King James Version of Matthew 5:3-6
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:
for they shall be filled.
Joseph Smith Translation
Yea, blessed are the poor in spirit, which cometh unto me; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And again, blessed are all they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
And blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
And blessed are all they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness:
for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.
1. Being poor in spirit is not sufficient for entering the Kingdom of Heaven, you have to come to CHRIST as well. I believe this is literal and not just a statement acknowledging that JESUS is the Savior.
2. Basically no significant changes to verse 4 and 5. There are two comforters who are members of the GODHEAD. The HOLY GHOST is the first comforter. I presently agree with Margaret and Paul Toscano that this GOD is our Heavenly Mother. What better Being to comfort us than our Eternal Mother. JESUS is the 2nd comforter. No church controls the receipt of this kind of divine comfort.
3. We may want to figure out what being meek really is if we want to inherit a celestialized Earth.
4. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness leads to being filled with the HOLY GHOST, not just being filled. Fasting is probably part of this. Knowing we know nothing compared to GOD, and desiring to know more is definitely a piece of this idea.
5. Usually Joseph did a better job with relative pronouns (that,which, and who). My only quibble with this passage is with the phrase "which cometh unto me". It is not grammatically correct. "Which" is used for non-human nouns, and "who" is the preferred pronoun for referring to people. In many other places in the Bible Joseph changed "which" to "who", so maybe this was just an oversight. He was constantly running for his life for most of the time from 1830-1844. One of the signs to me of Joseph's divine commission was the fact he makes the Bible not just clearer, but more linguistically correct. Tough to do if you are just going off a few years of education. Easy to do with GOD's assistance.
