Blessed are the poor
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Matthew 5:3 says: μακάριοι οι πτωχοί τω πνεύματι ότι αυτών εστιν η βασιλεία των ουρανών
Most English translations translate this as: Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
But, if you translate it literally word-for-word, it says: Blessed the poor the spirit for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.
So, it seems that the word “in” has been added by the translators. My Greek is beginner level, so please feel free to correct me.
My question focuses specifically on the part that is commonly translated “the poor in spirit”. The ABP translates it as “the poor to the one in spirit”. which is what got me thinking about this passage and digging into the Greek a bit.
Why did most translators insert the word “in”? What precedent or rule of Greek says that it should be translated like this?
It’s interesting that in Luke 6:20, Jesus said “blessed are the poor for yours is the kingdom of God” without mentioning spirit. But, what is also interesting is that he addressed this to his disciples, so implicitly they were the ones “in spirit”, i.e. they had been baptised into the Spirit of God and among whom and in whom the Spirit of God was working on earth. So, maybe the ABP translation is correct in Matthew 5:3 – blessed are the poor to the one in spirit?
It’s also interesting that in Matthew 11:4-5 and Luke 7:22, Jesus tells John’s disciples to report to him that the gospel was being preached to the poor. It seems that throughout history, the poor have been more receptive to the gospel.
Any thoughts or comments?
Steve
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Steve,
The New Testament was written in Koine Greek, the dialect of the common people. As such, it is less refined and less precise than earlier Classical Greek. One of the ways this shows up is in the use of prepositions. While in Classical Greek prepositions are typically stated, in Koine Greek prepositions are often implied rather than actually stated. So Koine Greek is less wordy, but also less precise. However, in translating, the prepositions are necessary. The question is not whether a preposition should be there, but which presposition was being implied. In Matt. 5:3, οἱ πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι is properly translated “the poor in spirit (or breath).”
Greek prepositions have an object (the word following the preposition) that is either in the accusative case, genitive case, or dative case. Some Greek prepositions always have an object in the genitive case. Others always have an object in the dative case. That is, certain prepositions are fixed in their sense to a particular case. However, some Greek prepositions can have an object in more than one of the cases. When this occurs, that preposition can have very different meanings dependent on the case of the object, whether accusative, genitive, or dative.
In this situation, τῷ πνεύματι is in the dative case. Both the article and the noun are inflected in the dative case. When this occurs, the article acts like a preposition.
One of the ways to conceptualize how the cases of nouns help govern a prepositional idea that is implied (when a preposition is not actually present) is to think of the genitive and dative cases in relation to motion.
The genitive case tends to be the case of source, and implies the idea either possession or motion away from the object. All of the prepositions that imply source and/or separation from their object take genitive case objects. The dative case is just the opposite. Prepositions that imply motion towards the object, being received by the object, and having been received and thus in the company of the object will have objects in the dative case.
When you have a situation where the preposition is not stated (that is a modifying noun is in the genitive or dative case, the case of that modifying noun (in this situation — τῷ πνεύματι) will govern the class of preposition that is implied. In other words, the translator needs to supply a preposition that always takes a dative case object in Greek. When learning Greek prepositions and the cases of their objects, the beginner will usually be told that a naked dative case noun such as τῷ πνεύματι will need a common Greek preposition that means “to,” “towards,” “in,” or “with” when translating to English. From among these, the translator chooses the one that makes the most sense in that statement.
“Poor IN spirit” is consistent with the dative case, and the most likely because the Greek preposition usually rendered “in” is THE most common Greek preposition that always takes a dative case object. Also, “poor with (regard to) spirit”, or “poor towards spirit” or “poor with spirit” are much less common prepositions yet all have essentially the same basic sense as “poor in spirit.” The sense of “in” with the dative is probably the most common nuance of the dative case, so the omission of the preposition makes this by far the most likely candidate. That is, the speaker and hearer or reader of Koine Greek would naturally assume the most common implication of the dative, and would be the reason why the speaker or writer wouldn’t bother to include the preposition.
Regarding Luke 6:20, Jesus was not saying that all of the poor are blessed and heirs of the Kingdom. He was referring to His own disciples as “poor” in the context. So they were “poor” followers of Jesus.
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Sorry Steve, I made that more technical and complicated than it needed to be to answer your question. Suffice it to say that whenever you see a modifying noun in either the genitive case or dative case, a preposition needs to be supplied if one is not stated. The preposition that is supplied must be one that normally takes a genitive case object (if the noun is in the genitive case) or one that normally takes a dative case object (if the noun is in the dative case). This is true whether or not it has the article. (If it has the article, it will always agree in case, number, and gender with the noun it modifies).
Here is an example of a modifying noun in the genitive case. In Matt. 6:33 the expression τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ (“the Kingdom of God”) is used. A bare literal interlinear would read, “the Kingdom the God.” However, the modifying noun (with the article) “the God” is in the genitive case. By far the most common preposition required by the nuance of the genitive case is the English “of” (implying ownership) or “from” (implying source). It can either be translated “the Kingdom OF God” or “the Kingdom FROM God.” But if you were to ignore the genitive case of the articular noun “τοῦ θεοῦ” you might be tempted to translate it “the God” instead of “of God.” This is where most printed interlinear Greek-English Bibles let you down because they do not reflect the parsing. The genitive case of the noun (and its article) requires either “of” or “from” here.
So the bottom line is that “poor IN spirit” is correct. The preposition is necessary to reflect the implications of the noun “spirit” (and its definite article) being placed in the dative case.
If you are merely looking at an interlinear Greek-English text you probably would not be able to know the case of the noun. If you cannot read Greek and thus cannot recognize the differences in spelling of the suffixes (which determine case, number, and gender), you would be greatly helped by using an interlinear that parses the words for you. Here is one that can be very helpful:
https://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/Greek_Index.htm
Matthew 5 can be found here: https://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/NTpdf/mat5.pdf
You will see that under the word translated “spirit” the parsing is as follows: n_ Dat Sg n. This means: n_ (noun) Dat (dative case) sg (singular number) n (neuter gender).
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