Bible Commentaries

Use not vain repetitions (μη βατταλογησητε). Used of stammerers who repeat the words, then mere babbling or chattering, empty repetition. The etymology is uncertain, but it is probably onomatopoetic like "babble." The worshippers of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 8:26) and of Diana in the amphitheatre at Ephesus who yelled for two hours (Acts 19:34) are examples. The Mohammedans may also be cited who seem to think that they "will be heard for their much speaking" (εν τη πολυλογια). Vincent adds "and the Romanists with their paternosters and avast." The Syriac Sinaitic has it: "Do not be saying idle things." Certainly Jesus does not mean to condemn all repetition in prayer since he himself prayed three times in Gethsemane "saying the same words again" (Matthew 26:44). "As the Gentiles do," says Jesus. "The Pagans thought that by endless repetitions and many words they would inform their gods as to their needs and weary them ('fatigare deos') into granting their requests" (Bruce).

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After this manner therefore pray ye (ουτως ουν προσευχεσθε υμεις). "You" expressed in contrast with "the Gentiles." It should be called "The Model Prayer" rather than "The Lord's Prayer." "Thus" pray as he gives them a model. He himself did not use it as a liturgy (cf. Matthew 6:17). There is no evidence that Jesus meant it for liturgical use by others. In Luke 11:2-4 practically the same prayer though briefer is given at a later time by Jesus to the apostles in response to a request that he teach them how to pray. McNeile argues that the form in Luke is the original to which Matthew has made additions: "The tendency of liturgical formulas is towards enrichment rather than abbreviation." But there is no evidence whatever that Jesus designed it as a set formula. There is no real harm in a liturgical formula if one likes it, but no one sticks to just one formula in prayer. There is good and not harm in children learning and saying this noble prayer. Some people are disturbed over the words "Our Father" and say that no one has a right to call God Father who has not been "born again." But that is to say that an unconverted sinner cannot pray until he is converted, an absurd contradiction. God is the Father of all men in one sense; the recognition of Him as the Father in the full sense is the first step in coming back to him in regeneration and conversion. Hallowed be thy name (αγιασθητω το ονομα σου). In the Greek the verb comes first as in the petitions in verse Matthew 6:10. They are all aorist imperatives, punctiliar action expressing urgency.

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Our daily bread (τον αρτον ημων τον επιουσιον). This adjective "daily" (επιουσιον) coming after "Give us this day" (δος ημιν σημερον) has given expositors a great deal of trouble. The effort has been made to derive it from επ and ων (ουσα). It clearly comes from επ and ιων (επ and ειμ) like τη επιουση ("on the coming day," "the next day," Acts 16:12). But the adjective επιουσιος is rare and Origen said it was made by the Evangelists Matthew and Luke to reproduce the idea of an Aramaic original. Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary say: "The papyri have as yet shed no clear light upon this difficult word (Matthew 6:11; Luke 11:3), which was in all probability a new coinage by the author of the Greek Q to render his Aramaic Original" (this in 1919). Deissmann claims that only about fifty purely New Testament or "Christian" words can be admitted out of the more than 5,000 used. "But when a word is not recognizable at sight as a Jewish or Christian new formation, we must consider it as an ordinary Greek word until the contrary is proved. Επιουσιος has all the appearance of a word that originated in trade and traffic of the everyday life of the people (cf. my hints in Neutestamentliche Studien Georg Heinrici dargebracht, Leipzig, 1914, pp. 118f.). The opinion here expressed has been confirmed by A. Debrunner's discovery (Theol. Lit. Ztg. 1925, Col. 119) of επιουσιος in an ancient housekeeping book" (Light from the Ancient East, New ed. 1927, p. 78 and note 1). So then it is not a word coined by the Evangelist or by Q to express an Aramaic original. The word occurs also in three late MSS. after 2Macc. 1:8, τους επιουσιους after τους αρτους. The meaning, in view of the kindred participle (επιουση) in Acts 16:12, seems to be "for the coming day," a daily prayer for the needs of the next day as every housekeeper understands like the housekeeping book discovered by Debrunner.

