Meek, Humble, Poor in Spirit - Aren’t they all the same thing?

If you have ever read the Beatitudes, you will be forgiven if you have wondered (like me) what Jesus really meant when he used the words ‘meek’ in verse 5 and ‘poor in spirit’ in verse 3. At first glance, they look like synonyms for the word ‘humble’. But this is Jesus, every word counts, if he wanted to use the same phrase or word twice, he would just have done so. The question for us then, is what does it mean to be ‘meek’ vs ‘poor in spirit’?

Now bear with me for a minute, I want to take you on a short Bible study journey. To understand what Jesus is getting at, we may need to search a little deeper. If I were doing my own study (spoiler alert, I actually did!), I would read both verses using a Bible app (probably Biblehub or YouVersion) with multiple versions in parallel to try and answer the question.

Now it seems most translations have used a verbatim Greek translation of the expression ‘poor in spirit’ in verse 3 but in verse 5 the word ‘meek’ is sometimes replaced with either ‘gentle’ or ‘humble’ for verse 5. Okay, so what next? I turn to the original Greek text (all in my Bible app),‘poor in spirit’ is a literal translation of the words in Greek, so not much to do here. But I see something interesting in the word ‘meek’. The original Greek word used in the text is praeis which means ‘mild’ or ‘gentle’. My app also tells me that praeis is used in other verses in the New Testament and is usually translated as ‘gentle’. Bingo! Jesus means gentle here!

But what about humility, where does that fit into this famous passage, I dig a little deeper (in a Bible commentary) on the phrase ‘poor in spirit’ and it seems it’s an idiom coined by Jesus to mean humble.

So now, I get it if I am gentle, I will inherit the earth and that makes perfect sense to me. Why? Well…we are all more likely to help, give or go out of our way for someone who approaches us gently. We all want to help people who aren’t cantankerous, loud or abrasive!

As ever, Jesus is right, blessed are the meek (now I know what that means!) for they will inherit the earth!

Questions for reflection: Do I have access online or otherwise to a Bible commentary? Am I meek (gentle)? Have I asked the Holy Spirit to help me to be gentle?