Introduction: Background Behind the 8 Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount



Happiness is the greatest desire of mankind. The whole world is longing for it and it is awful

to see the way that people seek it because the majority are doing so in a way that will 

produce misery. Avoiding your difficulties might make you happy for a short time, but in the 

end it will add to your problems. The deceitfulness of sin is always offering 
happiness, but it 

is always leading to unhappiness.Jesus wanted to explain for His followers the true path to 

blessedness, and He did it through the sermon on the mount.

Posterity in the Gospel of Matthew, the first Book of the New Testament of the Bible,


 Jesus offers us a way of life that promises eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven.

on earth. He began teaching about 30 AD in the time of the ruthless Roman occupation of 


Palestine. The four groups in the Jewish religion, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the 

Essenes and the Zealots, presented a different viewpoint to the Jewish people. 


The Pharisees and to some degree,the Sadducees demanded strict observance of the 


Mosaic
 law as well as Jewish customs and rituals. Nazareth was in Galilee, an important 

center of the Zealots, a militant Jewish group who wanted freedom for their homeland. 

The Essenes awaited a Messiah that would establish a Kingdom on earth and free the 

Israelites from oppression.

In contrast, the message of Jesus was one of humility, charity, and brotherly love. 

He taught transformation of the inner person. Jesus presents the Beatitudes in a positive

sense, virtues in life which will ultimately lead to reward. Love becomes the motivation for

the Christian. All of the Beatitudes have an eschatological meaning, that is, they promise us

 salvation – not in this world, but in the next. The Beatitudes initiate one of the main themes

 of Matthew’s Gospel, that the Kingdom so long awaited in the Old Testament is not of this

world, but of the next, the Kingdom of Heaven.Jesus Christ gave us the eight beatitudes in 

the Sermon on the Mount, recorded for all the teachings of Christ Jesus were simple but 

unique and innovative at the time of his life.


The Ten Commandments, given to Moses on Mount Sinai in the Old Testament Book 

of Exodus, relates a series of “Thou shalt nots,” evils one must avoid in daily life on earth.


One of the first contemplation on the Beatitudes came from St. Gregory of Nyssa a mystic 

who lived in Cappadocia in Asia Minor around 380 AD. He described the Beatitudes this 
way:

“Beatitude is a possession of all things held to be good,


from which nothing is absent that a good desire may want.


Perhaps the meaning of beatitude may become clearer to us


if it is compared with its opposite.


Misery means being afflicted unwillingly with painful sufferings.”


The word ‘Beatitudes’ in not found in the english bible. It comes from the latin word ‘Beatus’,

which means happy or blessed. It is usually referred to the eight state of blessedness, 
Jesus preached on the sermon on the mount, recorded in Matthew 5:3-12. Some what similar list is also mentioned in Luke 6:20-23. However, these two list of beatitudes differs a bit from each other.
Now the opposite of beatitude is misery.St. Augustine called the Beatitudes the ideal for every Christian life!

Now let's see what are the beattitudes.

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