SUBJECT:  Matthew 5:5 ---the Meek

QUESTION:  Who are the meek being referred to here?

ANSWER:

First the verse:  5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. –Matthew 5:5

The meaning can be obtained in the following 3 references on New Testament words:

Matt 5:5

The meek hoi (NT:3588) praeis (NT:4239). Wycliff has it "Blessed be mild men." The ancients used the word for outward conduct and toward men. They did not rank it as a virtue anyhow. It was a mild equanimity that was sometimes negative and sometimes positively kind. But Jesus lifted the word to a nobility never attained before. In fact, the Beatitudes assume a new heart, for the natural man does not find in happiness the qualities mentioned here by Christ. The English word "meek" has largely lost the fine blend of spiritual poise and strength meant by the Master. He calls himself "meek and lowly in heart" (Matt 11:29) and Moses is also called "meek." It is the gentleness of strength, not mere effeminacy.

(from Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament)

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

The meek hoi (NT:3588) praeis (NT:4239). Another word which, though never used in a bad sense, Christianity has lifted to a higher plane, and made the symbol of a higher good. Its primary meaning is "mild, gentle." It was applied to inanimate things, as light, wind, sound, sickness. It was used of a horse-"gentle."

As a human attribute, Aristotle defines it as the mean, between stubborn anger and that negativeness of character which is incapable of even righteous indignation: according to which it is tantamount to equanimity. Plato opposes it to fierceness or cruelty, and uses it of humanity to the condemned; but also of the conciliatory demeanor of a demagogue seeking popularity and power. Pindar applies it to a king, mild or kind to the citizens, and Herodotus uses it as opposed to anger.

These pre-Christian meanings of the word exhibit two general characteristics:

1. They express outward conduct merely.

2. They contemplate relations to men only.

The Christian word, on the contrary, describes an inward quality, and that as related primarily to God. The equanimity, mildness, kindness, represented by the classical word, are founded in self-control or in natural disposition. The Christian meekness is based on humility, which is not a natural quality but an outgrowth of a renewed nature. To the pagan the word often implied condescension, to the Christian it implies submission. The Christian quality, in its manifestation, reveals all that was best in the heathen virtue mildness, gentleness, equanimity-but these manifestations toward men are emphasized as outgrowths of a spiritual relation to God. The mildness or kindness of Plato or Pindar imply no sense of inferiority in those who exhibit them; sometimes the contrary. Plato's demagogue is kindly from self-interest and as a means to tyranny. Pindar's king is condescendingly kind. The meekness of the Christian springs from a sense of the inferiority of the creature to the Creator, and especially of the sinful creature to the holy God. While, therefore, the pagan quality is redolent of self-assertion, the Christian quality carries the flavor of self-abasement. As toward God, therefore, meekness accepts his dealings without complaint or resistance as absolutely good and wise. As toward man, it accepts opposition, insults and provocation, as God's permitted ministers of a chastening demanded by the infirmity and corruption of sin; while, under this sense of his own sinfulness, the meek bears patiently "the contradiction of sinners against himself," forgiving and restoring the erring in a spirit of meekness, considering himself, lest he also be tempted (see Gal 6:1-5). The ideas of forgiveness and restoration nowhere attach to the classical word. They belong exclusively to Christian meekness, which thus shows itself allied to love. As ascribed by our Lord to himself, see the note at Matt 11:29. Wycliffe renders it: "Blessed be mild men."

(from Vincent's Word Studies of the New Testament)

MEEK, MEEKNESS

A. Adjective.

praus or praos NT:4239 denotes "gentle, mild, meek"; for its significance see the corresponding noun, below, B. Christ uses it of His own disposition, Matt 11:29; He gives it in the third of His Beatitudes, 5:5; it is said of Him as the King Messiah, 21:5, from Zech 9:9; it is an adornment of the Christian profession, 1 Peter 3:4. Cf. epios, "gentle, of a soothing disposition," 1 Thess 2:7; 2 Tim 2:24.

B. Nouns.

1. prautes, or praotes, an earlier form, NT:4240 denotes "meekness." In its use in Scripture, in which it has a fuller, deeper significance than in nonscriptural Greek writings, it consists not in a person's "outward behavior only; nor yet in his relations to his fellow-men; as little in his mere natural disposition. Rather it is an inwrought grace of the soul; and the exercises of it are first and chiefly towards God. It is that temper of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting; it is closely linked with the word tapeinophrosune [humility], and follows directly upon it, Eph 4:2; Col 3:12; cf. the adjectives in the Sept. of Zeph 3:12, "meek and lowly";... it is only the humble heart which is also the meek, and which, as such, does not fight against God and more or less struggle and contend with Him. This meekness, however, being first of all a meekness before God, is also such in the face of men, even of evil men, out of a sense that these, with the insults and injuries which they may inflict, are permitted and employed by Him for the chastening and purifying of His elect" (Trench, Syn. Sec. xlii). In Gal 5:23 it is associated with enkrateia, "self-control."

(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words)

back to top       back to Poor in Spirit       Bible Study 5 - Righteousness       Bible Studies main page