδασκεν). Inchoative imperfect, began to teach. He sat down on the mountain side as the Jewish rabbis did instead of standing. It was a most impressive scene as Jesus opened his mouth wide and spoke loud enough for the great throng to hear him. The newly chosen twelve apostles were there, "a great number of disciples and a great number of the people" (Luke 6:17).

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Blessed (μακαριο). The English word "blessed" is more exactly represented by the Greek verbal ευλογητο as in Luke 1:68 of God by Zacharias, or the perfect passive participle ευλογημενος as in Luke 1:42 of Mary by Elizabeth and in Matthew 21:9. Both forms come from ευλογεω, to speak well of (ευ, λογος). The Greek word here (μακαριο) is an adjective that means "happy" which in English etymology goes back to hap, chance, good-luck as seen in our words haply, hapless, happily, happiness. "Blessedness is, of course, an infinitely higher and better thing than mere happiness" (Weymouth). English has thus ennobled "blessed" to a higher rank than "happy." But "happy" is what Jesus said and the Braid Scots New Testament dares to say "Happy" each time here as does the Improved Edition of the American Bible Union Version. The Greek word is as old as Homer and Pindar and was used of the Greek gods and also of men, but largely of outward prosperity. Then it is applied to the dead who died in the Lord as in Revelation 14:13. Already in the Old Testament the Septuagint uses it of moral quality. "Shaking itself loose from all thoughts of outward good, it becomes the express symbol of a happiness identified with pure character. Behind it lies the clear cognition of sin as the fountain-head of all misery, and of holiness as the final and effectual cure for every woe. For knowledge as the basis of virtue, and therefore of happiness, it substitutes faith and love" (Vincent). Jesus takes this word "happy" and puts it in this rich environment. "This is one of the words which have been transformed and ennobled by New Testament use; by association, as in the Beatitudes, with unusual conditions, accounted by the world miserable, or with rare and difficult" (Bruce). It is a pity that we have not kept the word "happy" to the high and holy plane where Jesus placed it. "If you know these things, happy (μακαριο) are you if you do them" (John 13:17). "Happy (μακαριο) are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29). And Paul applies this adjective to God, "according to the gospel of the glory of the happy (μακαριου) God" (1 Timothy 1:11. Cf. also Titus 2:13). The term "Beatitudes" (Latin beatus) comes close to the meaning of Christ here by μακαριο. It will repay one to make a careful study of all the "beatitudes" in the New Testament where this word is employed. It occurs nine times here (Matthew 5:3-11), though the beatitudes in verses 10 and 11 are very much alike. The copula is not expressed in either of these nine beatitudes. In each case a reason is given for the beatitude, "for" (οτ), that shows the spiritual quality involved. Some of the phrases employed by Jesus here occur in the Psalms, some even in the Talmud (itself later than the New Testament, though of separate origin). That is of small moment. "The originality of Jesus lies in putting the due value on these thoughts, collecting them, and making them as prominent as the Ten Commandments. No greater service can be rendered to mankind than to rescue from obscurity neglected moral commonplaces " (Bruce). Jesus repeated his sayings many times as all great teachers and preachers do, but this sermon has unity, progress, and consummation. It does not contain all that Jesus taught by any means, but it stands out as the greatest single sermon of all time, in its penetration, pungency, and power. The poor in spirit (ο πτωχο τω πνευματ). Luke has only "the poor," but he means the same by it as this form in Matthew, "the pious in Israel, for the most part poor, whom the worldly rich despised and persecuted" (McNeile). The word used here (πτωχο) is applied to the beggar Lazarus in Luke 16:20; Luke 16:22 and suggests spiritual destitution (from πτωσσω to crouch, to cower). The other word πενης is from πενομα, to work for one's daily bread and so means one who works for his living. The word πτωχος is more frequent in the New Testament and implies deeper poverty than πενης. "The kingdom of heaven" here means the reign of God in the heart and life. This is the summum bonum and is what matters most.

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They that mourn (ο πενθουντες). This is another paradox. This verb "is most frequent in the LXX for mourning for the dead, and for the sorrows and sins of others" (McNeile). "There can be no comfort where there is no grief" (Bruce). Sorrow should make us look for the heart and hand of God and so find the comfort latent in the grief.

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The meek (ο πραεις). Wycliff has it "Blessed be mild men." The ancients used the word for outward conduct and towards men. They did not rank it as a virtue anyhow. It was a mild equanimity that was sometimes negative and sometimes positively kind. But Jesus lifted the word to a nobility never attained before. In fact, the Beatitudes assume a new heart, for the natural man does not find in happiness the qualities mentioned here by Christ. The English word "meek" has largely lost the fine blend of spiritual poise and strength meant by the Master. He calls himself "meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29) and Moses is also called meek. It is the gentleness of strength, not mere effeminacy. By "the earth" (την γην) Jesus seems to mean the Land of Promise (Psalms 37:11) though Bruce thinks that it is the whole earth. Can it be the solid earth as opposed to the sea or the air?

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They that hunger and thirst after righteousness (ο πεινωντες κα διψωντες την δικαιοσυνην). Here Jesus turns one of the elemental human instincts to spiritual use. There is in all men hunger for food, for love, for God. It is passionate hunger and thirst for goodness, for holiness. The word for "filled" (χορτασθησοντα) means to feed or to fatten cattle from the word for fodder or grass like Mark 6:39 "green grass" (χορτος χλωρος).

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Obtain mercy (ελεηθησοντα) "Sal win pitie theirsels" (Braid Scots). "A self-acting law of the moral world" (Bruce).

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