The Beatitudes!

The word “beatitude” is not found in the English Bible, but the Latin beatitudo, from which it is derived, occurs in the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 ad) version of Rom_4:6 where, with reference to Psa_32:1, Psa_32:2, David is said to pronounce the “beatitude” of the man whose transgressions are forgiven. In the Latin church beatitudo was used not only as an abstract term denoting blessedness, but in the secondary, concrete sense of a particular declaration of blessedness and especially of such a declaration coming from the lips of Jesus Christ. Beatitudes in this derivative meaning of the word occur frequently in the Old Testament, particularly in the Psalms (Psa_32:1, Psa_32:2; Psa_41:1; Psa_65:4, etc.), and Jesus on various occasions threw His utterances into this form (Mat_11:6; Mat_13:16; Mat_16:17; Mat_24:46, with the Lukan parallels; Joh_13:17; Joh_20:29). But apart from individual sayings of this type the name Beatitudes, ever since the days of Ambrose, has been attached specifically to those words of blessing with which, according to both Matthew and Luke, Jesus began that great discourse which is known as the Sermon on the Mount.