Matthew 5:10-12

Matthew 5:10-12 being regarded as a transition to a new topic. his seems arbitrary. Delitsch, anxious to establish an analogy with the Decalogue, makes out ten seven from Matthew 5:3 to Matthew 5:9; Matthew 5:10 one, Matthew 5:11 one, and Matthew 5:12, though lacking the μακάριοι, the tenth; its claim resting on the exulting words, χαίρετε καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε. This savours of Rabbinical pedantry.

Matthew 5:10-12. οἱ δεδιωγμένοι ε. δικ. The original form of the Beatitude was probably: Blessed the persecuted. The added words only state what is a matter of course. No one deserves to be called a persecuted one unless he suffers for righteousness. οἱ δεδιωγ. (perf. part.): the persecuted are not merely men who have passed through a certain experience, but men who bear abiding traces of it in their character. They are marked men, and bear the stamp of trial on their faces. It arrests the notice of the passer-by: commands his respect, and prompts the question, Who and whence? They are veteran soldiers of righteousness with an unmistakable air of dignity, serenity, and buoyancy about them. αὐτῶν ἐστὶν ἡ β. τ. οὐρ. The common refrain of all the Beatitudes is expressly repeated here to hint that theirs emphatically is the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the proper guerdon of the soldier of righteousness. It is his now, within him in the disciplined spirit and the heroic temper developed by trial.