Blessed are the Peacemakers, Matthew 5:9

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Roy Blizzard © 2012

Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” KJV

Much has been written about Peace and Jesus. Most of it wrong due to simple misunderstandings of Jewish law and the teachings of the Jewish Rabbi Jesus. This is such a case.

But does it mean we should always go and try to make what we think of as "Peace" with everyone even the evil or murderous? Does it mean Jesus was a pacifist? Let’s look a bit closer. Jesus here in the Sermon on the Mount speaks about peacemakers in English, but it doesn’t say this in Hebrew. The basic words in Hebrew for this passage would mean Happy are those who pursue peace. But again, what does this mean?

Let’s begin with the word Happy. The word Asherei in Hebrew has the connotation here of happy, but its root meaning is to exalt but with the connotation of a verification of a legal ruling or a substantiation to something.

The word for Pursue is Radaf and means one who chases after something, but here with the connotation of one who chases after another in order to save him or prevent him from sinning or to get what he has to offer.

The third word here is Shalom. This usually means peace, but here it more properly means salvation or a state of being of wholeness both above and below or spiritually and physically.

Now the fourth part we have to consider is the phrase Sons of God. This is a Hebrew idiom meaning that this person called a “Son” is so much like the father “God” or Elohim that whoever sees this one has seen God. His state of being or existence is reflective and indicative of a unification with the Father so what shows in his life is the life of the Father.

So what we have here would thus render the passage as Happy is the substantiation or vindication of those who pursue salvation in order to prevent a state of sin for they will be called Sons of Elohim, or righteous ones.

Now that we know this, was there a Jewish precedent? Yes.

Aaron was called the peacemaker. Aaron was also the one we are to emulate as he worshipped God out of love and not fear. Therefore we are to be a salvation or state of wholeness lover like Aaron who doesn’t worship God out of fear as did Job. When we concentrate on God and unify with Him in His love we stop worrying about fear, loss, war, etc., but we begin to take on the characteristics of God and these begin to flow outwards from within us to others who are in turn pursuing this state of salvation that we are living as a substantiation to its power to change our powerless lives to creative powerful lives full of hope and the glory of God.

So now we can see that this has nothing to do with the erroneous concept of Pacifism or the idea of making what we think of as “Peace” with murderers etc, neither of which concepts have roots in the 1^st century Judaism of Jesus.