1) Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
2) Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.
3) Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man,
4) Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
Matthew 5:3-11, in the Shaprut version (reflects "Matthew II"):
1) Blessed are the humble of spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2) Blessed are those who wait, for they shall be comforted.
3) Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
4) Blessed are the innocent of heart, for they shall see God.
5) Blessed are those who PURSUE peace for they shall be called sons of God.
6) Blessed are those who are PERSECUTED for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
7) Blessed are you when they persecute and revile you and say against you all kinds of evil for my sake, but speak falsely.
8) Rejoice and be glad for your reward is very great in heaven, for thus they persecuted the prophets.
Matthew 5:3-11, in the canonical version ("Matthew III"):
1) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2) Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
3) Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
4) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
5) Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
6) Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
7) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
8) Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
9) Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
To review a bit: My Layered Matthew Hypothesis was presented in this blog in the series The Layers of Matthew I-X, posted in October and November 2018. It is diagrammed and explained most succinctly in The Layers of Matthew VI, posted on 17 November 2018. Here is the diagram that was given there:
What we notice here, first of all, is the increasing fullness of the list of Beatitudes from Matthew I (Luke is our witness) to Matthew II (the Shem Tob Ibn Isaac Ibn Shaprut Hebrew Matthew is our witness for at least one of the intermediate forms of Matthew to which I have given this designation) and finally to Matthew III (canonical Matthew). We also notice a play on words that only works in Hebrew, based on the Hebrew root רדף, which means both "to pursue" and "to persecute," and forms a "catchword" or "linking word" between the thoughts in the fifth and sixth Beatitudes in the Shaprut Hebrew Matthew. What we call "peacemakers" are "peace-doers" in Greek, but idiomatic Hebrew is "those who pursue peace." Thus, the play on words is lost when one takes Matthew out of its original Hebrew.
Text and image © 2018-2019 by Donald C. Traxler.
