Matthew 6:8

Mat 6:8. Πρὸ κ.τ.λ., before, etc.) We pray, therefore, not with the view of instructing, but of adoring, the Father.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_6:8. Οὖν] seeing that you are expected to shun heathen error.

οἶδε γὰρ, κ.τ.λ.] so that, this being the case, that βαττολογεῖν is superfluous.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 6:8 , οὖν , infers that disciples must not imitate the practice described, because it is Pagan, and because it is absurd. Repetition is, moreover, wholly uncalled for. οἶδεν γὰρ : the God whom Jesus proclaims “your Father” knows beforehand your needs. Why, then, pray at all? Because we cannot receive unless we desire, and if we desire, we will pray; also because things worth getting are worth asking. Only pray always as to a Being well informed and willing, in few words and in faith. With such thoughts in mind, Jesus proceeds to give a sample of suitable prayer.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him--and so needs not to be informed of our wants, any more than to be roused to attend to them by our incessant speaking. What a view of God is here given, in sharp contrast with the gods of the heathen! But let it be carefully noted that it is not as the general Father of mankind that our Lord says, "Your Father" knoweth what ye need before ye ask it; for it is not men, as such, that He is addressing in this discourse, but His own disciples--the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, hungry and thirsty souls, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, who allow themselves to have all manner of evil said against them for the Son of man's sake--in short, the new-born children of God, who, making their Father's interests their own, are here assured that their Father, in return, makes their interests His, and needs neither to be told nor to be reminded of their wants. Yet He will have His children pray to Him, and links all His promised supplies to their petitions for them; thus encouraging us to draw near and keep near to Him, to talk and walk with Him, to open our every case to Him, and assure ourselves that thus asking we shall receive--thus seeking we shall find--thus knocking it shall be opened to us.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 8. Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of] Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery; to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven, and to put him in mind that THERE is his Father, his country, and inheritance.

In the preceding verses we may see three faults, which our Lord commands us to avoid in prayer:-

1st. HYPOCRISY. Be not as the hypocrites. Mt 6:5.

2ndly. DISSIPATION. Enter into thy closet. Mt 6:6.

3rdly. MUCH SPEAKING, or UNMEANING REPETITION, Be not like the heathens. Mt 6:7.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(8) Your Father knoweth.—This truth is rightly made the ground of prayer in one of the noblest collects of the Prayer Book of the English Church—“Almighty God, the Fountain of all wisdom, who knowest our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking.” Comp. St. Paul’s “We know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Rom_8:26). But why then, it may be asked, pray at all? Why “make our requests known unto God” (Php_4:6)? Logically, it may be, the question never has been, and never can be, answered. As in the parallel question of foreknowledge and free will, we are brought into a region in which convictions that seem, each of them, axiomatic, appear to contradict each other. All that can be done is to suggest partial solutions of the problem. We bring our wants and desires to God (1) that we may see them as He sees them, judge how far they are selfish or capricious, how far they are in harmony with His will; (2) that we may, in the thought of that Presence and its infinite holiness, feel that all other prayers—those which are but the expression of wishes for earthly good, or deliverance from earthly evil—are of infinitely little moment as compared with deliverance from the penalty and the power of the sin which we have made our own; (3) that, conscious of our weakness, we may gain strength for the work and the conflict of life in communion with the Eternal, who is in very deed a “Power that makes for righteousness.” These are, if we may so speak, the lines upon which the Lord’s Prayer has been constructed, and all other prayers are excellent in proportion as they approach that pattern. Partial deviations from it, as in prayers for fine weather, for plenty, and for victory, are yet legitimate (though they drift in a wrong direction), as the natural utterance of natural wants, which, if repressed, would find expression in superstition or despair. It is better that even these petitions, though not the highest form of prayer, should be purified by their association with the highest, than that they should remain unuttered as passionate cravings or, it may be, murmuring regrets.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. for your Father knoweth … before ye ask him] Our Father knows our wants, still we are bound to express them. Why? because this is a proof of our faith and dependence upon God, which are the conditions of success in prayer.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be not ye therefore like unto them,..... Do not be imitators of them, and follow their ways, who have only the dim light of nature to guide them; it would be shameful in you to do as they do, when you have a divine revelation for your direction; and especially, because

