Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Matthew 5:1-12, The Beatitudes
Jesus sits on a mountain to teach and pronounces God's blessing on the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers and the persecuted.
Matthew 5:1-12, in every translation this tool compares.
Seeing the crowds, Jesus goes up a mountain and sits down, and his disciples come to him. He begins with blessings: on the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those hungry for justice, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those persecuted for doing right. He ends by telling his hearers they will be insulted as the prophets were.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/kingdom-of-god\/","n":"God's kingdom","s":"Kingdom meant God's reign, God becoming king in fact. It was the good news Isaiah promised, and in Jesus' day it was also a slogan.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/prophets-rejected\/","n":"Prophets rejected and killed","s":"Israel's memory of prophets mocked, beaten and killed by their own people. By Jesus' day tradition had lengthened the list of martyred prophets.","r":""}
Teachers sat to expound Scripture with disciples at their feet, and many compare the mountain to Sinai (Keener and the CSB Study Bible). The kingdom of heaven at 5:3 and 5:10 brackets the blessings. Bailey argues that the word blessed, Hebrew ashre, describes a happy state already given, not a reward for behavior. Keener sets the meek, the merciful and the peacemakers against hopes that the kingdom would come by war with Rome; on inheriting the earth, Keener notes that Jews expected God's people to rule the whole earth, while Bailey argues Jesus meant the land of Israel, open to the meek and not to the violent. Tradition and most scholars place the mountain on the ridge above Tabgha, by the Seven Springs (Wilkins).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 5:1-2, 5:3, 5:5, 5:9 and 5:10-12
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 5:1, 5:3, 5:5, 5:9 and 5:12
- CSB Study Bible, note on Matthew 5:1
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 5, The Beatitudes 1
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 5:1
