“In the beatitudes, there is no verb, there is no are. Why should that be? Jesus did not speak the beatitudes in Greek; he spoke them in Aramaic, which was the kind of Hebrew people spoke in his day. Aramaic and Hebrew have a very common kind of expression, which is in fact an exclamation and which means: ‘O the blessedness of …’. That expression is very common in the Old Testament. For instance, the first Psalm begins in the Hebrew: ‘O the blessedness of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked’ (Psalm 1:1). That is the form in which Jesus first spoke the beatitudes. The beatitudes are not simple statements; they are exclamations: ‘O the blessedness of the poor in spirit!’ That is most important, for it means that the beatitudes are not pious hopes of what shall be; they are not glowing, but vague prophecies of some future bliss; they are congratulations on what is.”

- William Barclay

“We must be careful not to think that this beatitude calls actual material poverty a good thing. Poverty is not a good thing. Jesus would never have called blessed a state where people live in slums and do not have enough to eat, and where health deteriorates because conditions are all against it. The poverty which is blessed is the poverty of spirit, when people realize their own utter lack of resources to meet life, and find their help and strength in God.

“If people have realized their own utter helplessness, and have put their whole trust in God, there will enter into their lives two elements which are opposite sides of the same coin. They will become completely detached from material things, for they will know that things do not have the power to bring happiness or security; and they will become completely attached to God, for they will know that God alone can bring them help, hope and strength. Those who are poor in spirit are men and women who have realized that things mean nothing, and that God means everything.”

- William Barclay