The Fallible Study Bible

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Luke6:20–23

The Beatitudes

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Luke 6:20–23 — The Beatitudes. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

20

Looking up at His disciples, Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai eparas autou tous ophthalmous eis autou tous mathētas autos elegen Makarioi hoi ptōchoi Hoti hymetera estin hē basileia tou Theou

Word by word21 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐπάραςeparasLooking upG1869
√ ἐπαίρω — to raise up (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
epairō: to raise up, lift up Aorist participle, a completed act preceding the speaking: the eyes are raised first, then the mouth opens. Luke uses the same verb at the last scene of his Gospel, where the Lord lifts up his hands and blesses them as he is carried into heaven (Luke 24:50), so in this Evangelist the raised limb and the spoken blessing belong together. Benson reads the setting as a crowd at last quieted, with the Twelve just chosen standing in front of him.
αὐτοῦautou. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtous. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ὀφθαλμοὺςophthalmous. . .G3788
√ ὀφθαλμός — the eye (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
εἰςeisatG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
μαθητὰςmathētasdisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounAccusative Masculine Plural
mathētēs: a learner, disciple Accusative plural, the named target of the gaze. Maclaren makes this the decisive control on the whole passage: the beatitudes are addressed to learners who are poor, not to poverty as such.
αὐτὸςautos[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἔλεγενelegensaidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epō: to speak, say Imperfect, durative. Luke does not close the utterance off; he opens it.
ΜακάριοιMakarioiBlessed [are]G3107
√ μακάριος — supremely blestAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
makarios: supremely blest Not a wish and not a reward, but a verdict pronounced over people already in the condition named. Cambridge identifies the form as Hebrew, the ashri of Psalm 1:1, which begins the Psalter exactly as this word begins the Sermon: a declaration about who is actually well off, made against appearances.
οἱhoi[you] who areG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleVocative Masculine Plural
Article in the vocative, binding the adjective into direct address.
πτωχοίptōchoipoorG4434
√ πτωχός — akin to G4422 (πτοέω) and the alternate of G4098 (πίπτω))AdjectiveVocative Masculine Plural
ptōchos: poor, destitute Strong's derives it from the root of crouching and cowering (G4422 and the alternate of G4098, to fall). This is not modest means but the beggar's estate. Luke keeps it unqualified, and the commentators divide honestly: Gill and Maclaren read the spiritual poverty of Matthew 5:3 into it, while Ellicott, Cambridge and Poole hold that Luke deliberately addresses the literally poor who had come to seek him.
ὍτιHotiforG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ὑμετέραhymeterayoursG5212
√ ὑμέτερος — yours, iPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative Feminine 2nd Person Plural
ἐστὶνestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
eimi: I exist, I am Present indicative. The kingdom is not promised for later in this first beatitude; it is asserted as present possession, while the three verbs that follow in v. 21 are future.
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
βασιλείαbasileiakingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
basileia: royalty, kingly rule Strong's first sense is not territory but royalty, the exercise of reign. What is handed to the destitute is not an estate but a king's rule, which is why the present tense can stand: the reign is already theirs because the King is already in front of them.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
theos: God Luke writes “kingdom of God” where Matthew writes “kingdom of the heavens.” Ellicott and Cambridge both note the substitution and tie it to Luke's Gentile readers, for whom the Jewish reverential circumlocution would carry less.
21

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Makarioi hoi peinōntes nyn Hoti chortasthēsesthe Makarioi hoi klaiontes nyn Hoti gelasete

