How are you arriving at 7 as the number of the Beatitudes. My count is 9 "makarios" and 8 seeming statements. I've also read and felt the urge to match the Beatitudes with the 10 commandments (statements, devari'm).
Great question! I should've explained this in the pod, but it's a pretty typical if somewhat surprising maneuver in the tradition. Believe it or not, some interpreters have counted as many as ten, others as few as four. Rebekah Eklund explains it like this (in her terrific The Beatitudes through the Ages):
"How many beatitudes are there? You might be wondering why this question needs asking. Isn’t it obvious how many there are? Well, people haven’t always agreed. Interpreters have counted four, seven, eight, nine, and even ten beatitudes. Numbering the Beatitudes has had a surprising influence over interpretation, and knowing who chose which numbers will help us navigate the next two thousand years of the beatitudes’ history.
“Nine is the easiest number to arrive at, simply by counting how many times Matthew used the word blessed.... The most unusual count is certainly the number ten. New Testament scholar Hans Dieter Betz considered 5:10, 5:11, and 5:12 as three separate beatitudes, bringing the count to ten.100 Betz has had almost no followers in his numbering system but he did have one predecessor. In the fourth century, Ephrem the Syrian arrived at the same number but via a different route: the Diatessaron (Tatian’s second-century harmony of the four gospels). Ephrem used Matthew’s nine beatitudes (counting 5:10 and 5:11–12 as two beatitudes), plus the third Lukan blessing on those who weep (Luke 6:21b), since the Eastern Diatessaron tradition included the blessings on both weepers and mourners as two separate beatitudes.
“It’s probably most common today to say that there are eight beatitudes. This count treats Matt 5:11–12 as an intensification and application of the eighth (due to the shift from third to second person), rather than its own separate beatitude... Of course, if one counts Luke’s beatitudes, there are four. This is also the modern way of arriving at the number four, if one assumes that Jesus only spoke four of the beatitudes (the blessings on the poor, the weeping, the hungry, and the hated), and that Matthew’s other four or five are later additions. The other way to arrive at the number four is an ancient one, and it uses the formula 4 × 2 = 8.
“The number seven is the surprise. There appears to be no straightforward way of counting the beatitudes and arriving at the number seven. But that’s what Augustine of Hippo (354–430) did—and his counting method proves enormously influential. Augustine, like Ambrose and Gregory before him, counted the beatitudes using the formula 'seven plus one.' He also noted (as Ambrose did too) that both the first and eighth beatitude contain the same promised reward: “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (De Serm. Dom. 1.3.10). His innovation was to use this detail to conclude that the eighth beatitude therefore circles around and returns to the first, meaning that the true number of the beatitudes is seven. The eighth is a recapitulation and perfection of the first, just as the resurrection on the eighth day is a recapitulation of the first day and the dawn of the new creation. Like Gregory, then, he achieved the same result—the Beatitudes as a sign of the arriving eschaton—but with a different number.”
What a great conversation, thank you.
How are you arriving at 7 as the number of the Beatitudes. My count is 9 "makarios" and 8 seeming statements. I've also read and felt the urge to match the Beatitudes with the 10 commandments (statements, devari'm).
Great question! I should've explained this in the pod, but it's a pretty typical if somewhat surprising maneuver in the tradition. Believe it or not, some interpreters have counted as many as ten, others as few as four. Rebekah Eklund explains it like this (in her terrific The Beatitudes through the Ages):
"How many beatitudes are there? You might be wondering why this question needs asking. Isn’t it obvious how many there are? Well, people haven’t always agreed. Interpreters have counted four, seven, eight, nine, and even ten beatitudes. Numbering the Beatitudes has had a surprising influence over interpretation, and knowing who chose which numbers will help us navigate the next two thousand years of the beatitudes’ history.
“Nine is the easiest number to arrive at, simply by counting how many times Matthew used the word blessed.... The most unusual count is certainly the number ten. New Testament scholar Hans Dieter Betz considered 5:10, 5:11, and 5:12 as three separate beatitudes, bringing the count to ten.100 Betz has had almost no followers in his numbering system but he did have one predecessor. In the fourth century, Ephrem the Syrian arrived at the same number but via a different route: the Diatessaron (Tatian’s second-century harmony of the four gospels). Ephrem used Matthew’s nine beatitudes (counting 5:10 and 5:11–12 as two beatitudes), plus the third Lukan blessing on those who weep (Luke 6:21b), since the Eastern Diatessaron tradition included the blessings on both weepers and mourners as two separate beatitudes.
“It’s probably most common today to say that there are eight beatitudes. This count treats Matt 5:11–12 as an intensification and application of the eighth (due to the shift from third to second person), rather than its own separate beatitude... Of course, if one counts Luke’s beatitudes, there are four. This is also the modern way of arriving at the number four, if one assumes that Jesus only spoke four of the beatitudes (the blessings on the poor, the weeping, the hungry, and the hated), and that Matthew’s other four or five are later additions. The other way to arrive at the number four is an ancient one, and it uses the formula 4 × 2 = 8.
“The number seven is the surprise. There appears to be no straightforward way of counting the beatitudes and arriving at the number seven. But that’s what Augustine of Hippo (354–430) did—and his counting method proves enormously influential. Augustine, like Ambrose and Gregory before him, counted the beatitudes using the formula 'seven plus one.' He also noted (as Ambrose did too) that both the first and eighth beatitude contain the same promised reward: “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (De Serm. Dom. 1.3.10). His innovation was to use this detail to conclude that the eighth beatitude therefore circles around and returns to the first, meaning that the true number of the beatitudes is seven. The eighth is a recapitulation and perfection of the first, just as the resurrection on the eighth day is a recapitulation of the first day and the dawn of the new creation. Like Gregory, then, he achieved the same result—the Beatitudes as a sign of the arriving eschaton—but with a different number.”
I hope this helps!
thanks for the response, and including the resource. blees you.