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In Matthew, Jesus promises comfort to those who mourn. Exegesis on the Soul, a Nag Hammadi text, promises them mercy instead, perhaps combining this saying with Jesus’ blessing for the merciful.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Matthew 5:4
New Testament
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. 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 satisfied.
Exegesis on the Soul 5:2
Nag Hammadi
And so it is appropriate to pray to the Father and to invoke him with all our soul, sighing, not outwardly with the lips, but with the inward spirit that comes from the depth, repenting the former life we led, confessing our sins, understanding the vacuous lie we lived in, and the hollow zealotry, wailing because of the darkness and the wave that engulfed us, weeping for ourselves so that he would show us compassion, hating ourselves because of what we are now. The Savior again said: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be pitied. Blessed are those who are hungry, for they will be filled.” ‒ (Matthew 5:4-6), (Luke 6:21) He said once more, “If one does not hate his soul he cannot follow me.” ‒ (Luke 14:26)
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Notes and References
“... The Gnostic text, The Exegesis on the Soul (135.16-18), has a version of this beatitude much like that found in Luke. It is paired with an unusual version of the beatitude for those who mourn: The Saviour said: 'Blessed are those who mourn, for it is they who will be pitied,· blessed, those who are hungry, for it is they who will be filled. ' (Tuckett 1986:52) The first of these beatitudes may be a conflation of Matthew 5 .4 and 5. 7 or it could be purely a deviation from 5.4 by the tractate's author (Tuckett 1986:54). The second is evidence not only that the words for righteousness were not original but that the words and thirst were added later as well. On the other hand, this could be a conflation of readings from both Matthew and Luke. The fact that the beatitudes for those who mourn and those who hunger are joined here also indicates that there was a time when the two were paired together (i e, the third beatitude has either switched places with the second or was unknown by this community). ...”
Day, Charles R.
An Investigation of the Beatitudes of Matthew: Between Oral Tradition and Greek Text
(p. 108) University of Pretoria, 2004
* 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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