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Our debts (τα οφειληματα ημων). Luke (Luke 11:4) has "sins" (αμαρτιας). In the ancient Greek οφειλημα is common for actual legal debts as in Romans 4:4, but here it is used of moral and spiritual debts to God. "Trespasses" is a mistranslation made common by the Church of England Prayer Book. It is correct in verse Matthew 6:14 in Christ's argument about prayer, but it is not in the Model Prayer itself. See Matthew 18:28; Matthew 18:30 for sin pictured again by Christ "as debt and the sinner as a debtor" (Vincent). We are thus described as having wronged God. The word οφειλη for moral obligation was once supposed to be peculiar to the New Testament. But it is common in that sense in the papyri (Deismann, Bible Studies, p. 221; Light from the Ancient East, New ed., p. 331). We ask forgiveness "in proportion as" (ως) we also have forgiven those in debt to us, a most solemn reflection. Αφηκαμεν is one of the three k aorists (εθηκα, εδωκα, ηκα). It means to send away, to dismiss, to wipe off.

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And bring us not into temptation (κα μη εισενεγκηις εις πειρασμον). "Bring" or "lead" bothers many people. It seems to present God as an active agent in subjecting us to temptation, a thing specifically denied in James 1:13. The word here translated "temptation" (πειρασμον) means originally "trial" or "test" as in James 1:2 and Vincent so takes it here. Braid Scots has it: "And lat us no be siftit." But God does test or sift us, though he does not tempt us to evil. No one understood temptation so well as Jesus for the devil tempted him by every avenue of approach to all kinds of sin, but without success. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus will say to Peter, James, and John: "Pray that ye enter not into temptation" (Luke 22:40). That is the idea here. Here we have a "Permissive imperative" as grammarians term it. The idea is then: "Do not allow us to be led into temptation." There is a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13), but it is a terrible risk. From the evil one (απο του πονηρου). The ablative case in the Greek obscures the gender. We have no way of knowing whether it is ο πονηρος (the evil one) or το πονηρον (the evil thing). And if it is masculine and so ο πονηρος, it can either refer to the devil as the Evil One par excellence or the evil man whoever he may be who seeks to do us ill. The word πονηρος has a curious history coming from πονος (toil) and πονεω (to work). It reflects the idea either that work is bad or that this particular work is bad and so the bad idea drives out the good in work or toil, an example of human depravity surely. The Doxology is placed in the margin of the Revised Version. It is wanting in the oldest and best Greek manuscripts. The earliest forms vary very much, some shorter, some longer than the one in the Authorized Version. The use of a doxology arose when this prayer began to be used as a liturgy to be recited or to be chanted in public worship. It was not an original part of the Model Prayer as given by Jesus.

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Trespasses (παραπτωματα). This is no part of the Model Prayer. The word "trespass" is literally "falling to one side," a lapse or deviation from truth or uprightness. The ancients sometimes used it of intentional falling or attack upon one's enemy, but "slip" or "fault" (Galatians 6:1) is the common New Testament idea. Παραβασις (Romans 5:14) is a positive violation, a transgression, conscious stepping aside or across.

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Of a sad countenance (σκυθρωπο). Only here and Luke 24:17 in the N.T. It is a compound of σκυθρος (sullen) and οπς (countenance). These actors or hypocrites "put on a gloomy look" (Goodspeed) and, if necessary, even "disfigure their faces" (αφανιζουσιν τα προσωπα αυτων), that they may look like they are fasting. It is this pretence of piety that Jesus so sharply ridicules. There is a play on the Greek words αφανιζουσ (disfigure) and φανωσιν (figure). They conceal their real looks that they may seem to be fasting, conscious and pretentious hypocrisy.

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In secret (εν τω κρυφαιω). Here as in Matthew 6:4; Matthew 6:6 the Textus Receptus adds εν τω φανερω (openly), but it is not genuine. The word κρυφαιος is here alone in the New Testament, but occurs four times in the Septuagint.

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