StrongerBible

makarios

μακάριος

GreekG3107blessed, happy, ...

Appears 50 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 5:3Mat 5:4Mat 5:5Mat 5:6Mat 5:7Mat 5:8Mat 5:9Mat 5:10Mat 5:11Mat 11:6Mat 13:16Mat 16:17Mat 24:46Luk 1:45Luk 6:20Luk 6:21 (2×)Luk 6:22Luk 7:23Luk 10:23Luk 11:27Luk 11:28Luk 12:37Luk 12:38Luk 12:43Luk 14:14Luk 14:15Luk 23:29Jhn 13:17Jhn 20:29Act 20:35Act 26:2Rom 4:7Rom 4:8Rom 14:221Co 7:401Ti 1:111Ti 6:15Tit 2:13Jas 1:12Jas 1:251Pe 3:141Pe 4:14Rev 1:3Rev 14:13Rev 16:15Rev 19:9Rev 22:14
Root family
Word studyResearch-grademah-KAH-ree-osadjective

What makarios means

enviably well off: an outside observer's exclamation that someone's whole situation is genuinely to be envied, usually because of where they stand with God

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is the word Jesus uses to open the Beatitudes, and it is regularly translated "blessed," but it is not the Bible's word for a blessing handed down from God. Another word group does that work (the one behind "Blessed are you, O Lord"). This word instead steps back and points: it declares that a person's condition is enviable, that you would want to be in their place. It is a third party's verdict about someone, not a gift being placed on them. The closest plain English is something like "how fortunate" or "how well off," said about the whole shape of a life rather than a passing good mood.

That is why it lands with such force in the Beatitudes. Jesus aims it at the poor, the grieving, the persecuted, and the people nobody would call fortunate, and announces that in God's kingdom they are exactly the ones to be envied. The same form runs across the New Testament: a person who is not tripped up by Jesus, the eyes that see what prophets longed to see, the servant found ready when the master returns, the one who reads and keeps the words of Revelation. In each case the word names a condition that is already true and enviable in God's sight, even when present circumstances look painful.

The senses below mostly differ in setting, not in core meaning. Most uses are this third-party verdict spoken over people. A smaller group sits closer to ordinary Greek speech, where the word simply meant "fortunate" with no particular religious weight. And in a couple of places the New Testament makes a bold move that the Greek Old Testament never did: it turns the word into a title for God himself, the supremely happy and self-sufficient One from whom every good condition flows.

Nuances

1athe verdict spoken over a person that their condition is enviable, because of where they stand with God
Mat 5:3Mat 5:4Mat 5:5Mat 5:6Mat 5:7Mat 5:8Mat 5:9Mat 5:10Mat 5:11Mat 11:6Mat 13:16Mat 16:17
1bfortunate or well off in the ordinary, everyday sense, with no special religious weight
Act 20:35Act 26:21Co 7:40
1csupremely and self-sufficiently happy: a title for God himself, and for the hope bound up with him
1Ti 1:111Ti 6:15Tit 2:13

What scholars say about makarios

Standard reference works agree on the basic data even where translators disagree on the best English word. BDAG glosses the word "blessed, fortunate, happy," cataloguing both the old Greek use for the carefree gods and the New Testament beatitude form, and Louw and Nida place it in the domain of "Happy, Glad, Joyful," deliberately avoiding "blessed" because that English word imports a being-blessed-by-another the word does not itself carry. The decisive lexical point, made by Friedrich Hauck and Georg Bertram in TDNT and pressed in the comparative study of Cornelius de Heer, is that two Greek streams meet here: the classical use for the deathless, carefree gods and blessed dead, and the Hellenistic philosophical question of the truly flourishing life (Aristotle, the Stoics, the Epicureans). The Hebrew side is equally clear: the Greek Old Testament uses this word almost only to render the wisdom-and-psalm exclamation "how fortunate is the one who," a state that results from blessing rather than the act of blessing, a formal point established by Waldemar Janzen. R. T. France's statement that it "does not denote one whom God blesses, but represents the Hebrew 'ashre, fortunate" is the most quoted modern summary. Within the New Testament the live debate is over the speech-act: Robert Guelich and the Davies-Allison commentary read the Beatitudes as eschatological declarations of God's favor rather than entrance requirements (against Georg Strecker); Ulrich Luz keeps "blessed" as an unconditional gift of grace; Jonathan Pennington argues for "flourishing" and is answered by Brandon Crowe and others who note that most beatitudes promise a future state and that "flourishing" claims too much too soon; Charles Talbert and France prefer "congratulations to" or "fortunate," while Hanson, Neyrey, and John Elliott read the form as honor-ascription. The application of the word to God himself in the Pastoral Epistles, which the Greek Old Testament never permitted, is widely understood (Mounce, Knight, Marshall and Towner, Luke Timothy Johnson) as a Hellenistic-Jewish move mediated through Philo, who routinely calls God the blessed one.

