193 THE LAST BEATITUDE. JOY SUFFERING IN was written and their Jewish brethren 40. Rather than the lexical context, it is the fact of future persecution in the name of Jesus and for the sake of faith in Him that gives the last blessing its Sitz im Leben. Matthew sometimes has references to the title “Son of Man ”, showing a tendency to identify Jesus himself in this way. The Lucan formulation may well be original 41, especially if Jesus used this title to apply to himself during his earthy mission. Hatred, offence and slander suffered by the disciples could yet fit within Jesus’ period. II. The beatitude’s content: a persecution form 1. A Pattern of Persecution in Early Christianity Today it does not seem easy to imagine the followers of Christ becoming joyful when suffering. The idea was yet not unusual in the early church. One of the first scholars to speak explicitly about it was Edward G. Selwyn 42 who in his groundbreaking commentary on First Peter traced back the catechetical basis that would have served for the redaction of the letter. According to him, there would have been in the primitive church a persecution form or a persecution fragment, witnessed to from the very beginning in NT writings 43. Indeed, the trails of such a form stretch from 1 Thess to 1 Pet, and its basic structure is found in the ninth beatitude, whose main expressions are employed to transmit the same teaching 44. of illtreated prophets. Cf. J. ALONSO DIAZ, “Felices los perseguidos por la justicia ”, BibFe 9 (1983) 200-207. “ Jewish Leaders”: DAVIES – ALLISON, Matthew, I, 461; Cf. HAGNER, 40 Matthew, I, 95 Cf. S. SCHULZ, Q – Die Spruchquelle der Evangelisten (Zürich 1972) 41 453. E.G. SELWYN, The first Epistle of St. Peter. The Greek text with 42 Introduction, Notes and Essays (London 1947). The author points out a previous study about catechesis in the early church: Ph. CARRINGTON, The Primitive Christian Catechism (Cambridge 1940), going back to A. SEEBERG, Der Katechismus der Urchristenheit (Leipzig 1903). Cf. SELWYN, First Peter, 439-458. 43 The texts mentioned by SELWYN are : Acts 5,41; 14,22; Rom 5,3-5; 2 Cor 44 4,17-18 ; 6,10; 8,2; Phil 1,29; 1 Thess 1,6; 2 Thess 1,4-6; Heb 10,32-6; Jas 1,2.12; 1 Pet 1,6; 4,13-14.