Word by word12 · parsed
ΜακάριοιMakarioiBlessed [are]G3107
√ μακάριος — supremely blestAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
makarios: supremely blest Repeated, and in Luke repeated only four times against Matthew's nine. Poole counts the difference and refuses to smooth it.
οἱhoi[you] whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleVocative Masculine Plural
πεινῶντεςpeinōnteshungerG3983
√ πεινάω — "pine")VerbPresent Participle ActiveVocative Masculine Plural
peinaō: to hunger, to pine Present active participle. The gloss Strong's preserves is “pine,” to waste from want. Luke has recorded this reversal once already in the Magnificat, where the hungry are filled with good things and the rich sent empty away, and Cambridge sends the reader there and to Psalm 107:9.
νῦνnynnowG3568
√ νῦν — "now" (as adverb of date, a transition or emphasis)Adverb
nyn: now The temporal pivot of the whole beatitude, and the word the woes of v. 25 will turn back on the full and the laughing.
ὍτιHotiforG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
χορτασθήσεσθεchortasthēsestheyou will be filledG5526
√ χορτάζω — to fodder, iVerbFuture Indicative Passive2nd Person Plural
chortazō: to fodder, to fill with food Future passive. The verb belongs to feeding animals to satiety and is used of the loaves in the wilderness feedings. Set against peinaō, it promises not relief but repletion, and the unnamed agent of the passive is God.
ΜακάριοιMakarioiBlessed [are]G3107
√ μακάριος — supremely blestAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
οἱhoi[you] whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleVocative Masculine Plural
κλαίοντεςklaiontesweepG2799
√ κλαίω — to sob, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveVocative Masculine Plural
klaiō: to sob, to wail aloud Present active participle. Not silent grief: Strong's sense is audible sobbing. The Pulpit Commentary, quoting Augustine, distinguishes this from the world's sorrow over the world's losses.
νῦνnynnowG3568
√ νῦν — "now" (as adverb of date, a transition or emphasis)Adverb
ὍτιHotiforG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
hoti: that, because Each beatitude's ground clause. The blessing is never bare; it always carries its reason.
γελάσετεgelaseteyou will laughG1070
√ γελάω — to laugh (as a sign of joy or satisfaction)VerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
gelaō: to laugh A rare verb in the New Testament: the Verifier finds it in only two verses, this one and Luke 6:25, where the same laughter is taken away from those who have it now. Ellicott observes that Greek laughter had been coarsened by comedy, and suspects the Aramaic word behind it carried the graver weight of the laughter in the name of Isaac at Genesis 21:6.
22

Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Makarioi este hotan hoi anthrōpoi misēsōsin hymas kai hotan aphorisōsin kai oneidisōsin hymas kai ekbalōsin hymōn to onoma hōs ponēron heneka tou Huiou tou anthrōpou

Word by word25 · parsed
ΜακάριοίMakarioiBlessedG3107
√ μακάριος — supremely blestAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἐστεesteare youG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
eimi: I am Present indicative, second person plural. Where v. 20 and v. 21 used the bare adjective, here the copula is written out and made explicit: you are blessed, in the middle of the hating.
ὅτανhotanwhenG3752
√ ὅταν — whenever (implying hypothesis or more or less uncertainty)Conjunction
hotan: whenever Strong's notes the implication of hypothesis or uncertainty. Not if it happens, but as often as it does.
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἄνθρωποιanthrōpoipeopleG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Plural
μισήσωσινmisēsōsinhateG3404
√ μισέω — to detest (especially to persecute)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
miseō: to detest, to persecute Aorist subjunctive. Cambridge is careful here in a way worth keeping: hatred is not by itself a beatitude, since a man may justly earn the contempt of his neighbours. Only the clause at the end of the verse makes hatred blessed.
ὑμᾶςhymasyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὅτανhotanwhenG3752
√ ὅταν — whenever (implying hypothesis or more or less uncertainty)Conjunction
ἀφορίσωσινaphorisōsinthey exclude [you]G873
√ ἀφορίζω — to set off by boundary, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
aphorizō: to set off by boundary Aorist subjunctive. Cambridge reads the four verbs of this verse as four ascending steps of persecution: general hatred, the lesser synagogue exclusion, violent slander, and at last the cherem, permanent expulsion. Gill records the rabbinic detail that the excluded man might not be approached nearer than four cubits, for thirty days and then thirty more.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὀνειδίσωσινoneidisōsininsultG3679
√ ὀνειδίζω — to defame, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
oneidizō: to defame, to reproach A relatively uncommon verb: the Verifier finds it in nine verses, among them Matthew 5:11 and 1 Peter 4:14, where the same reproach for the Name is called blessed, and Mark 15:32, where it is what the bystanders do to the crucified Christ.
ὑμᾶςhymasyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐκβάλωσινekbalōsinrejectG1544
√ ἐκβάλλω — to eject (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
ekballō: to eject, cast out Aorist subjunctive. What is ejected is the name, the public identity, thrown out as refuse.
ὑμῶνhymōnyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ὄνομαonomanameG3686
√ ὄνομα — a "name" (literally or figuratively) (authority, character)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
onoma: a name, authority, character Strong's includes authority and character in the word. To cast out the name is to strike at what the person is reckoned to be, not merely at what he is called. Cambridge documents the outcome in the pagan sources: the Christian name itself became the charge.
ὡςhōsasG5613
√ ὡς — which how, iAdverb
πονηρὸνponēronevilG4190
√ πονηρός — hurtful, iAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
ponēros: hurtful, evil Accusative neuter, agreeing with onoma. The name is not merely disliked; it is filed under the category of active harm.
ἕνεκαhenekabecause ofG1752
√ ἕνεκα — on account ofPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΥἱοῦHuiouSonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounGenitive Masculine Singular
huios: a son With v. 24 this forms the title Son of Man, the self-designation Jesus uses across all four Gospels. Cambridge cites Westcott, who reads it as presenting his work in relation to humanity itself rather than primarily to God or to Israel, and who doubts that it was distinctively a Messianic title drawn from Daniel 7:13. The doubt is worth recording as a minority position rather than a settled result.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἀνθρώπουanthrōpouof ManG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounGenitive Masculine Singular
anthrōpos: man, human being The same noun stands at index 4 as the subject of the hating: it is men who hate, and it is on account of the Son of Man that they do it. The repetition is in the Greek and is lost in English, where “people” and “Man” look unrelated.
23

