I don’t know if this will fully work, but I’m a fan of trying to get as close to the original version of the Bible.
Certainly for the Sermon on the mount, I’d like to get the Assyrian version, but for now the Greek for Matthew 5:1-12 will have to do.
Now we can neatly translate these via Google’s Greek (I’m not sure how similar it is to Koine Greek, but familiar phrases do come out well from the translation):
1 And when he saw the multitudes, he went up into the mountain: and as he sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 And you opened his mouth and taught them, saying
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are the mourners, for they are invoked.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they are shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for these are called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and say all evil things against you, lying because of me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for thus they persecuted the prophets before you.
Now here is the DeepL translation:
1 And Idon went up to the mountain with the multitude: and his disciples, when he was seated, went up to him.
2 And he opened his mouth, and commanded them, saying.
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are they that mourn, for they are called.
– Matthew 5:1-4 DeepL translation
5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness, that they may be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, that they may be pitied.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall fear God.
– Matthew 5:5-8 DeepL translation
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, that they may be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are the persecuted in righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye when they shall dream of us, and shall persecute, and shall say all evil against us, lying in our behalf.
– Matthew 5:9-11 DeepL translation
12 Rejoice and be glad, because your reward is great in the heavens: for so they have set their prophets before you.
Interestingly in chapter 1 Ἰδὼν gets translated as literally Idon by DeepL. I think this is a failing of DeepL, it would appear that it is something more like ‘when he saw’ / ‘having seen’ (the masculine ‘past’ active participle of εἶδον – ‘to see’) as Google has it: “And when he saw the multitudes, he went up into the mountain” vs “And Idon went up to the mountain with the multitude”.
But then Google Translate has chapter 2 as “And you opened his mouth and taught them, saying” vs DeepL with “And he opened his mouth, and commanded them, saying.”
These are the warm up acts – now we get on the the main quote:
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Now there is an excellent Biblical Hermeneutics question over what “meek” means.
- a horse that has been broken-in
- compare this to a War Horse
- ‘an inwards calm acceptance of gods will’ perhaps
- gentle
- humble
- gentleness that comes from humility
- strength under control – but whose control? Their own, or a masters’?
- powerless
Now further ‘inherit the earth’ brings up something interesting. From Wikipedia’s Matthew 5:5, there are two possible interpretations of the ‘end times’.
- all the believers brought up to join the Kingdom of Heaven.
- God come down to directly rule Earth, and the chosen people would then be given dominion over the entire world.
So it is possible that we don’t need an actual separate Heaven above the clouds.
However these are just interesting questions – my point here is that we have to use at least the Greek and all it’s possible interpretations.
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