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The Dead Sea Scroll 4Q525 has blessings that praise those with pure hearts, clean hands, and devotion to wisdom and the Torah, showing how beatitudes were already being used in Jewish tradition. Matthew shows Jesus following this beatitude tradition.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4Q525 2 ii+3 1
Beatitudes
Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom and Instruction
1 with a pure heart, and does not slander with his tongue. Blessed are those who hold fast to her statutes and do not hold fast 2 to the ways of iniquity. Blessed are those who rejoice in her and do not pour themselves out in the ways of folly. Blessed are those who seek her 3 with clean hands and do not search for her with a deceitful heart. Blessed is the person who has attained wisdom and walks 4 in the Torah of the Most High, and sets his heart on her ways, and restrains himself by her disciplines, and is always content with her blows, 5 and does not abandon her in the affliction of [his] testing, and in the time of distress does not forsake her, and does not forget her [on the day of] dread, 6 and in the humbling of his soul does not loathe [her.] For on her he meditates always, and in his distress he ponders [her, and in all] 7 his existence [he gives heed] to her, [and he sets her] before his eyes, so as not to walk in the ways of […]
Date: 50–25 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Matthew 5:8
New Testament
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 satisfied. 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 the children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
Date: 70–90 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... This is where the Dead Sea Scrolls come in. Not only are they by far the most important archive of contemporaneous Jewish documents but, with very few exceptions, they are Jewish religious writings. Though they are often difficult to understand, they are concerned with theological issues, including many of the same issues that concerned Jesus and early Christians. Moreover, the scrolls have not been subject to later editing as have texts like the Gospels that have come down to us in later copies. What the scrolls show is that in almost every respect the message of early Christianity was presaged in its Jewish roots. And even the life of Jesus, as told in the Gospels, is often prefigured in the scrolls. The beatitudes, for example, familiar from the Sermon on the Mount, have their counterpart in the scrolls ... This passage is found in the Dead Sea Scroll known only by its number, 4Q525. The literary genre to which it belongs is the same as that found in the Gospel of Matthew ..."
Hershel Shanks, The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Random House, 1998), 64.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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