I'm glad Culpepper doesn't like the word "Happy" as a translation of 'makarios'. "The translation 'happy' expresses one's response to being blessed, but misses the objective fact of being blessed." To be on the receiving end of God's promises is to be in the best place possible, which is within the realm and orbit of the Kingdom of God. That's a fact of Kingdom existence which is established by the fact of God's say so! How I feel about that promissory fact is significant, but what makes me feel that way, God's surprising promises, is what makes these sayings Beatitudes. My subjective happiness isn't the point; God's objective promises are precisely the point. To inhabit the space promised by the beatitudes is to be in a good place.
That point established, Culpepper gets to work arguing for a biblical theology of blessing. God is good, that is a given from the start. Quoting Tertullian with approval,
"Now this very fact, that he begins with Beatitudes, is characteristic of the Creator who used no other voice than that of blessing either in the first fiat or in the final dedication of the universe..." (86)
Abraham's call was so that all the peoples of earth would be blessed; Numbers 6.24 "The Lord bless you and keep you", Culpepper points out, is the oldest extant piece of scripture, found in an amulet from around late 7th C BCE. Blessing is what God is about, and these beatitudinal blessings are embedded in covenant promises made by a faithful God. So, the Beatitudes may well make us happy, and people may even call us happy, but the cause of that happiness is plunged deeply into the very foundations of God's goodness. To be blessed is to be rooted and grounded in the love of a faithful God.
Each Beatitude contains "a present reality and a promise." Blessed are...because they shall..." This isn't a series of conditional promises, but a string of connected realities attached to surprising outcomes which are already promised and underwritten by the faithful goodness of God. These are the blessings that prevail in the Kingdom of God. The poor and the meek, those who mourn or are merciful, the pure in heart and the hungry and thirsty for food and justice - they each have God's blessing now and will be rewarded in the future.
The Beatitudes are about a reversal of values; not the complacently self-confident but the pure in spirit have the keys of the Kingdom of God; not the arrogant and powerful but the meek will inherit the land of God's promise; not the double minded and deviously successful, but the pure in heart shall see God. For as Kierkegaard has it, "Purity of heart is to will one thing", to seek first the Kingdom. They are the ones who shall see God, and want to.
The term "Kingdom of God", we are told, appears nowhere else in the NT but 31 times in Matthew. Culpepper supports the suggestion that the Beatitudes, and the use of the term the "kingdom of heaven", are challenges to the Imperial realities of Roman Empire and occupation.
"Proclaiming the kingdom of heaven was also a means of subverting Roman oppression, because the establishment of God's kingdom implied the end of all earthly kingdoms. In God's kingdom, the great ones are not tyrants, (Matt 20.25-27) but the poor in spirit."
There follows a careful exegesis of each saying in which Culpepper explores the lexical and grammatical evidence, draws in further biblical connections from both Testaments and beyond, and probes the theological consequences of his readings. Each saying is placed in its setting within the Sermon on the Mount and also the rest of Matthew's gospel, and compared with a wide range of biblical material. The links of words and ideas in the Beatitudes, with what Matthew is saying and doing in other parts of his gospel are especially rich in intra-textual insight, and show just how thoroughly Culpepper has tilled the soil of the Matthean field.
For example, the saying about peacemakers is a stone hewn largely from Isaiah, the burden of the saying is woven through numerous NT texts, the rabbis are also included amongst the peace witnesses, then its connections with reconciliation in Matthew and a reminder of how this saying would sound in the ears of the Zealots. It's a rich and lucid page and a half of comment that enables the reader to grasp the full consequences of peace-making - "Becoming children of God promises both intimacy with God and a likeness to God." (5.48)
There is significant guidance for the preacher, stimulus for those seeking the spiritual meaning of Jesus words for their own life in the Kingdom of God, and a gathering of useful information written up by an author who cares about this stuff. I'm not sure there is more we can ask of a commentary.
This treatment of the Beatitudes compares favourably with such shelf companions as Davies and Allison, Hagner, Luz, and France. Where I think it scores highly is that Culpepper uses the first three as constant conversation partners.
However, R T France appears nowhere in the index or bibliography - that surprises me because France was an acknowledged Synoptic specialist with a widely respected commentary on the Greek text of Mark, and a substantial volume on Matthew in the NICNT series. My guess is that Culpepper has done what an increasing number of commentary writers have done - selected several of the most important peers in the field, and engaged them thoroughly. And that's OK. But I do wonder at such a significant omission.
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