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For their fathers treated the prophets in the same way.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

charēte en ekeinē tē hēmera kai skirtēsate gar idou polys hymōn ho misthos en tō ouranō gar auta hoi pateres epoioun tois prophētais kata ta autōn

Word by word26 · parsed
χάρητεcharēteRejoiceG5463
√ χαίρω — to be "cheer"ful, iVerbAorist Imperative Passive2nd Person Plural
chairō: to be cheerful, rejoice Aorist imperative passive, second person plural. The command is addressed to people being hated, excluded, slandered and expelled, and it is not a command to endure but to celebrate.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἐκείνῃekeinēthatG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounDative Feminine Singular
ekeinos: that one, that thing Dative with hēmera: in that day, the day of the exclusion itself, not some later day of vindication.
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ἡμέρᾳhēmeradayG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounDative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
σκιρτήσατεskirtēsateleap for joyG4640
√ σκιρτάω — to jump, iVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
skirtaō: to jump, to leap A rare verb: the Verifier finds it in only three verses, and all three are in Luke. The other two are the leap of John in Elizabeth's womb at the approach of Mary. Luke asks the persecuted disciple to do, in the day of his expulsion, what the unborn prophet did at the nearness of Christ.
γὰρgarbecauseG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ἰδοὺidou. . .G2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: behold An imperative used as an interjection; it points.
πολὺςpolysgreat [is]G4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
polys: much, great Nominative, agreeing with misthos, and standing before it for emphasis: great is the reward.
ὑμῶνhymōnyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
μισθὸςmisthosrewardG3408
√ μισθός — pay for service (literally or figuratively), good or badNounNominative Masculine Singular
misthos: pay for service Strong's is careful that the word means wages, and can be wages good or bad. Luke has just described a discourse in which the world pays one wage and heaven another; the persecuted are told which payroll they are on. The promise of a great reward belonging to God himself is the oldest form of this consolation in the canon, spoken to Abram at Genesis 15:1.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
οὐρανῷouranōheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounDative Masculine Singular
ouranos: the sky, heaven Where the reward is kept, and where Matthew locates the kingdom that Luke calls God's.
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
αὐτὰautatheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
πατέρεςpateresfathersG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounNominative Masculine Plural
ἐποίουνepoiountreatedG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
poieō: to make or do Imperfect indicative, “they kept doing,” a habit across generations rather than one outrage. Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary list the roll: Elijah's slaughtered colleagues, Hanani imprisoned by Asa, Micaiah imprisoned, Zechariah stoned by Joash, Urijah slain by Jehoiakim, Jeremiah in the stocks, Amos expelled.
τοῖςtoistheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
προφήταιςprophētaisprophetsG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounDative Masculine Plural
prophētēs: a foreteller, prophet Dative plural, the ones treated so. The logic of the sentence is a syllogism of comfort: the fathers did this to the prophets, they are doing it to you, therefore you stand where the prophets stood.
κατὰkatavvvG2596
√ κατά — (prepositionally) down (in place or time), in varied relations (according to the case (genitive, dative or accusative) with which it is joined)Preposition
τὰtavvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
αὐτῶνautōnin the same wayG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
autos: self, same Genitive masculine plural by the parse, so it construes with the fathers, though the display line carries the gloss of the adverbial phrase. Either way the pronoun makes the persecutors the sons of the persecutors: it is their fathers, a family trade.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The lifted eyes and the vocative — Luke 6:20

