Matthew 5:6

Matthew 5:6 depicted in the window of a Trittenheim church

Matthew 5:6 is the sixth verse of the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. It is the fourth verse of the Sermon on the Mount, and also fourth of what are known as the Beatitudes.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

Blessed are they which do hunger

and thirst after righteousness:

for they shall be filled.

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

Blessed are those who hunger

and thirst after righteousness,

for they shall be filled.

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 5:6

Albright and Mann note that fasting was a common sign of righteousness, and one that Jesus has already endured at Matthew 4:2. The metaphor of God or the messiah as a feast ending a fast occurs several times in the scripture including Isaiah 55:1, Jeremiah 31:25, and Psalm 107:9.^[1] Like the first two Beatitudes this one seems to similar to one in Luke, in this case with Luke 6:21. Luke only has the blessed hunger, Gundry feels the author of Matthew added thirst to match Isaiah 49:10.^[2] Schweizer feels that the addition of thirst is a minor one, but the addition of the word righteousness is a major one. As with Matthew 5:3, the author of Matthew turns a phrase that focuses on the merely physical in Luke into one far more focused on the spiritual. Righteousness is one of the key concepts in the Gospel of Matthew, though what exactly is meant by the term is not always clear.^[3] All the references to righteousness in the Gospel are unique to Matthew, and thus likely are additions by the author.^[4]

References

1. Albright, W.F. and C.S. Mann. "Matthew." The Anchor Bible Series. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1971.
2. Gundry, Robert H. Matthew a Commentary on his Literary and Theological Art. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982.
3. Schweizer, Eduard. The Good News According to Matthew. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975
4. Boring, Eugene "Gospel of Matthew." The New Interpreter's Bible, volume 8 Abingdon, 1995 pg. 179