Matthew repeats ‘Blessed’ nine times and ‘Rejoice and be glad’ once. Luke, for his part, uses ‘Blessed’ only four times and ‘Rejoice’ only once, but adds ‘Woe’ four times. This distinguishes him from Matthew, who repeats that formula nine times in chapters 23 and 24 of his book.
This analysis suggests that the authors grouped together thoughts expressed by Jesus the Messiah at various points in his ministry to make their accounts flow and aid understanding. We may also envisage these words being repeated several times in the villages they passed through.
It is worth observing that this teaching seems mainly intended for disciples. Luke makes this clear by mentioning ‘a crowd of his disciples’. Although he also adds ‘a multitude of people’, this indicates that he is not referring to the apostles here.
The principle is the same each time: Jesus the Messiah pronounces people blessed even when circumstances seem to contradict that declaration. He then announces a reward. We therefore understand that happiness flows from the reward.
Finally, we find it difficult to memorise such a quantity of information, even if people then had better memories than today. This strengthens our conclusion that Matthew brought together in these two chapters various discourses delivered by Jesus the Messiah. We also believe that this information was repeated several times before different audiences.
We have already undertaken an in-depth analysis of all these texts in appendix ANN097, entitled ‘The Beatitudes’.