⚙ Everything in this unit depends on a grammatical fact the English cannot show. οἱ πτωχοί is parsed vocative: Jesus is not saying “blessed are the poor” about anybody, he is saying “blessed, you poor” to somebody, and the participle ἐπάρας has already told us at whom he was looking when he said it. Benson sets the scene as a crowd finally quieted with the newly chosen Twelve in front of him, and Maclaren builds his whole reading on the address: “‘Ye poor’ at once declares that our Lord is not thinking of the whole class of literally needy.” That is a real argument, but it is a contested one, and the brief carries the other side. Ellicott notes the absence of Matthew's qualifier and refuses to treat it as an omission, concluding instead that the Lord varied his own teaching. Cambridge goes further and makes Luke's interest positive: this Evangelist “seems to have been impressed with the blessings of a faithful and humble poverty in itself,” and loves to record the Gospel to the poor. JFB, splitting the difference, hears in Luke's bare “poor” the very phrase James would later use, the poor of this world who are rich in faith. The machine layer adds only this: Luke's own text at 4:18 has already put Isaiah's good news to the poor in Jesus' mouth in this Gospel, so Luke's unqualified ptōchoi is not carelessness. It is consistency. Cambridge also supplies the form: makarioi is the Hebrew ashri of Psalm 1:1, the word that opens the Psalter, which means the Sermon opens where Israel's songbook opens.

ii. Now, and the passive that fills — Luke 6:21

⚙ The second verse is built on one small adverb doubled: νῦν, now. Hungering now against a future χορτασθήσεσθε, weeping now against a future γελάσετε. The first verb is future passive, and Strong's root sense for chortazō is to fodder, to feed to the full; the agent is unnamed because it can only be one. The second is future active and, as Ellicott points out, laughter is used as the sign of spiritual joy nowhere else in the New Testament except here and in the answering woe at Luke 6:25. JFB puts the reader's finger on the difference from Matthew: “How charming is the liveliness of this word, to express what in Matthew is called being ‘comforted!’” Cambridge sends us to Luke 1:53 and Psalm 107:9, which is the right instinct and is the ground of the second thread below. Barnes, for his part, simply refers the whole unit back to Matthew and declares there is no contradiction, which is an answer but not an exegesis. ⚙ Our own reading: the tense pattern is the argument. The kingdom in v. 20 is present indicative, estin, already yours; the filling and the laughing are future. The poor are not told to wait for the kingdom, only for the dinner.

