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SUBJECT: Matthew 5:5 ---the Meek
QUESTION: Who are the meek being referred to here? Are
the meek a special class of people or is something else
being discussed here?
ANSWER:
First the verse:
Matthew 5:5
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
The meaning can be obtained in the following 3 references on
New Testament words:
Matthew 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" (Matthew 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
Galatians 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 Matthew 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, Matthew 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 Zechariah 9:9; it is an
adornment of the Christian profession, 1 Peter 3:4. Cf.
epios, "gentle, of a soothing disposition," 1 Thessalonians
2:7; 2 Timothy 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, Ephesians 4:2; Colossians
3:12; cf. the adjectives in the Sept. of Zephaniah 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 Galatians 5:23 it is associated with enkrateia,
"self-control." ~from
Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words
Clearly meekness is an element of the heart and mind and
attitude of a true Christian with the Holy Spirit in them.
The meek are not a separate or special class of Christian.
Rather, this is an element, a fruit of the Spirit that must
be in all of those called by God to Salvation.
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