One of the ways I’m approaching this blog is to share some of the background material that will probably never make its way into a sermon – at least, explicitly. This week I looked at an edition of the New Testament in Greek in order to help me think creatively about Jesus’ sayings on blessedness.
Before getting into what I found, let’s pan out a little bit and consider the broad context of where we are. Ray noted last week that in this season of Epiphany we’re reading about Jesus’ “first appearances on the world’s stage” (see post below). To my mind, today’s Gospel is yet another epiphany story: Jesus reveals himself to be a rabbi, one who teaches with authority. Having begun his ministry of proclamation and healing, he goes up to a mountain (to escape the crowds? Or maybe so they can see and hear him?) and is pursued by his disciples. Immediately, he begins to teach them. His long discourse is called “The Sermon on the Mount,” and is recorded in three chapters of Matthew’s Gospel (5-7). Most of us equate the Sermon on the Mount with this upcoming weeks’ reading, the Beatitudes (beatus is “blessed” in Latin).
Getting back to the specifics, the English translation of the Greek words for blessed, poor, mourning, meek, hungering, thirsting, merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers are pretty straightforward. With a huge lexicon and a sense of how other ancient texts used those words, we could explore a world in each of them. My more general research, however, did bring me up short with one phrase: “blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake ….” One possible translation for this phrase is “happy are those who are chased on account of justice ….” Wow! What different images come to mind! Whenever I have heard this passage before, I have thought about people who are persecuted for their beliefs, specifically Christians living in the Roman Empire who might have heard this Gospel in the first century. The alternate translation broadens the scope. You get glimpses of men and women throughout time who have sought justice (done what is right/righteous on behalf of others, and acted according to their vision of God’s kingdom) in all sorts of contexts. The consequences are more vivid, too. Being “chased” indicates that they have fought for their lives quite literally. Or, perhaps they have been chased by a sense of justice itself: they were not allowed to rest or to be complacent once they understood God’s will for the world, and their place in it.
To pan out again, discoveries like this are the best part of being able to read texts in different languages. There is no original Greek or Hebrew Bible - even the oldest manuscripts that have been discovered are copies of older documents. Very little can be empirically proved or disproved by referencing them. They do, however, shake you up as they present you with a new way of looking at familiar texts. Translations from ancient sources also place the editions of Scripture that you read in a long, shared context that is a lot bigger than we can imagine. That can shake one up a bit, too!
(Danielle Thompson)
(Danielle Thompson)