iii. Four verbs of exclusion, and the leap — Luke 6:22-6:23

⚙ The fourth beatitude is a ladder, and Cambridge names its rungs: general hatred, the lesser synagogue exclusion, violent slander, and the cherem, permanent expulsion from synagogue and temple. The Greek verbs climb with it. ἀφορίσωσιν draws a boundary and puts you outside it; Cambridge observes that the noun from this verb became the word for excommunication. ἐκβάλωσιν is the verb of ejection, and its object is your name. Gill supplies the concrete measure from the rabbinic sources, the four cubits and the thirty days; Geneva and Ellicott both point to John 16:2. Then Cambridge sets the necessary guard: “The hatred of men is not in itself a beatitude,” since a man may justly incur universal execration. What makes it blessed is the last clause, and JFB states its force exactly: “Christ thus binds up the cause of righteousness in the world with the reception of Himself.” Gill says the same from the other end: the reproach falls “not for any immorality committed by them,” but for confessing who Jesus is. ⚙ Then comes the command that is harder than the persecution: χάρητε and σκιρτήσατε, be gladdened and leap, in that day, the day of the expulsion itself. Geneva's gloss is the least pious and the most useful: leap as cattle do when spurred on by food. And Ellicott hands us the key that Luke himself cut: skirtaō is Luke's own word, used elsewhere only of the unborn John leaping at the approach of Mary. The reason given is historical, not mystical. Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary between them produce the roll of the murdered prophets, and the Pulpit Commentary adds the sequel, that Christians in the next centuries took this charge so literally that their own teachers had to restrain them from courting martyrdom.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Offered to be tested, and fallible. The oldest argument about this unit is whether Luke means the actually poor or the poor in spirit, and the argument is usually conducted as though Luke had to mean one of them. Read Luke on his own terms and the alternative dissolves in the grammar. The beatitudes are vocative: they are not a definition of a class but a verdict spoken over particular people standing in front of a particular speaker, people who were both destitute and were his disciples. Jesus does not say that poverty is a virtue, nor that it is nothing. He says that these poor, who have come to him, are the ones the kingdom belongs to, and he says it in the present tense while everything else in the passage waits. The order matters too. Three beatitudes describe a condition, and the fourth describes what will be done to you for keeping company with the speaker; and only the fourth gets a command attached. You are not told to seek poverty, hunger or tears. You are told to leap when you are thrown out. The unit therefore reads less like an ethic than like an enlistment: the conditions are where he found you, the exclusion is what following him will cost, and the reward is kept somewhere the people doing the excluding cannot reach. If that is right, then the hardest word in the passage is not ptōchoi but nyn. Everything Jesus promises is later. Everything he asks is now.

Not a verse, a reading offered for testing: he does not bless poverty, he blesses the poor who came to him, and the only thing he commands is the leap.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

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AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Good news to the poor: the Isaiah text Jesus had already read aloud structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The strongest link in this unit is not signalled by any citation formula. Isaiah 61:1-3 announces good news to the poor, comfort for all who mourn, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Luke's four beatitudes address exactly those people in exactly that order: the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and those whose reward is kept elsewhere. The connection is secured by Luke himself rather than by this pericope: two chapters earlier, at Luke 4:18-19, Luke records Jesus reading Isaiah 61 in the Nazareth synagogue and saying the scripture was fulfilled in their hearing. Cambridge, without naming Isaiah 61, records that Luke “loves to record those parts of our Lord's teaching which were especially ‘the Gospel to the poor’,” which is the same observation arrived at from the other direction.

Isaiah 61:1-3 · Luke 4:18-19

basis: Cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed and no verbal tier is possible: Luke's Greek and Isaiah's Hebrew cannot be matched by number. There is also no citation formula in Luke 6:20-23. The force of the link comes from Luke 4:18-19, where this Gospel has already placed Isaiah 61:1-2 in Jesus' mouth and had him declare it fulfilled, so the beatitudes are read as the announcement of that same programme to the same class of hearers. Recorded as structural and thematic, not as a quotation.

Ashri: the blessing form comes from the Psalter structural / thematic: confirmed

✦ Cambridge states it flatly on v. 20: “The makarioi is a Hebrew expression ( ashri ), Psalm 1:1.” ⚙ The form is the Psalter's own opening move and recurs through it: the blessedness of the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, of the one whose transgression is forgiven, of the one who considers the poor, of the man who fears the LORD. Jesus is not inventing a genre; he is using Israel's, and using it to reverse the expected contents. Where Psalm 112:1 pronounces the God-fearer blessed and follows with wealth and riches in his house, Luke's list pronounces the destitute blessed and follows with a kingdom.

Psalm 1:1 · Psalm 32:1-2 · Psalm 41:1 · Psalm 112:1

basis: Cross-Testament Greek to Hebrew, so shared Strong's numbers are unavailable and a verbal tier is excluded on principle. The recorded basis is the form itself, the ashri beatitude formula, identified by Cambridge on this verse with Psalm 1:1 named. The further Psalms are given as the standing witnesses to the same form, not as quotations.

He upholds the oppressed and gives food to the hungry structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The content of the first two beatitudes is the standing confession of the Psalter about what the LORD does: the meek inherit the land, he delivers the needy when he cries, he upholds the oppressed and gives food to the hungry, he satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with good. Hannah's song had already sung the reversal, the full hiring themselves out for bread and the hungry ceasing to hunger, and Isaiah promises that they shall not hunger or thirst and calls the penniless to come and eat. ✦ Cambridge points to Psalm 107:9 on v. 21, and to Luke 1:53, where Luke's own Magnificat has already sung Hannah's reversal.

