Matthew 5:10

Many are my persecutors and my enemies, yet I do not turn aside from Your testimonies.  Psalm 119:157  NASB

Persecutors – The Beatitudes are not Greek blessings.  They are Hebrew character descriptions.  If you don’t connect this verse in the Psalms with Yeshua’s remarks on the hillside, you’ve missed something important for both verses.  Let’s start with Matthew 5:10.

“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  This last Beatitude shares one significant element with the first Beatitude.  It is the only other Beatitude in the present tense.  In fact, it contains exactly the same concluding phrase as the first Beatitude (“theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”).  This is not a mistake.  Yeshua clearly intended to apply this teaching to that audience on that day, not to some future group of believers.  The fact that his statements become timeless insights into the inner workings of God’s world does not entitle us to ignore what he must have intended his original audience to understand.

So, if it is fairly certain that no one present on that day was in the midst of being tortured, what group did Jesus have in mind?  Answering this question reveals the incredible depth of this Beatitude, a depth that transforms it from a statement of religious endurance into a declaration of God’s grace.

Happy are those who are described by the Greek verb diṓkō.  Of course, we won’t understand what makes this a sacred paradox until we know the meaning of this verb.  There are two uses of diṓkō.  The non-religious use means, “to set in motion” or “to impel.”  It is a short step from that idea to the second use, “to persecute.”  In the New Testament, the second meaning predominates.

Unfortunately, we will need to do a bit of grammatical digging before the treasure in this word is revealed.  In Yeshua’s statement, the verb is a perfect passive participle.  The grammatical construction is important.  First, it is in the perfect tense.  The perfect tense in Greek expresses an action that has been completed in the past but has continuing consequences into the present.  This allows us to see the first characteristic of these “happy” people.  They have been persecuted for a long time, and the effects of that persecution have not stopped.

Secondly, the verb is passive.  The active voice implies that the subject of the sentence is the one acting.  But the passive voice implies that something is done to the subject.  Persecution has been put upon these people.  They did not go looking for it.  They did not encourage it.  Others inflicted it upon them.

Finally, the verb is a participle.  A participle is a verb that acts like an adjective.  Adjectives modify nouns.  That means participles describe additional characteristics of nouns.  Here is a participle, but where is the noun?  We have to add it to make sense of the Greek words.  The Greek text literally reads, “Happy the being persecuted.”  So we add “those” or “the ones.”  The action itself makes them the subject of Yeshua’s statement.

Can you see the importance of this distinction?  We often feel as though we deserve divine rewards because we have endured some insult or injury at the hands of unbelievers.  We look at this Beatitude and decide that God promises (owes?) us blessings for our trials.  But if our “persecutions” are finished, we are not the ones Yeshua is addressing.  He’s talking to those whose lives are at this very moment characterized by oppression and persecution.  There is an older classical sense of this word that comes into play.  It is “to accuse.”  Yeshua is speaking to those who are presently pursued by accusation, who are at this moment being driven out, who are oppressed by unjust punishment.  The results of this persecution have not ended.  Their lives are under the thumb of those who judge them.

This Greek concept is tied to the Hebrew word rādap.  This word is unique to Biblical material.   It’s not found in other Semitic languages.  It almost always carries the meaning of pursuit with the intention of revenge or harm.  This is a description that carries two interrelated motions.  One group flees while another chases.  Persecution is about one party attempting to free itself from harm while another party tries to inflict harm.  Yeshua spoke Hebrew, so he undoubtedly used rādap in his statement.  This takes us back to the Psalms.  William White notes the familiar use of this term: “One of the most blessed aspects of God’s providence is his rescuing his people from pursuit. In the well-known phrase from Psalm 23, God’s blessing itself is said to ‘follow’ (KJV and RSV v. 6), which is not strong enough for the sense of the root. It should be more active. ‘Only goodness and mercy shall pursue me’ is the preferred reading.”^[1]  We should apply this intensity to our verse in Psalm 119.  Those who pursue with malicious intent want to squeeze the life out of me (enemies– ṣārar—that which confines).

What is the psalmist’s response?  In the context of this lengthy psalm, we do find him pleading for God’s intervention, but not here.  Here he says only that this evil does not turn him aside.  Actually, the Hebrew imagery is more expressive.  While the enemies wish to restrict, to squeeze him into narrow straits, God’s testimonies do exactly the opposite.  The verb for “turn aside” is nāṭâ, “to extend, stretch out, spread out.”  The adversaries attempt to close the way; God opens the way.  How does He do that?  Once more we find the term ʿēd^ewōtê, “testimonies,” but more precisely the continuance of God’s involvement, the attestation of God’s commitment.  When the psalmist feels the world closing in, he remembers God’s rescue in the past.  He remembers the exodus from slavery.  He remembers the defeat of enemies.  He remembers the covenant promises.  He looks around at the Land.  And he knows God delivers.

Topical Index:  Matthew 5:11, diṓkō, rādap, pursue, nāṭâ, open, testimonies, Psalm 119:157

^[1] White, W. (1999). 2124 רָדַף. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 834). Moody Press.