Chapter 5: Yield Your Ground
The Meek
The definition of meek has changed over the years. in the mid 1700s it began to interpreted as shy, nonassertive, mild, … But before that it was taken to mean a form of power, not of weakness. “The meek are not the weak but the self-controlled, not those who shrink back but those who willingly choose to yield. We might paraphrase the beatitude, “Blessed are those who yield”—to others and to God.”
Jesus as Meek
Matthew describes Jesus as meek. Whatever Matthew meant by meek, it must be what Jesus was.
The meek as the poor in spirit
This interpretation has very early origins.
Psalm 37 and Greek literature
The idea that meekness is akin to restraint from anger comes from Plato and Aristotle. Also Psalm 37 has the same sense.
Restraint of anger.
Do no return evil for evil.
Moses as meek. Moses’ meekness is certainly not meek as we understand it today. The golden calf and his response is an example of that.
Meek me, meek women.
Submission to God (Psalm 37) ;tremble at my words (Isa 66:2)
They shall inherit the earth
The earth.
This-worldly, practical. Most interpreters have a now and not-yet view of inheriting the earth.
From land of Israel to eschatological promise.
The land of the living (earth = heaven). Some interpretations have used a verse in Psalm 27 to equate earth in the beatitude to heaven.
New Creation. A more promising connections is between the earth and new creation promised in Isaiah and in Revelation.
Resurrected body. A creative interpretation is the earth refers to the resurrected body.
Meekness and power
Many have seen God as the greatest example meekness. “For Catholic priest and activist John Dear, if we are not meek (that is, nonviolent) we will not have an earth left to inherit at all. Dear pleads, “A life of nonviolence leads to oneness with creation and her creatures. A life of violence … leads to an abrupt discord with creation.”
Excerpt From: Rebekah Eklund. “The Beatitudes through the Ages.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-beatitudes-through-the-ages/id1551836162
Excerpt From: Rebekah Eklund. “The Beatitudes through the Ages.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-beatitudes-through-the-ages/id1551836162 p