your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him; and therefore have no need to make use of many words, or much speaking, or long prayers. The omniscience of God is a considerable argument, and a great encouragement to prayer; he knows our persons and our wants before hand; and as he is able to help us, we have reason to believe he will; especially since he stands in the relation of a Father to us.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Ver. 8. Be not ye therefore like unto them] God would not have his Israel conform to the heathens’ customs, nor so much as once name their idols, Exo 23:13; Psa 16:4. No more should Christians (as some are of the opinion). {a} That of Cardinal Bembus is somewhat gross concerning their St Francis, quod in numerum Deorum ab Ecclesia Romana sit relatus. But this is like the rest; for if we may believe Baronius, we may see their lustral water and sprinkling of sepulchres in Juvenal’s sixth satire; lights in sepulchres, in Suetonius’ Octavius; lamps lighted on Saturday, in Seneca’s 96th Epistle; distribution of tapers among the people, in Macrob. Saturnals, &c.

For your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye need, &c.] And therefore answereth many times before we ask, Isa 65:24; as he did David, Psa 32:1-11. He prevents us with many mercies we never sought him for; that our praises may exceed our prayers. "I am found of them that sought me not," saith God; but yet in the same place it is said, "I am sought of them that asked not for me," Isa 65:1. Importing, that we never seek to him for grace till effectually called by his grace. Howbeit, no sooner is any truly called, but he presently prayeth. Say not then, if God know our needs, what need we open them to him? The truth is, we do it not to inform him of that he knows not, {b} or to stir up mercy in him, who is all hearts, and perfectly pitieth us: but, 1. Hereby we acknowledge him as a child doth his father when he runs to him for food, Luk 11:13; Luk 2:1-52. We run that course of getting good things that he hath prescribed us, Jer 29:11-12. Which Moses and Elijah knew, and therefore the former turned God’s predictions, the latter his promises, into prayers, Exo 9:33; 1Ki 18:37; 1Ki 3:1-28. Hereby we prepare ourselves holily to enjoy the things we crave; for prayer both sanctifieth the creature and increaseth our love and thankfulness, Psa 116:1; Psa 4:1-8. Prayer prepareth us, either to go without that we beg, if God see fit, as David when he prayed for the child’s life, and was fitted thereby to bear the loss of it; or else to part with that which we have got by prayer, for the glory of God the giver of it. Those that make their requests known to God with thanksgiving, shall have (at least) the "peace of God that passeth all understanding," to guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. {φρουρησει, Php 4:6-7} They shall have strength in their souls, the joy of the Lord shall be their strength, the glory of the Lord shall be their rereward, Psa 138:3; Neh 8:10; Isa 58:8. In their marching in the wilderness, at the fourth alarm, arose the standard of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali; these were the reguard of the Lord’s host; and to these were committed the care of gathering together the lame, feeble, and sick, and to look that nothing was left behind. Unto this the prophet Isaiah seems (in that text) to allude, and so doth David, Psa 27:10; "When my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will gather me;" and this comfortable assurance was the fruit of his prayer.

{a} Non male dixit Tertullianus, Philosophos esse Haereticorum Patriarchas.

{b} Non sane ut Deus instruatur, sed ut mens nostra construatur.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be not ye therefore like. Revised Version omits "ye," as the emphatic personal pronoun is not expressed. The connexion of thought is Seeing you are expected to shun heathen error (Meyer), do not allow yourselves to reproduce heathen practices. By observing these you would be taking a definite way of becoming like (passive, or rather middle, omoiwyhte) those who ordinarily practise them. For; i.e. you stand on a different footing altogether from the heathen; you are intimately related to One above, who knows your wants, even before you express them to him. Your Father; Revised Version margin, "some ancient authorities read God your Father. " So a*, B, sah. (o Yeov is bracketed by Westcott and Hort).

