The Beatitudes according to Matthew and Luke

Over the past three years, my research has focused on the beatitudes and woes in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 6:20-26). As a result, I am way more familiar with Luke’s beatitudes than the more famous series in Matthew 5. To try and rectify this, I am going to do a series of posts comparing these two series of beatitudes (and, in Luke’s case, woes).
Let’s begin with a translation of the two passages.

Matthew 5:1-12

1 And seeing the crowd, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 And opening his mouth, he began to teach them, saying,
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted on account of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute and say all kinds of evil against you lying on my account.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven; for in this way they persecuted the prophets before you.

Luke 6:20-26

20 And he lifted up his eyes to his disciples, saying,
“Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are those who hunger now, for you will be filled.
Blessed are those who weep now, for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when the people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.
23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven; for according to these things their ancestors did to the prophets.
24 But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort.
25 Woe to you, those who are satisfied now, for you will be hungry.
Woe those who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe when all the people speak well of you; for according to these things their ancestors did to the false prophets.

(Note: I have previously done an expanded translation of Luke 6:20-26 here that tries to capture what Luke was telling his audience.)

So, right away by reading these two passages side by side, the similarities and differences should be fairly obvious. Matthew has nine beatitudes while Luke has four. Luke has a parallel series of woes which don’t appear in Matthew. Luke’s beatitudes seem to address people’s physical realities (poverty, hunger, sadness, etc.) while Matthew’s sound like they are more about a person’s attitude (meekness, merciful, pure in heart, etc.). In both, Jesus is teaching his disciples.

Others are less obvious. For example, Matthew has Jesus up a mountain, while in Luke, he has just come down from one (Luke 6:17). Matthew’s beatitudes use mainly third person pronouns (they), while Luke uses second person pronouns (you).

That there are differences between Matthew and Luke’s accounts of the beatitudes doesn’t mean that they made them up or that one has altered the accurate account of the other. The different settings of the Sermons on the Mount and Plain and the different range of content covered after the beatitudes points to the likelihood that Jesus taught the same material on several different occasions. It is also likely that he altered his message to suit his audience. Anyone who has heard a preacher preach the same sermon to two different congregations (or even twice on the same Sunday) will have experienced this phenomenon. This means that both accounts of Jesus teaching a crowd of disciples can be seen as distinct events.

At the same time, the two series of beatitudes are influenced by the intentions of the Gospel writers themselves. Both Matthew and Luke have chosen to present the material of the Sermons on the Mount and Plain in the distinct ways they have because it suits the message they are trying to get across to their audience. All writers do this to varying degrees and the Gospel writers are no exceptions.

In the next few posts, I am going to discuss the impact of some of the similarities and differences on the meaning of these two series of beatitudes. If there is anything you would like to see covered, please mention it in the comments.