Beatitude means blessedness, and as defined:
Blessed -
Oxford: Endowed with divine favor and protection.
Theological Dictionary of the NT -
Often, then, we find sacred paradoxes (Mt. 5:3ff.; Lk. 6:20ff.). God effects a reversal of all human values. True happiness is not for the rich and secure, but for the poor and oppressed who are rich only in pity, purity, and peace.
Poor in spirit -
The explanatory words, "in spirit," fix the sense to "those who in their deepest consciousness realize their entire need" This self-emptying conviction, that "before God we are void of everything," lies at the foundation of all spiritual excellence, according to the teaching of Scripture.
they that mourn -
Evidently it is that entire feeling which the sense of our spiritual poverty begets; and so the second beatitude is but the complement of the first. The one is the intellectual, the other the emotional aspect of the same thing. It is poverty of spirit that says, "I am undone"; and it is the mourning which this causes that makes it break forth in the form of a lamentation—"Woe is me! for I am undone."
the meek -
BDAG "gentle, humble, considerate, meek in the older favorable sense"
1828 Webster's "Appropriately, humble; submissive to the divine will; not proud, self-sufficient"
righteousness -
"denoting that spiritual and entire conformity to the law of God, under the want of which the saints groan, and the possession of which constitutes the only true saintship."
mercy, merciful or compassion, compassionate -
"for these men shall obtain mercy, and that not only from men, if they come into straits and distress, but from the hand of God; he doth not say they shall merit mercy at God’s hand, but they shall be mercified, they shall obtain mercy."
pure in heart, see God -
There the difference between outward and inward purity, and the acceptableness of the latter only in the sight of God, are everywhere taught. Nor is the "vision of God" strange to the Old Testament; and though it was an understood thing that this was not possible in the present life; yet spiritually it was known and felt to be the privilege of the saints even here
peacemakers -
"The world blesseth the boisterous, unquiet party of it, that can never be still, but are continually thinking of more worlds to conquer, and blowing up the coals of war, division, and sedition: but they are blessed indeed, who study to be quiet, seeking peace, and pursuing it; and are so far from sowing the seeds of discord, or blowing those coals, that their great study is to make peace between God and man, and between a man and his neighbour, doing this in obedience to God, and out of a principle of love to God and men; for those that do so shall approve themselves like unto God, to be his children, and so they shall be called." Matthew Poole
"Blessed are those who have borne persecution in the cause of Righteousness, for to them belongs the Kingdom of the Heavens. (Matt 5:10, Weymouth) Past tense..in the past
"Blessed are you when they have insulted and persecuted you, and have said every cruel thing about you falsely for my sake. Be joyful and triumphant, because your reward is great in the Heavens; for so were the Prophets before you persecuted. (Matt 5:11-12, Weymouth)
Blessed -
Oxford: Endowed with divine favor and protection.
Theological Dictionary of the NT -
Often, then, we find sacred paradoxes (Mt. 5:3ff.; Lk. 6:20ff.). God effects a reversal of all human values. True happiness is not for the rich and secure, but for the poor and oppressed who are rich only in pity, purity, and peace.
Poor in spirit -
The explanatory words, "in spirit," fix the sense to "those who in their deepest consciousness realize their entire need" This self-emptying conviction, that "before God we are void of everything," lies at the foundation of all spiritual excellence, according to the teaching of Scripture.
they that mourn -
Evidently it is that entire feeling which the sense of our spiritual poverty begets; and so the second beatitude is but the complement of the first. The one is the intellectual, the other the emotional aspect of the same thing. It is poverty of spirit that says, "I am undone"; and it is the mourning which this causes that makes it break forth in the form of a lamentation—"Woe is me! for I am undone."
the meek -
BDAG "gentle, humble, considerate, meek in the older favorable sense"
1828 Webster's "Appropriately, humble; submissive to the divine will; not proud, self-sufficient"
righteousness -
"denoting that spiritual and entire conformity to the law of God, under the want of which the saints groan, and the possession of which constitutes the only true saintship."
mercy, merciful or compassion, compassionate -
"for these men shall obtain mercy, and that not only from men, if they come into straits and distress, but from the hand of God; he doth not say they shall merit mercy at God’s hand, but they shall be mercified, they shall obtain mercy."
pure in heart, see God -
There the difference between outward and inward purity, and the acceptableness of the latter only in the sight of God, are everywhere taught. Nor is the "vision of God" strange to the Old Testament; and though it was an understood thing that this was not possible in the present life; yet spiritually it was known and felt to be the privilege of the saints even here
peacemakers -
"The world blesseth the boisterous, unquiet party of it, that can never be still, but are continually thinking of more worlds to conquer, and blowing up the coals of war, division, and sedition: but they are blessed indeed, who study to be quiet, seeking peace, and pursuing it; and are so far from sowing the seeds of discord, or blowing those coals, that their great study is to make peace between God and man, and between a man and his neighbour, doing this in obedience to God, and out of a principle of love to God and men; for those that do so shall approve themselves like unto God, to be his children, and so they shall be called." Matthew Poole
"Blessed are those who have borne persecution in the cause of Righteousness, for to them belongs the Kingdom of the Heavens. (Matt 5:10, Weymouth) Past tense..in the past
"Blessed are you when they have insulted and persecuted you, and have said every cruel thing about you falsely for my sake. Be joyful and triumphant, because your reward is great in the Heavens; for so were the Prophets before you persecuted. (Matt 5:11-12, Weymouth)