Psalm 37:11 · Psalm 72:12-13 · Psalm 146:5-9 · Psalm 107:9 · 1 Samuel 2:5 · Isaiah 49:10 · Isaiah 55:1-2

basis: Cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and a verbal tier is not available: the Greek G3983 peinaō and G5526 chortazō cannot be matched by number to any Hebrew root. The recorded basis is a shared motif attested in the brief: Cambridge cites Psalm 107:9 directly on Luke 6:21, and the remaining references are the canonical witnesses to the same divine action. No quotation is claimed.

Those who sow in tears: weeping now, laughing then typological

⚙ The third beatitude reverses weeping into laughter, and the canon has one text where those two stand in exactly that relation: the return from captivity, where the mouth is filled with laughter and those who sow in tears reap with songs of joy. Isaiah makes the same promise in the register of the last things, the days of mourning ended and the servants singing for gladness of heart while others cry for sorrow. ⚙ Read figurally, Luke's weeping disciples stand where the exiles stood: the laughter is not a change of mood but a homecoming. This is a figural reading and is offered as such, though it is not a novel one; the Psalm has been read as the pattern of the church's sorrow and joy since antiquity.

Psalm 126:1-6 · Isaiah 60:20 · Isaiah 65:13-14

basis: A figural reading, marked as such: the exile and return are taken as the pattern of which the disciples' weeping and promised laughter are the fulfilment. Cross-Testament, so shared Strong's lexemes are not available and a verbal tier is excluded. Widely held rather than novel, but no commentator in this brief states it in these terms, so it is tiered typological rather than confirmed structural.

So their fathers did to the prophets structural / thematic: confirmed

✦ Cambridge produces the roll on v. 23: “Elijah and his contemporaries, 1 Kings 19:10. Hanani imprisoned by Asa, 2 Chronicles 16:10. Micaiah imprisoned, 1 Kings 22:27. Zechariah stoned by Joash, 2 Chronicles 24:20-21. Urijah slain by Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 26:23.” The Pulpit Commentary independently lists Elijah, Urijah, Jeremiah and Amos. ⚙ Behind all of them stands Nehemiah 9:26, where the confession of the returned exiles names the pattern outright, that they cast the law behind their backs and killed the prophets who testified against them, and 2 Chronicles 36:16, where the mocking of God's messengers is given as the reason the exile came. Jesus' ἐποίουν is imperfect, a habit rather than an incident, and that is precisely how the Chronicler and Nehemiah describe it.

1 Kings 19:10 · 1 Kings 19:14 · 2 Chronicles 36:16 · Jeremiah 26:20-23 · Nehemiah 9:26

basis: Cross-Testament Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's number can be computed and a verbal tier is excluded. The basis is the explicit historical reference in the Gospel text itself, to what the fathers did to the prophets, matched to the named canonical instances. Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary in this brief supply most of these references directly; Nehemiah 9:26 and 2 Chronicles 36:16 are added as the canon's own summary statements of the same pattern.

Great is your reward: the word spoken to Abram typological

⚙ πολὺς ὁ μισθὸς ὑμῶν, great is your reward, is the first consolation God ever offers a man under threat in the canon: fear not, Abram, I am your shield, your very great reward. The parallel is in the shape of the promise, a great reward given to someone who has just been told not to be afraid, and in its location, which is God himself rather than any estate. ⚙ We do not claim a quotation here. The link is figural and is offered as a reading.

Genesis 15:1

basis: Figural and offered as such. Cross-Testament, so the Greek G3408 misthos cannot be matched by Strong's number to the Hebrew of Genesis 15:1, and a verbal tier is therefore excluded on principle. No commentator in this brief makes the connection and no Septuagint evidence is supplied by the brief, so the tier is deliberately held down to typological rather than claimed as structural or verbal.

The woes that take the laughter back verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ Luke alone follows the four blessings with four woes, and the fourth beatitude's promise of laughter is answered three verses later by its removal: woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Poole notices the structure and refuses to harmonize it away, observing that Matthew records nine blessednesses and Luke four, and that Luke adds three verses of woes “of which Matthew saith nothing.” The verbal link is exact and rare.

