QUOTE : This leads us back again to the translation issue: since no one English word will do the job in a completely adequate way, I prefer the word “blessed” because of its richer, covenantal, and theological contexts and because the only other real alternative, “happy” (CEB), often results in a focus on psychological happiness and gets associated easily with shallow discussions of happiness in contemporary culture and language.15 A fulsome translation would be “God’s favor is upon….” One final observation about the word “blessed.” Jesus is the one who says who is and who is not blessed. Our customary belief in Jesus somehow leads us at times to miss such a basic point, but one cannot fail to see that Jesus here steps into the pages of Israel’s history as someone who speaks uniquely for God, and he does so with a truth claim so vital that one sees him as more than God’s prophet.