Where scholars disagree about makarios

Scholars agree the traditional rendering "blessed" obscures the word's force but disagree sharply on what to put in its place and on what kind of speech-act the Beatitudes perform: an authorized pronouncement of God's favor (so "blessed"), a description of a flourishing condition (so "flourishing"), a third-party congratulation (so "congratulations to" or "fortunate"), an honor-ascription (so "how honorable"), or a recalibrated "blessed." The choice decides whether the Beatitudes read as grace-declarations, portraits of the genuinely flourishing life, prophetic announcements of reversal, or all at once.

  • contestedAn eschatological declaration of God's favor; keep a recalibrated "blessed"; R. A. Guelich, JBL 95 (1976): 415-34; U. Luz, Matthew 1-7 (Hermeneia, 2007), 226-44; W. D. Davies and D. C. Allison, Matthew (ICC, 1988), 1:429-69
  • minorityA description of human flourishing; render "flourishing"; J. T. Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing (Baker Academic, 2017)
  • contestedA third-party congratulation about an enviable condition; render "fortunate" or "congratulations to"; R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew (NICNT, 2007), 161; C. H. Talbert, Reading the Sermon on the Mount (2004), 69-72
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG (3rd ed., 2000), s.v. μακάριος, 610-11lexicon
  • Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the NT Based on Semantic Domains, 25.119lexicon
  • F. Hauck and G. Bertram, "μακάριος," TDNT 4:362-70dictionary
  • C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 2:432-47dictionary
  • M. Silva (ed.), NIDNTTE, 3:217-24dictionary
  • W. Janzen, "'Ashre in the Old Testament," Harvard Theological Review 58 (1965): 215-26article
  • C. de Heer, MAKAR-EUDAIMON-OLBIOS-EUTYCHES (Hakkert, 1969)monograph
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew (NICNT, 2007), 161commentary
  • R. A. Guelich, "The Matthean Beatitudes: 'Entrance Requirements' or 'Eschatological Blessings'?", JBL 95 (1976): 415-34article
  • W. D. Davies and D. C. Allison, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (ICC, 1988), 1:429-69commentary
  • U. Luz, Matthew 1-7 (Hermeneia, 2007), 226-44commentary
  • J. T. Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing (Baker Academic, 2017)monograph
  • J. A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke I-IX (Anchor Bible, 1981), 631-35commentary
  • W. D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles (WBC, 2000)commentary
  • L. T. Johnson, The First and Second Letters to Timothy (Anchor Bible, 2001)commentary

All attested forms of μακάριος

nominative m p

μακάριοι, Μακάριοι, μακάριοί, Μακάριοί

Mat 13:16, Luk 6:20, Luk 10:23, Luk 11:28, Luk 12:37, Jhn 20:29, Rom 4:7, 1Pe 3:14

nominative m s

μακάριος, μακάριός

Mat 16:17, Mat 24:46, Luk 12:43, Luk 14:14, Luk 14:15, Rom 4:8, Rom 14:22, 1Ti 6:15

nominative f s

μακαρία, μακαριωτέρα

Luk 1:45, Luk 11:27, 1Co 7:40

accusative f s

μακαρίαν

Tit 2:13

accusative m s

μακάριον

Act 26:2

genitive m s

μακαρίου

1Ti 1:11

nominative f p

μακάριαι

Luk 23:29

nominative n s

μακάριόν

Act 20:35