Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§ 12.4 The Kingdom of God
of those already part of the tradition. 155 The noteworthy feature at this point,
however, is the agreement of Matthew and Luke with Q in placing the kingdom
beatitude at the head. 156
The common feature in the beatitudes is the theme of reversal, in which
case the present tense of the first should probably be taken as a proleptic present:
the kingdom is to be the poor's. 157 The poor are comforted in the present, not because
their situation has already changed, but because they can be confident that
God has not forgotten them and that their place in his kingdom is assured. 158 It
does not necessarily follow that this was a hope of heaven. If Matthew's third beatitude
(with no Lukan parallel) is any guide, the hope was for the meek 159 to inherit
the land (Ps. 37.11), which Matthew later identifies with the kingdom
(Matt. 21.43). 160 Here we find ourselves inextricably caught in the tension be-
155. For discussion see Davies and Allison, Matthew ad loc. and excursus, 1.431-42;
Meier, Marginal Jew 2.323-36; Betz, Sermon on the Mount 105, 109-10. Note the sequence of
(8 or 9?) beatitudes in 4Q525 2.1-8. For those who think the woes were part of Q, see
Kloppenborg, Q Parallels 26, to which add particularly Catchpole, Quest 87-90. But we should
avoid making the judgment of 'authenticity' dependent on our ability to recover 'the original
form in its pristine purity' (Meier 2.320); performing and passing on the (oral) tradition was not
conceived in such terms.
156. Schürmann suggests that in these beatitudes (cf. Mark 1.15) we hear Jesus' inaugural
preaching in public (Lukasevangelium 1.332). In Thomas the first beatitude has no such
prominence; but note also the tendency in Thomas (once again) to de-eschatologize the other
two beatitudes.
157. Schürmann, Gottes Reich 87; Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom 162-63;
Luz, Matthäus 1.208; 'the line also anticipates an eschatological verdict' (Betz, Sermon on the
Mount 118).
158. In Jewish writing the beatitude occurs both in wisdom writing as a moral exhortation
and in eschatological contexts (particularly apocalypses) as promising future consolation
(Guelich, Sermon on the Mount 64-65; Davies and Allison, Matthew 1.432-34; Meier, Marginal
Jew 2.323-25; Betz, Sermon on the Mount 94, 97-105). Here the reversal theme makes
clear the eschatological orientation: 'Strictly speaking, they should be pronounced by the divine
judge in the afterlife, as verdicts at the eschatological judgment' (Betz 96). Kloppenborg
Verbin plays down too much the eschatological thrust of Q 6.20b, as confirmed not least by its
context in Q (6.20b-23)! ('Discursive Practices' 179-86). But see further below, §13.4.
159. The Hebrew terms 'poor' ('aniyyim) and 'meek' ('anawim) evidently overlapped in
their range of meaning and are translated in the LXX by a variety of terms, including ptöchoi
('poor') and praeis ('meek'); see F. Hauck and S. Schulz, praus, TDNT 6 (1968) 647-48;
E. Bammel, ptöchos, TDNT 6 (1968) 888-89; E. Gerstenberger, 'ana, TDOT 11.242, 244-45;
and further below, chapter 13 n. 136. Betz demurs on the issue (Sermon on the Mount 125-26),
but the Jewish provenance of the beatitude is not in question.
160. No Jew hearing the preceding parable (Matt. 21.33-42 pars.) would fail to identify
the vineyard with Israel (Isa. 5.1-7; see further below, chapter 16 n. 68), and the Matthean addition
identifies the vineyard with the kingdom of God. So (land of) Israel = vineyard = kingdom
of God. Cf. Freyne, Galilee, Jesus and the Gospels 239-47.
413