The insertion is at first sight suspicious, but as there is no trace of such an addition in vers. 1, 4, 6, 14. 18 (in ver. 32 only a*), it is hard to see why it should have been interpolated here. Its omission, on the other hand, is easily accounted for by its absence in those passages. The internal evidence, therefore, corroborates the strong external evidence of a*, B. Our Lord here said "God" to emphasize the majesty and power of "your Father." Knoweth; i.e. intuitively (oiden); el. ver. 32.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of - We do not pray to inform God of our wants. Omniscient as he is, he cannot be informed of any thing which he knew not before: and he is always willing to relieve them. The chief thing wanting is, a fit disposition on our part to receive his grace and blessing. Consequently, one great office of prayer is, to produce such a disposition in us: to exercise our dependence on God; to increase our desire of the things we ask for; to us so sensible of our wants, that we may never cease wrestling till we have prevailed for the blessing.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Warning against such absurd practices:

v. 8. Be not ye therefore like unto them; for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.

The Christians should differ from the heathen by a sharp distinction. They shall not be like the heathen; there shall be no point of resemblance between their worship and that of the heathen. Their idea of prayer is essentially unlike that of the Gentiles. "Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue. The eloquence of prayer consists in the fervency of desire and the simplicity of faith. The abundance of fine thoughts, studied and vehement motions, and the order and politeness of the expressions, are things which compose a mere human harangue, not a humble and Christian prayer. Our trust and confidence ought to proceed from that which God is able to do in us, and not from that which we can say to Him. " Another point bringing out the absurdity of "babbling prayers: our needs are known to God before we make them known in our prayers. As a true Father He is concerned about the wants and troubles of His children, and gets His information often before they are aware of their lack, Isa 65:24. "God commands us to pray, not indeed that we with our prayer should teach Him what He should give, but rather that we should realize and confess what kind of goods He gives to us, and will and can give much more; so that by our prayer we instruct our

selves more than Him."

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. For your Father knoweth. Here is given abundant reason for short prayers. Many prayers apparently aim to give God information on matters connected with this world.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

Jesus is talking to a group of people about how they as individuals should pray. The words "you" and "your" are plural in the first sentence. Within the prayer, the words "you" and "your" are singular and refer to God, "Our Father in heaven." (See: Forms of You)

Our Father in heaven

This is the beginning of the prayer and how Jesus teaches the people to address God.

Father

This is an important title for God. (See: Translating Son and Father)

may your name be sanctified

Here "your name" refers to God himself. AT: "make everyone honor you" (See: Metonymy)

May your kingdom come

Here "kingdom" refers to God's rule as king. AT: "May you rule over everyone and everything completely" (See: Metonymy)

May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

This can be stated in active form. AT: "May everything on earth happen in accordance with your will as everything in heaven does" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

God the Father

sanctify

kingdom of God

will of God

heaven

earth

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

8. οἶδεν γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ κ.τ.λ. Our Father knows our wants, still we are bound to express them. Why? because this is a proof of our faith and dependence upon God, which are the conditions of success in prayer.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. οἶδεν γάρ] εἰ οἶδε, φησίν, ὧν χρείαν ἔχομεν, τίνος ἕνεκεν εὔχεσθαι δεῖ; οὐχ ἵνα διδάξῃς, ἀλλʼ ἵνα ἐπικάμψῃς· ἵνα οἰκειωθῇς τῇ συνεχείᾳ τῆς ἐντεύξεως, ἵνα ταπεινωθῇς, ἵνα ἀναμνησθῇς τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων τῶν σῶν. Chrys. Hom. xix. 4, p. 249. ‘Ipsa orationis intentio cor nostrum serenat et purgat, capaciusque efficit ad accipienda divina munera, quæ spiritualiter nobis infunduntur.’ August. de Serm. Dom. ii. 3 (14).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. Be not therefore like to them: for your Father knoweth what things ye need, before you ask Him.]

οἶδε γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν] Cf. v. 32 = Luk 12:30.—αἰτῆσαι] D h have ἀνοῖξαι τὸ στόμα. For “before you ask Him,” cf. Isa 65:24.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.