Textual: The 3 Nephi saying differs from the Matthean phrase with the addition of the final clause “for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.”
Matthew 5:6
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
This addition is interesting because it completes an implicit parallel to the “after righteousness” in the Matthean phrase. On structural grounds alone, the Matthean phrase would be suspect because it is unique in creating a metaphorical meaning to the current difficulties of the people. In the rest of the Beatitudes, the first clause is hardly metaphorical. It is a real condition that plagues the people. They are poor, not simply poor in spirit (though that qualifier acts similarly to the “after righteousness” in this passage. The meek are truly unempowered, not simply unempowered as to religion.
The Matthean redaction has added qualifiers to move the meaning away from physical conditions and into the spiritual condition. While that possibility was always present, Matthew manifestly alters that context. The 3 Nephi passage follows that redactional tendency, and “improves” the text by a paralleled shift to the manifestly religious meaning.
It is probable that the original phrase would have been “blessed are they who do hunger and thrist, for they shall be filled.” That would be a much tighter literary parallel to the similar “blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” In the context of the original audience, hunger and thirst would have been real and temporally present conditions. That they would be filled was a future promise. However, just as with the “mourn/comforted’ pairing, this was not a simply satiation of hunger, but a filling with something more permanent and important.
Matthew elects to point the reader in that direction with the addition of the phrase “after righteousness.” The 3 Nephi text further extends that same thought by explaining with what the people will be filled. However, the paralleling of this addition with Matthews addition creates a complementary parallel, and that violates the antithetical parallel that is the heart of these Beatitudes. Textually, it is easy to see “after righteousness” as a Matthean redactional addition. Similarly, the 3 Nephi “for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost” is a redactional addition. Our question is where it came from.
There are two possibilities. The Book of Mormon could be accurately portraying the Savior’s words to the people in Bountiful. In this case, the addition is the Savior’s clarification that is reproduced. There is a tremendous emotional strength behind this position, and a large body of LDS interpretive commentary would support it. There are, however, problems with the analysis. The first is that the second addition is dependent upon the first. If it was Matthew who added the first phrase, then the phrase that was added to parallel it would also be later than the spoken words of Jesus. Secondly, we have the very fact that this Beatitude appears to have less relevance to the New World. The only times we have hunger mentioned in the Book of Mormon is in times of famine. For most of the text there is no indication that there is any problem with food at all. In the cultural context of Mesoamerica the conditions that caused the hunger of the peasants of Jesus’ time did not exist.
When we add up the multiple conditions pertaining to this text, it appears most probable that Joseph Smith is interacting with the Matthean text, and using that text as a representation of Jesus’ words, whether or not they were completely accurate. That is not to say that Jesus could not have given this Sermon as written. He could have. However, if he were sufficiently literate to use the Beatitude structures, he would likely have continued those structures rather than violate them in his presentation. For the same reason that we can see a redactional addition in Matthew, we see it in the 3 Nephi text. The nature of that addition suggests that it was an expansion of the first clause, and therefore a reaction to Matthew’s text rather than to the specific conditions of the New World.
Comment: In spite of the evidence of textual addition, this is not a foreign concept to the Nephites. The idea that the Atoning Messiah will bring them a “more filling food” was part of the message of other prophets.
Alma uses this imagery to describe the effect of the gospel on one’s life:
Alma 32:42
42 And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst. (Italics added).
The imagery is repeated by the Savior himself later in his experience with the Nephites:
3 Nephi 20:8
8 And he said unto them: He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled.
While both of these passages contain metaphors and analogies to eating specific items, neither feels required to explicitly delineate the spiritual context of the saying as does the Matthean and the 3 Nephi Beatitutde. The rest of the discourse could provide the spiritual context, and the explicit designation has the feel of an addition, even though it is a logical one, and one that had precedent in the Book of Mormon text. Of course, the close parallel in phrasing also suggests that while the conception was known, the particular language is once again dictated by Joseph’s experience with the New Testament.