Year C, 16th February 2025, 6th Sunday after the Epiphany

Year C, 16th February 2025, 6th Sunday after the Epiphany

Luke 6:17-26

Blessings on the poor, woes on the rich

6:17He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.

6:18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.

6:19And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

6:20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

6:21″Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

6:22″Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.

6:23Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

6:24″But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

6:25″Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

6:26″Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”

^[17]καὶ καταβὰς μετ᾿ αὐτῶν ἔστη ἐπὶ τόπου πεδινοῦ, καὶ ὄχλος μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ, καὶ πλῆθος πολὺ τοῦ λαοῦ ἀπὸ πάσης τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας καὶ ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ καὶ τῆς παραλίου Τύρου καὶ Σιδῶνος, οἳ ἦλθον ἀκοῦσαι αὐτοῦ καὶ ἰαθῆναι ἀπὸ τῶν νόσων αὐτῶν, 

^[18]καὶ οἱ ὀχλούμενοι ἀπὸ πνευμάτων ἀκαθάρτων, καὶ ἐθεραπεύοντο· 

^[19]καὶ πᾶς ὁ ὄχλος ἐζήτει ἅπτεσθαι αὐτοῦ, ὅτι δύναμις παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐξήρχετο καὶ ἰᾶτο πάντας.

^[20]Καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπάρας τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ εἰς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ ἔλεγε·

Mακάριοι οἱ πτωχοί,

ὅτι ὑμετέρα ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ.

^[21]

μακάριοι οἱ πεινῶντες νῦν,

ὅτι χορτασθήσεσθε.

μακάριοι οἱ κλαίοντες νῦν,

ὅτι γελάσετε.

^[22]

μακάριοί ἐστε ὅταν μισήσωσιν ὑμᾶς οἱ ἄνθρωποι, καὶ ὅταν ἀφορίσωσιν ὑμᾶς καὶ ὀνειδίσωσι καὶ ἐκβάλωσι τὸ ὄνομα ὑμῶν ὡς πονηρὸν ἕνεκα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

^[23]χάρητε ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ καὶ σκιρτήσατε· ἰδοὺ γὰρ ὁ μισθὸς ὑμῶν πολὺς ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ· κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ γὰρ ἐποίουν τοῖς προφήταις οἱ πατέρες αὐτῶν. ^[24]

Πλὴν οὐαὶ ὑμῖν τοῖς πλουσίοις,

ὅτι ἀπέχετε τὴν παράκλησιν ὑμῶν.

^[25]

οὐαὶ ὑμῖν οἱ ἐμπεπλησμένοι,

ὅτι πεινάσετε.

οὐαὶ ὑμῖν οἱ γελῶντες νῦν,

ὅτι πενθήσετε καὶ κλαύσετε.

^[26]

οὐαὶ ὅταν καλῶς ὑμᾶς εἴπωσι πάντες οἱ ἄνθρωποι·

κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ γὰρ ἐποίουν τοῖς ψευδοπροφήταις

οἱ πατέρες αὐτῶν.

Comments

Μακάριος, ‘blessed’, repeated, is the seed from which the Beatitudes germinate, and is derived from an ancient Egyptian word with after-death undertones.

[17] ὄχλος: ‘crowd’ (cl. Gk poetry & prose: LSJ s.v. I.1), the typical backdrop of Jesus’ words and deeds. In cl. Gk the term can be sinister, ‘mob’ (LSJ s.v. I.2). Also v. 19.

πλῆθος πολὺ τοῦ λαοῦ: πλῆθος, neuter < πίμπλημι, πλήθω, ‘I fill’, means ‘great number, multitude, esp. of people’ (LSJ s.v. I.1). πλῆθος λαοῦ would have sufficed (‘a great number of people’), as πολὺ is pleonastic (‘a big great number of people’). But St Luke, far from careless, is bringing out the huge size of the crowd.

[18] οἱ ὀχλούμενοι: etym. related to ὄχλος above; ὀχλέω, ‘I set in motion’; ‘disturb’ (an ὄχλος creates commotion). The pass. vc ὀχλέομαι, ‘I am troubled’ (used also by medical writers in cl Gk: LJS s.v. ὀχλέω).  

[20] Mακάριοι: the leitmotif of the pericope, cf. vv.  21. 22. The adj. μακάριος (‘happy, blessed’) is the classical, longer form of the archaic μάκαρ. The latter seems to be a loan-word from Egyptian maakheru, used of ‘the dead man who had passed judgement  in the underworld’ and meaning ‘justified by a voice before god, happy, blessed’. E. D. T. Vermeule, Aspects of death…, Berkeley, 1979, pp. 72-3.

[21] γελάσετε: γελάω, ‘I laugh’ (already in the Odyssey). Cf. οἱ γελῶντες, v. 25.

[23] οὐαὶ: ‘an expression of grief or horror’ attested already in LXX (Muraoka s.v.); it is borrowed from Hebrew and transcribed as uae in Latin (Chantraine s.v.).  Repeated in vv. 25 and 26.