I read the Beatitudes this morning as part of my daily Bible reading schedule. This year, I’m using the NLT to read from.
A number of years ago, I was greatly influenced by Dallas Willard’s take on the Beatitudes of Matthew 5. In short, he (and others) argue that the characteristics in these verses do not bring you God’s blessing. Instead, because you are in those situations, you are blessed as a result of God’s Kingdom coming near through Jesus.
Instead of “You are blessed because you’ve been mourning,” it should read, “In your state of mourning, you are blessed because of God’s Kingdom.” This really Willard goes on to explain how we’ve misunderstood most of these characteristics because of this approach.
But here’s my struggle. That’s not the way that most Bible translations handle it. My point this morning is that we don’t realize just how much intrepretation goes into translation.
Any thoughts?
I used NLT last year when I read thru the Bible. I liked it — fresh words, etc.
A huge amount of our current interpretation is related to translation. It has certainly affected the women in ministry issue a lot.
That aside, I’m not sure if I agree with Willard or not because I’m not sure I understand. Using your example…”blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted” (NIV) I would change the sentence a bit and say “those who mourn are blessed because “for” they will be comforted.” I think this interpretation works when you apply it to all the beatitudes. Is that agreeing with Willard?
Sandy