Famished for God
The Fourth Beatitude
Blessed—those who keep hungering and keep thirsting (for) the righteousness, because they will be filled (Matthew 5:6).
A few years ago my son Daniel and I traveled to the Trinity mountains west of Redding for an overnight backpacking trip. He was in college and in an outdoor leadership program; I had done quite a bit of backpacking and camping and was in decent shape, so we decided on a fairly challenging nine mile hike to a mountain lake. The first part was fairly straightforward with some nice up and downs, so I thought I had plenty of water to make the last few miles and didn’t top off when we crossed a creek.
I was wrong.
There was no water at all till the top and I ran out a mile short and another 800-1000 vertical feet to go. By the time I reached the stream running from the lake, I was dehydrated, almost delirious, and just shy of panicking.
I do not remember ever being that thirsty. My body was bereft of that very thing I needed to live.
When I arrived, I saw a Nalgene full of already filtered water Daniel had run for me. What a sight.
Have I—do I have—a visceral need for God in this way? So lacking in God and his character in my life that I crave it with all my existence?
That picture is something of what Jesus is speaking of here. Once again Jesus recalls the Psalmist: “As the deer longs for water-brooks, so my soul longs for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1).
I’ve got to get water … I’ve got to get God.
Jesus may also allude to the lack of water in the Sinai wilderness, or his own hunger at the end of his 40-day fast.
But this beatitude is not about food and water.
It refers to our desperate need for God.
The first three beatitudes no doubt contain a spiritual component (especially the first), yet this fourth takes the listener to the spiritual brink.
I’ve got to have God or I’ll die.
The beatitude begins again with makarios. Jesus’s listeners, if they have listened, could expect that what he was about to say was unexpected and different from ordinary blessing.
They would be correct.
There is no “are” in the text (as I have translated above). All eight beatitudes are this way, setting the subject right next to “Blessed.” In English we would call these “sentence fragments,” though it is fine Greek. Jesus wants no space between the two. Read again the translation above and you’ll get what I am talking about.
For the subject (as the second beatitude’s “mourners”) Jesus uses two participles: those hungering (peinōntes) and thirsting (dipsōntes). These are present tense with an indeterminate beginning and end: “those who keep hungering and keep thirsting.” There is no end to these until God ends them. I’ve tried to get this idea across with the word “keep.”
What is it we are hungering and thirsting for?
Jesus threw another curve: not God, as the psalmist, but “the righteousness.”
“The righteousness (tēn dikaiosunēn)” is not what we read in any English translation (I’ve looked at over fifty and none of them have “the” in their translation). One Spanish translation has la justicia (Dios Habla Hoy—DHH), and Luther’s German and other German translations have der Gerichtichkeit. Delitzsch’s Hebrew translation also retains the definite sense with latzdakah “for the righteousness” (but the Modern Hebrew NT has letzedek “for righteousness”)
Now there are a few English translations that may imply the article:
The God’s Word and Names of God translations have “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God’s approval.” “God’s approval” could be reworded “the approval of God.”
N.T. Wright’s translation (New Testament for Everyone) has “Blessings on people who hunger and thirst for God’s justice,” which with rewording is “the justice of God.”
But of these, only Wright’s, I believe, gets close to the heart issue (Luther DHH, and Delitzsch all translate correctly, but we must still interpret).
One other translation gets the closest.
Strangely, interestingly, surprisingly, it is the Orthodox Jewish Bible: “Ashrey are the ones hungering and thirsting for Tzidkat Hashem” or in our terms “Blessed (ashrey) are the ones hungering and thirsting for ‘the Righteousness of the Name (Tzidkat Hashem).’”
This translation rightly discerns that Jesus is not speaking about the quality of righteousness or justification or justice (three ways to translate dikaiosunē), but a particular righteousness, that of “the Name.” Most translations throw the article away and it would be explained by calling the article “qualitative,” thus “the quality of righteousness.” This is incorrect as I understand it; just below in v. 9, Jesus uses dikaiosunē without the article (“for the sake of righteousness”), and that one is arguably qualitative.
Not here.
Jesus speaks of a definite singular righteousness, the righteousness of God. It refers to God’s righteous or just character. We cannot perform any righteousness or justice on our own, we can only hunger and thirst after God’s character that He would fill us with Himself.
Those translations that put righteousness in terms of our actions or obedience get it totally wrong (CEV, ERV, GNT, ICB, TLB). “God’s approval” is still one step removed because it points to our status before God rather than God’s character.
Why am I belaboring this seemingly insignificant word, “the”?
First, it is essential that every word of Scripture is deemed important and makes its presence felt in a translation, whether literally or implied.
Second (and in this particular case), “the righteousness” of God is always something we keep hungering and thirsting for; it is never attained except in the continual hungering and thirsting for it—until the wedding feast of the Lamb.
If a person thinks they have ever attained the righteousness, it immediately becomes idolatrous, because only God is righteous.
This assertion leads me to the “because” phrase: “because they will be filled.” Most translations have “filled” or “satisfied” and either works if “the righteousness” is defined as the righteous character of God. The verb chortazō specifically relates to eating and being satisfied with food. The quality of righteousness does not satisfy, neither do righteous works, but God’s righteous character does.
Hungering and thirsting after the righteousness of God leads to eternal satisfaction.
God will continuously fill us as we continually hunger and thirst after Him.
An Invitation
Are you interested in learning New Testament Greek? I will be teaching an intensive course with 50 hours of live instruction via Zoom from June to August. Please contact me at jack.painter@gmail.com or go to https://www.rightonmission.org/intro-to-new-testament-greek for more information. I would love to have you!