What Does Matthew 5:11 Mean?
Flourishing are you when they revile you, and pursue you, and speak every evil word against you, lying, for my sake.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.THE KEY
The word translated “persecute” means to pursue: hostility can chase you, but this verse still names you flourishing.
THE MEANING
You are called flourishing when others insult you, pursue you, and tell lies about you because of Jesus. Their hostility is real, and it does not cancel the life this verse names in you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that public rejection proves you have been abandoned by God.
THE ROOT
διώξουσιν
diōxousin
GROWS FROM
διωκ-
To pursue or chase; in a hostile setting, to persecute.
English “persecute” narrows the word to harm, while διώκω (diōkō, to pursue) carries the broader motion of a chase. The same verb can describe pursuing peace, so here it names the hostility directed at you without making that hostility your identity.
ALSO GROWS
diōkō: Pursue or follow after
διώκω
Romans 14:19 uses this same verb family for following after peace, revealing that the word names pursuit itself, whether hostile or constructive.
diōkomenoi: Those being pursued or persecuted
διωκόμενοι
Matthew 5:10 uses this form for people being pursued, linking the hostility here to a recurring image of being chased.
μακάριοί
makarioi
GROWS FROM
μακαρ-
Flourishing; a state of well-being.
The sentence names flourishing before it names the insults and pursuit. The word holds the two realities together without suggesting that hostility is pleasant or unreal.
ALSO GROWS
makarizō: Call someone flourishing or blessed
μακαρίζω
This related word shows that flourishing can be named aloud, as it is here, even when others speak against you.
makarismos: Blessedness or a declaration of flourishing
μακαρισμός
This related noun presents blessedness as a condition that can be described, not merely a passing feeling.
THE PATTERN
The image of pursuit can describe both hostility closing in and deliberate movement toward what is good.
Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto the LORD, concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite. O LORD my God, in you I take shelter. Deliver me from all who pursue me, and pull me free.So then let us pursue the things that move toward wholeness, and the things that build one another up.Not that I have already taken hold, or have already been made complete. But I pursue, if somehow I may seize that for which I was also seized by Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
So then let us pursue the things that move toward wholeness, and the things that build one another up.The verb in “persecute” is διώξουσιν (diōxousin, they will pursue), from διώκω (diōkō, pursue); Romans 14:19 uses the same word family for following after peace. The Greek keeps the chase in view, showing that the pursuit directed at you is not the same as the direction your life takes.
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