Luke 6:25

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1070 gelaō (in 2 vv), G2799 klaiō (in 34 vv), G3983 peinaō (in 23 vv). G1070 gelaō is rare in the extreme, occurring in only two verses in the whole New Testament, and both of them are in this discourse, which makes the blessing and the woe a single deliberate pairing rather than a coincidence of vocabulary. Both references are in the same book, so no cross-Testament restriction applies.

Leaping: the verb of the unborn prophet verbal / quotation: confirmed

✦ Ellicott on v. 23: “The word is peculiar to St. Luke in the New Testament, and occurs elsewhere only in Luke 1:41; Luke 1:44.” ⚙ In those two verses the leaping is done by the unborn John at the sound of Mary's greeting, and Elizabeth interprets it as joy. Luke therefore asks the excommunicated disciple to perform, in the hour of his expulsion, the one bodily act this Gospel has already assigned to a prophet recognizing the nearness of Christ. Geneva's gloss keeps the register earthy: leap as cattle do when spurred on by food.

Luke 1:41 · Luke 1:44

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4640 skirtaō (in 3 vv), with G2400 idou (in 226 vv) also shared with Luke 1:44. G4640 is rare, occurring in only three verses in the New Testament, and all three are in Luke. Ellicott states the same fact independently on this verse. All references are within one book, so no cross-Testament restriction applies.

Reproached for the Name verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The verb for insulting in v. 22 carries through the New Testament's language of persecution. Matthew's parallel beatitude uses it of the same blessing; Peter uses it to tell reproached believers that they are blessed because the Spirit of glory rests on them; and Mark uses it of what was said to Christ on the cross. ✦ Cambridge on v. 23 sends the reader to 1 Peter 4:14 and 4:16, noting that the disciples “accepted with joy that ‘ignominy of Christ’ which made the very name of ‘Christian’ a term of execration.”

Matthew 5:11 · 1 Peter 4:14 · Mark 15:32

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3679 oneidizō (in 9 vv) with all three references, plus G3107 makarios (in 49 vv) with Matthew 5:11 and 1 Peter 4:14. G3679 is uncommon at nine verses, and its co-occurrence with makarios in two of the three is the recorded basis. All references are New Testament, so no cross-Testament restriction applies. No claim is made that Luke quotes Matthew or that Peter quotes Luke; the link recorded is lexical.

The Zechariah stoned in the temple court flagged: verify source

✦ Cambridge names him in the roll on v. 23: “Zechariah stoned by Joash, 2 Chronicles 24:20-21.” ⚙ That killing is the last prophet-murder in the Hebrew canon's own order, which ends with Chronicles, so “from Abel to Zechariah” is a way of saying “from first to last.” The difficulty is that Matthew 23:35 names the murdered man Zechariah son of Berechiah, while 2 Chronicles 24:20 calls him son of Jehoiada. The identification is ancient and probably right, but it is disputed, and we flag rather than assert it.

2 Chronicles 24:20-21 · Matthew 23:35

basis: Provenance contested. The identification of the Zechariah stoned in the temple court at 2 Chronicles 24:20-21 with the Zechariah son of Berechiah of Matthew 23:35 rests on a patronymic that does not match, and the harmonizations offered for it are disputed. Cambridge in this brief records only the Chronicles killing and does not make the Matthew identification. Cross-Testament in any case, so no shared Strong's basis is computable and no verbal tier is possible. Flagged so the reader can check it rather than inherit it.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The one who read Isaiah 61 and then said “yours” ancient/widely-held

⚙ In this Gospel the beatitudes are not the first thing Jesus says about the poor. At Luke 4:18-19 he reads Isaiah's anointing to preach good news to the poor and announces that the scripture is fulfilled in the hearing of the synagogue. Two chapters later he lifts his eyes on his disciples and tells the poor that the kingdom is theirs, in the present tense, while everything else in the passage is future. The redemptive-historical claim is simply Luke's own sequence: the herald of Isaiah 61 is now delivering the announcement, and the reason the kingdom can be said to be already theirs is that the King is standing in front of them. ✦ Cambridge quotes Luther on the same point from another angle: “He does not begin like Moses...with command and threatening, but in the friendliest possible way with free, enticing, alluring and amiable promises.”

