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Jesus Traditions |
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Material
in red = Mark .. in blue
= Q
.. in green = Special Matthew ..
in fuchsia = Special Luke
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Contents of Jesus
Traditions
Spirituality and “The Prayer”
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| Jesus as pray-er.
The gospel writers and perhaps also the tradition offer glimpses of Jesus
at prayer, praying because he desired to, praying because he needed to. It
seems likely that what he taught his disciples about praying arose out of
his own experience, an experience which we may imagine was both unique and
typical. What better place to begin than with THE
PRAYER,
in Matthew 6:9-13!
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Matthew 6:9-13 |
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Luke 11:2-4 |
Our
Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day [sêmeron]
our
epiousion [untranslatable] bread; |
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Father,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day [kath hêmeran]
our
epiousion [untranslatable] bread.
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And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of
trial
[or, into temptation],
but rescue us from the evil one
[or, from evil].
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And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone
indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial
[or, into temptation]
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Matthew’s version is
substantially Q material, “enriched” with his own special
material (written, oral, or editorial). The
brevity of the prayer is noteworthy (and more so in Luke’s
version), in
keeping with the warning against praying with too many words, in Matthew 6:5-8.
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Our
Father in heaven . . .
The address of God as father sets the tone for the prayer,
using the metaphor for God that was important
for Jesus. It was already
well known in Jewish piety, and is found in biblical texts such as
Psalm 103:13 and Hosea 11:1-3. Father is of course a
metaphor, in
that God is not literally male or female, nor a father who begets children, as in various
mythological systems; it is a metaphor, in that God in his inmost nature is
indescribable, ineffable; and it is a metaphor, in that after all we do have to
find a way to speak of God, and speak to God. Metaphors like creator,
or king, or judge, as well as father, are concessions
to human language, to refer to God’s actions. But
metaphors do not always work. For an increasing number of people who are
committed to non-sexist language, father misrepresents rather than
communicates who God is. And some people have suffered under fathers who
were irresponsible, authoritarian, or abusive, and who were not worthy of
the name. For many others, it is still a useful metaphor, which personalizes God,
which suggests loving, caring qualities, and which points to a God who is accessible and responsive to human needs (Matthew 7:7-11).
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Hallowed be your name. . . This is prayer as worship, the sanctification of the divine name, in keeping with
the noblest impulses of Jewish piety. Exodus 20:7 expresses the
same idea in negative terms. The ancient Hebrew name revealed to Moses
was YHWH, generally pronounced Yahweh (though in Jewish practice
pronunciation has been withdrawn, and Adonai, or Lord, used
instead). Sanctification of the divine name, in attributing a unique
holiness to God, was a way of acknowledging his exalted and transcendent
being, separate from what was common or profane.
We would
like to know what the original “frame” was for
the puzzling statement in Matthew 7:6, which mandates, “Do
not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls
before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul
you.” We can only speculate about a connection with the hallowing of
God’s name, or other possible meanings.
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Your kingdom come.
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
. . . This petition recognizes that God’s reign or
sovereignty is incomplete, and is yet to be fully realized in the future.
Along with a sense of urgency for the coming of the kingdom is submission
to God’s will, the personal side of the realization of his reign. The
pray-er is drawn to a higher cause before focusing on individual concerns
of food, reconciliation, and resisting evil.
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Give us this day our epiousion
bread . . . . As
already noted, epiousion
is untranslatable, having defied the efforts of linguists and
exegetes to discover an intelligible meaning that had anything to do with
the context. What we do know is that epiousion does not mean
“daily,” such a meaning being offered in most English versions
gratuitously and misleadingly.
What is clear is the
encouragement to bring our requests to God, especially for basic human
needs like food. The reader may
decide the significance of Jesus’ teaching his disciples to pray for bread,
and not cake.
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And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors. . . .
