Bernardo Estrada, «The Last Beatitude. Joy in Suffering.», Vol. 91 (2010) 187-209
The motive of joy in suffering for Jesus' sake, makes the last beatitude in Matt 5,11-12 and Luke 6,22-23 different from the former blessings. The persecution form present in this beatitude seems to be an authentic saying of Jesus, subsequently widespread in NT literature. Such a motive, in fact, does not appear in Judaism and in intertestamental or in apocryphal literature. The First Letter of Peter is instead a special witness of 'joy in suffering'.
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THE LAST BEATITUDE. JOY SUFFERING
IN
beatitudes could be pre-Lucan 13. The first three of them are focused
on the condition of the makarioi : poor, hungry and suffering
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people describe better than Matthew’s descriptions do the
proclamation subject of Isaiah 61,1 and thus express more clearly
the social concern of Jesus’ message. There are good reasons to
believe that the fourth beatitude originally formed part of the same
block, though this is sometimes contested 14. In Luke’s beatitudes
there is no clear-cut climax of announcement-demand-promise, as
in Matthew. However, proclaiming the addressees’ situation as the
focus of God’s attention and benevolence, the evangelist invites
them to discipleship with its accompanying blessings. He then calls
them in the fourth beatitude to be joyful in this world in spite of
suffering, while thinking of the reward in heaven.
The language of the last beatitude in Matthew and Luke is as
striking as its structure. The sequence is practically the same in both
texts and their topic is “joy in sufferingâ€. Both gospels talk about
the mistreatment the disciples will undergo. In Matthew 5,11 the
reviling comes first, then the persecution and the slander. The Lucan
description seems more faithful to its source, with an order and
increase in intensity in the offenses listed: hatred, expulsion,
reviling, rejecting the name. The first verb in Lk 6,22, miseın, to
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hate, has a parallel in the eschatological discourse 15. The concept
evokes the image of the pious Jew who, surrounded by enemies,
puts his confidence in God 16.
The second verb, afor¥zein, has no parallel in Matthew and
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means to cast out of a community 17, as occurs in QL 18. The formal
exclusion from the synagogue would have come later, with a
definitive break between Judaism and Christianity 19. The equivalent
Cf. H. SCHÃœRMANN, Lukasevangelium (HTKNT ; Freiburg in Br. 1969) I,
13
339-341.
Cf. I. HOWARD MARSHALL, The Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids, MI 1978)
14
247, says that it is “without adequate reasonâ€.
Cf. Mark 13,13; Matt 24,9; Luke 21,17, with the passive participle
15
misoymenoi.
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Cf. DUPONT, Béatitudes I, 287.
16
Cf. SCHÃœRMANN, Lukasevangelium I, 333.
17
Cf. 1QS 6,25; 7,1; 8,24; CD 9,23; Ezra 10,8.
18
Cf. HOWARD MARSHALL, Luke, 252; NOLLAND, Luke, I, 285.
19