The Meek Shall Inherit What???

 

“But the meek will inherit the land” 

Psalm 37:11

“Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth”  

Matt 5:5, Sermon on the Mount

The Greek version of both of these verses has the same word translated land (Psalms) and earth (Matthew), yet in English we get two different words.  Is there a difference in meaning between inheriting the land or inheriting the earth?  Or, more important, how would those listening to Jesus’ words have understood it?

Jesus’ sermon on the mount was spoken to Jews who descended from Abraham.  God had promised a plot of land to Abraham and his descendants, marked out by specific boundaries (see Gen 15:18 or Num 34:1-10).  This land would eventually be called Israel - named after Abraham’s grandson.

Jesus was giving the Sermon on the Mount to his fellow Israelites whose forefathers had returned from exile to live in their promised land.  Although they were physically living in the land they were promised, they were not the ones in charge. They were living with Roman rule, having a landlord in their own land.  Their hope was that they would be freed from the grip of Rome so that they could live in freedom in the land they were promised.   

This historical setting of the Sermon on the Mount suggests the translation, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the land” better connects with the reality of the lives of those hearing Jesus and allows us to consider the tension they lived in - waiting for the day the land would be theirs. 

While this connects to the original listeners understanding, the common translation, “the meek will inherit the earth” is not without merit.  The sermon on the mount's audience heard Jesus’ words around 30 AD.  However, the Mathew’s Gospel would not be written for a handful of decades.  Between the time of Jesus speaking the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew being written, significant events happened that would expand the understanding of what Jesus said.

After Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension many followed Jesus.  The good news quickly spread beyond the Jewish people to ‘the nations’ (aka gentiles), and the early church would work out the implications of non-Jews being included in the family of faith.

In Galatians, written a few decades before Matthew, we see Paul saying “If you belong to Christ you are Abraham’s descendant, heirs of the promise” (3:29).  Paul is telling the story of Abraham’s family and sharing how it now includes both Jews and non-Jews.  Anyone who follows Jesus is counted as Abraham’s family member with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities - including being an heir of what was promised. 

In Romans, Paul does something similar and it’s there that we see him expressing implications for non-Jews to be included in the family of God.  “It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith” (Rom 4:13 emphasis mine).  

Through faith in Jesus, the nations (gentiles) are now considered part of Abraham’s family.  Not only is the family expanded, but the physical boundaries of the promised inheritance must be expanded to include ‘the nations’ - nation both in the sense of people (gentiles), as well as the all the geographies the nations/peoples inhabited.

Abraham and his offspring were to inherit a specific plot of land.  But ‘offspring’ has been expanded beyond genetic descent, and the land must also be expanded to make room for those outside the original borders.  The ‘nations’ (gentiles) are included as heirs of the promise.  

Romans 4:13 indicates that the promised land stretches beyond the boundaries in Genesis to include “the world”.  Paul describes what was promised using the word ‘world’ (cosmos in Greek).  This avoids any ambiguity of ‘land’ or ‘earth’ and indicates he means everywhere.

By the time Matthew is written, the early church is starting to understand the ‘land’ that was promised was a pointer to something larger than what was contained within the original geographical boundaries of Israel.  It was not just a strip of land to be inherited, but all the land of all the earth - the whole cosmos.  

A reading after Jesus’ ascension sees a “surplus of meaning” in ‘land’ and rightly hears (or translates) “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.”