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1. The beatitudes are an integral part of the Sermon on the Mount and the structure of the book of Matthew. In more recent times the 5 fold structure of the book that had been accepted by scholars has been replaced with a fold structure, using the idea that Matthew is a narrative rather than a series of 5 "books" with differing content(Drane1 pg 05). This then deals with several problems of the 5 fold division that the birth of Christ be called preamble; that the death and resurrection be epilogue and that the climactic features of Matthew are the discourses (Stock14 p7) Using this fold narrative structure, the Beatitudes are part of the proclamation of Jesus as Messiah and His presentation of himself to Israel. The Beatitudes are thus both an introduction to the sermon as a whole (Stanton1 p740) and also form part of the teaching of Jesus whereby He is revealing Himself to the Jews in His public ministry. This part of the structure begins"From that time on Jesus began to show" 417. It seems that the Beatitudes are part of one of the literary devices that appear in Matthew, where Jesus seems to be speaking past the crowd to the intended audience of the book, the future believers. (Stock p 6). The Jesus that is portrayed in Matthew's gospel is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Messiah. Matthew has more Old Testament quotes than any other gospel. He is portrayed as King. In the Beatitudes themselves Jesus is shown as a great teacher and of having the authority to hold the crowds attention, but more than that those attributes He was extolling could be seen in His own life. He had the "types of character that had God's approval" (Garland p 7) He was the one pronounced 'blessed' because he was the poor in spirit, he was the one who mourns, he was the meek, and so on. Many times in the gospels we find these attributes shown in the life of Jesus (cf Matt 11; John 115; Matt 104 and others). . "Blessed" used in this context cannot be explained by the word "happy" used in many English translations of this word. "Makarios" from the Greek, carries with it the idea of size or length (Renn11 p 88) and is better read here as fortunate or successful. As we understand the word happy today it is just an emotion rather than a condition, otherwise Jesus would be telling us to be happy at times of persecution! It also carries with it the idea of a future promise as well as a present blessing (Stock p 7). 4. "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth"
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a.The first question that must be answered is who are the meek? The word translated meek in the Greek word" praos". This word was used by Jesus to describe Himself in Matt 11. (Renn p51). It seems to be a quote from Psalm 711 (Stock p 74) Thus in our understanding today where we acquaint the word meek with weak, this cannot be a correct interpretation of what Jesus was trying to convey. A better idea of the meaning is humility. Thus the meek is one who is strong but not violent, able to endure injury with patience and without resentment. It describes a person who is able to handle conflicts and insults without self crisis. In our time, we say the meek person is one who has it all put together. This certainly describes the attitude of Jesus in the face of conflict, and would also describe the kind of people to whom the promise of this beatitude was made.b.Jesus said these meek would inherit the earth. What did he mean? Inheritance is to receive an unearned gift. The receiver is an heir who, without personal effort, takes control and ownership of property as a beneficiary. He does not have to work for it; it will be given him by promise. So what shall he inherit;" the earth". What is the earth? The Greek word " ge" only tells us that it is the earth as opposed to the heavens (Renn p46). But does it mean that the meek will take ownership of the earth, that solid ball of matter in space? I believe that here earth means the place and circumstance of your life. So the humble will be given control of their lives, they will be in peace with all of their circumstances. For the Jews this had a future meaning, that they would inherit control of their land again. c.To the Jews who were listening to Jesus this would have brought some marked response. Being Jews they would have understood the concept of meekness and inheritance of the Land referring to their hope as a Nation rather than any spiritual blessing as we would interpret it today (See Isaiah 61). I think they might have been shocked by what they heard. They had suffered 4 centuries of humiliation and alien rule. They were forced to pay taxes to a Caesar who claimed to be God, a claim that dishonored every element of their emotional and spiritual training. When they thought of kingdom, they thought of independence. They thought of a Jewish state that would honor God by crushing its enemies. To them this promise meant that they would establish themselves as a nation again, under the guidance of God. They would have heard Jesus say that this was possible by being humble and non violent and may have raised the ire of the Zealots, who were using aggressive means to bring this nation about.d.Obviously to us today we have no idea that nationhood was the promise Jesus gave. For us, this promise has no direct eschatological importance and the prospect of inheritance of the Land is entirely strange to us. A meek person is the one who by faith sees God as great and himself as nothing. And therefore, he submits to the righteous will of this great God, knowing that this humility will cause him to inherit the earth. Thus toil and effort to succeed are no longer required. The God who controls all things takes control of your life to make your efforts easier, more productive and satisfying. This idea contrasts with the popular belief that you must work harder and compete to succeed. Strife is the norm of life, but can become a thing of the past when your life is in Gods hands. This is his reward, his blessing to the meek. (Psalms 76) BibliographyAllison, Dale C. jnr, "The Structure of the Sermon on the Mount" Journal of Biblical Literature. Vol 106. (187) 4-44.Church Leslie F., ed. Matthew Henry's Commentary. London Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 17De Roo, J.C.R., "Beatitudes Text (4Q55)" Pages 151-5 Dictionary of New Testament Background. Edited by Craig A. Evans, Stanley E. Porter Downers grove Intervarsity, 000Drane, John , Introducing the New Testament. Oxford Lion, 1McArthur Harvey K., Understanding the Sermon on the Mount. London Epworth, 161 Garland D.E., "Blessings" Pages 77-80 Dictionary of Jesus and theGospels. Edited by Joel B. Green, Scott McKnight, Howard Marshall. Downers Grove Intervarsity, 1Renn, Steven , ed. Vines Amplified Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Iowa Falls World Bible, 11Stanton, G.N. "Sermon on the Mount/Plain." Pages 75-44 Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. Edited by Joel B. Green, Scott McKnight, Howard Marshall. Downers Grove Intervarsity, 1Stock, Augustine, The Method and Message of Matthew. Collegville Liturgical Press, 14 Strecker, G., "Makarios" Pages 76-7 in vol. Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited by Horst, Balz, Gerhard, Scneider. vols. Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 10 Please note that this sample paper on the beatitudes is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on the beatitudes, we are here to assist you. Your persuasive essay on the beatitudes will be written from scratch, so you do not have to worry about its originality.
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