Most interpreters have read this beatitude in the context of the
dispositions required for entrance into the kingdom. Accordingly, W. D. Davies
and Dale Allison interpret righteousness as “the right conduct which God
requires, as in 6:33.… Righteousness cannot, in this verse, have anything to do
with divine vindication, nor can it mean justification or be God’s gift.” In
the previous beatitudes, on the other hand, the emphasis on the pious poor in
their longing for fulfillment of God’s promises suggests that “dikaiosynē here means ‘justice’ rather
than ‘personal righteousness.’ ” Once again this beatitude, which has
roots in exilic and postexilic Judaism, has been reinterpreted in Christian
tradition so that the hungering and thirsting it blesses are not for vindication
and God’s kingdom but for personal righteousness. The latter is certainly
rooted in Jewish tradition also, yet it is also emphasized in Christian
teaching (didachē) as the
eschatological hope of Israel is spiritualized. (R. Alan Culpepper, Matthew:
A Commentary [The New Testament Library; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2021], 93)
