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Blessed are the ....?
#1
Blessed are the ....?
I've been pondering the words of the sermon on the mount "Blessed are the . . . ".

What does "blessed" actually mean. I have searched christian and theology websites and have not found an explanation that does not involve circular reasoning. i.e "Blessed are X means that X is filled with Gods' blessing"

Anyone help me out here? The issue is that this sermon is supposed to be the longest teaching of jesus and contain his greatest wisdoms, but I cannot get past the first line.

Regards.

Grimesy
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. — Edward Gibbon

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#2
RE: Blessed are the ....?
blessed = having the grace of god, or garnering the favours from god.
Quote:To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
- Lau Tzu

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#3
RE: Blessed are the ....?
(October 25, 2015 at 7:59 am)Aoi Magi Wrote: blessed = having the grace of god, or garnering the favours from god.

Thanks for the reply, but haven't you just replaced the word "blessed" with "grace".

For the second part of your reply , what on earth does "garnering the favours" mean? We seem to be further away, not closer to an explanation.

Grimesy
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. — Edward Gibbon

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#4
RE: Blessed are the ....?
(October 25, 2015 at 8:10 am)pgrimes15 Wrote:
(October 25, 2015 at 7:59 am)Aoi Magi Wrote: blessed = having the grace of god, or garnering the favours from god.

Thanks for the reply, but haven't you just replaced the word "blessed" with "grace".

For the second part of your reply , what on earth does "garnering the favours" mean? We seem to be further away, not closer to an explanation.

Grimesy

Not quite! The concept is God controls everything and isn't someone you'd want to piss off. Garnering his favours imply that if he is pleased with you, he'd help you with the problems in your life, prevent bad and harmful occurrences, e.t.c

You can easily imagine why you'd want to be on the good-side or garner favours of your superiors, like your teachers or boss, right? That is the same concept with God.
Quote:To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
- Lau Tzu

Join me on atheistforums Slack Cool Shades (pester tibs via pm if you need invite) Tongue

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#5
RE: Blessed are the ....?
Blessed, sin, sacred, spiritual, divine, grace...

All filed under "meaningless".

I suppose blessed means favoured over others, which is something god's quite good at.
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#6
RE: Blessed are the ....?
Ok magi. Lets forget about the "garnering favours" and stick to the original question.

What does "blessed" mean?

Grimesy
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. — Edward Gibbon

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#7
RE: Blessed are the ....?
In my opinion, with english not being my first language, it just means X is better than Y. These sermons exist in German too, after all and you can use the same word in entirely secular circumstances. They're derived from religion, of course.
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#8
RE: Blessed are the ....?
Yeah. Sometimes blessed is used to mean "happen to be good at/have this good attribute" such as "blessed with good looks" or "blessed with a good singing voice". There's sort of a vague implication that you deserve it, which is why I don't tend to use such language.

It can also mean better in some people's opinion, in some intangible way. Like someone blesses me, or some water. In their mind, I'm now somehow better, or the water is magic. In reality, it means nothing.
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#9
RE: Blessed are the ....?
(October 25, 2015 at 8:49 am)pgrimes15 Wrote: Ok magi. Lets forget about the "garnering favours" and stick to the original question.

What does "blessed" mean?

Grimesy

Are you looking for a replacement word or an explanation? 'Cause "being on the good-side of god and garnering favours" is the explanation of "blessed".
Quote:To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
- Lau Tzu

Join me on atheistforums Slack Cool Shades (pester tibs via pm if you need invite) Tongue

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#10
RE: Blessed are the ....?
Ok I'll go with it. What are the favours that a blessed person can garner, but are unavailable to a non-blessed person ? How long does this "being on the good side of god" last ?

Grimesy
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. — Edward Gibbon

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