Isaiah 61:1-3 · Luke 4:18-19 · Luke 1:53

The Son of Man whose own name was cast out as evil ancient/widely-held

⚙ The fourth beatitude names four things that will be done to the disciples, and every one of them was done first to the speaker. He was hated; he was put outside; he was reproached, and the same rare verb the disciples meet in v. 22 is the verb Mark uses for what was said to him on the cross; and his name was cast out as evil by the highest religious authorities of his day. ✦ Cambridge states that last point without flinching: “Our Lord was handed over to crucifixion by the unanimous hatred of the highest religious authorities of His day,” and records the Jewish tradition that he was himself excommunicated. ✦ JFB draws the conclusion the text requires: “Christ thus binds up the cause of righteousness in the world with the reception of Himself.” ⚙ The blessing is therefore not a consolation prize for suffering in general. It is a statement about company. The reproach the disciple carries is his Lord's, which is why Cambridge can call it the ignominy of Christ.

Mark 15:32 · Romans 15:3 · 1 Peter 4:14 · John 16:2

The man of sorrows and the promised laughter novel

⚙ Offered as our own reading, not as the tradition's. Luke's third beatitude promises laughter, and the Pulpit Commentary observes that the Gospels record the Lord's joy and his sorrow and his weeping, but never once record him laughing. Ellicott, hunting the Aramaic behind the Greek, reaches for the laughter in the name of Isaac at Genesis 21:6, Sarah's laughter turned from disbelief into the laughter of the whole household at a promise kept. ⚙ If those two observations are set side by side, the shape is this: the one who guarantees the laughter is the one who took the weeping, and the laughter he promises is Isaac's kind, the laughter that follows an impossible promise being kept, not the comedy the Greek word had been coarsened by. We mark this as a novel synthesis. Neither Ellicott nor the Pulpit Commentary draws the two together, and the argument from what the Gospels do not record is an argument from silence.

Genesis 21:6 · Psalm 126:1-6 · Isaiah 61:1-3

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Text and sources. The English base is the Berean Standard Bible; the word-by-word data, parses and Strong's numbers are the Berean interlinear as supplied in the brief. All quotations marked ✦ are verbatim public-domain commentary resolved from the sources by code, not retyped.

⚙ What is genuinely disputed in this unit. First, whether Luke 6:20-49 is the Sermon on the Mount. The brief carries both sides at full strength: Ellicott, Benson and Poole argue for two distinct discourses, Poole listing the differences of place, audience and content, while the Pulpit Commentary holds that the two reports cannot be of two distinct sermons and Barnes simply refers the reader to Matthew 5 to 7. We have not decided this and nothing above depends on deciding it. Second, whether Luke's unqualified “poor,” “hungry” and “weeping” mean the same as Matthew's “poor in spirit” and “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Gill and Maclaren say yes; Ellicott and Cambridge say Luke means what he says. We have reported the division rather than resolving it, and our own reading deliberately takes the vocative construction as the ground rather than either party's conclusion.

⚙ Where the data needed care. In the interlinear for v. 23 the tokens of the final clause are listed in English order, so the pronoun at index 25 carries the gloss “in the same way” while its own parse is genitive masculine plural, which construes with “the fathers,” and the neuter plural at index 17 is the one that belongs with kata ta. We have followed the parse rather than the display order and said so in the divergence. Several interlinear glosses in this unit are placeholders (“. . .” and “vvv”) where BSB does not render a word separately; nothing has been invented to fill them.

⚙ Limits. Four commentary entries in this brief are capped and were not read in full: Maclaren, Benson, Poole and the Pulpit Commentary on v. 20. Nothing above rests on the unread portions. No commentator in this brief names Isaiah 61, Psalm 126, Psalm 37, Psalm 146, 1 Samuel 2 or Genesis 15 in connection with these verses; those threads are our own and are tiered structural or typological accordingly, never verbal. Every cross-Testament link in this unit is untiered for quotation on principle: Strong's numbers cannot be shared between Greek and Hebrew, so no computed verbal basis exists for any of them, and this unit contains no citation formula of any kind.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)