We do not find a theory of sin
in the teaching of Jesus: it is more assumed than taught. We do
find guidance for reconciliation, especially in this prayer for
forgiveness, and a willingness to forgive those who offend us. Such
reciprocal forgiveness is the theme of the parable of the Unmerciful
Servant, in Matthew 18:23-35. Matthew reinforces this theme at the
conclusion of the Prayer, picking up a fragment from Mark—one of the few
places where Mark is used in these chapters.
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Matthew 6:14-15 |
Mark 11:25 |
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14For if you forgive
others their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you;
15but if you do not forgive others, neither will your
Father forgive your trespasses.
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Whenever you stand praying,
forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your
Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
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And do not bring us to the time of
trial [or, into temptation], but rescue us from the evil one [or, from evil]. This
is a prayer for relief from temptation and evil, or from the evil one
(or the devil, in plain language). We do have a
bit of a theological problem here, since we did not think that God
tempted
any one (compare James
1:12-15); why then would we pray for him not to lead us
into temptation? Alternatively, we could render the Greek peirasmos
as trial (so, the NRSV), but it is doubtful whether God
gratuitously arranges for anyone to be subject to a trial or ordeal. We
are left with one or more of these possibilities:
• There is a tendency in Hebraic thought, where
God’s sovereignty is acknowledged as unlimited, to assume that whatever
happens, whether good or bad, is the result of God’s intention. Hence
this petition would be a prayer for God to prevent something evil from
happening.
• We might also keep in mind that some
confusion may have arisen in the process of translation from Aramaic into
Greek, or in the process of oral transmission.
• We cannot eliminate the possibility that
this petition originated not with Jesus but in the praying of the community, and
in due course became
associated with the prayer. The Greek ho ponêros may be
translated as evil or as the evil one, depending upon the
context, and the context permits either rendering.
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[For the kingdom and
the power and the glory are yours forever. Amen. . . . ] Some
Greek manuscripts conclude the prayer with this doxology, but it is
lacking in the earliest and best manuscripts. Its inclusion in certain
later manuscripts probably reflects local practice in some congregation
which was adopted by others.
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Spirituality and Petitionary Prayer
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There is more to
prayer than making requests of God: praise, thanksgiving,
confession and intercession may be mentioned; but petitionary prayer is a
vital, and natural, part of a person’s relationship to God. Some important sayings on petitionary prayer are included in the
“sermon,” especially the request for daily epiousion bread in the
prayer, and the more extended passage in Matthew
7:7-11, which encourages people to petition God
confidently, as a child would ask a parent.
But first, a
word of caution: some people have problems with the idea of petitionary prayer:
• Is this kind of prayer not self-serving?
• Does
God not already know what I need? why do I have to ask? (See Matthew 6:8,
“Do not be like [those who pray in many words], for your Father knows
what you need before you ask him.”)
• Is there not a danger
that God becomes an instrumental value (a means to my end), instead of
an intrinsic value (valued for himself)?
• What are we to think when prayer does not work? and
when it does work, how do we know it was the prayer that brought the
results?
• And—now we are getting in deep here—when the
prayers of the innocent go unheeded, and the sneers of their blasphemous
tormenters go unpunished, where is the heavenly Father when we need him?
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Nevertheless, the “sermon” encourages us: Go
for it! His disciples pray
their petitions:
• Because
petitionary prayer will ensure that the registering of our needs with God
will not become de-personalized
(like registering for food stamps);
• Because
God in his mysterious providence works in ways we do not know;
• Because
it reminds us of our ultimate dependence upon God; and
• Because
the Jesus of the “sermon” bids his disciples pray their petitions; to
do so with some specificity:
“Give us this day . . . ; ask . . . ,
search . . . , knock . . . ;” and to do so if need
be with importunity, or persistence (see Luke
11:5-8).
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Contents of Jesus
Traditions
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| Revised
July 24, 2003
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Click Next
button below to continue, with Jesus Traditions: Sayings (4)
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