{"id":420,"date":"2014-10-15T12:00:56","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=420"},"modified":"2014-09-30T04:40:07","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T04:40:07","slug":"matthew-65-15-prayer-rhetorical-influences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/10\/matthew-65-15-prayer-rhetorical-influences.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 6:5-15; Prayer (Rhetorical Influences)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew 6:9-13 is one of the most famous biblical texts of all time. Known as \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Prayer,\u201d it records Jesus\u2019 specific instructions for how to pray.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s important to notice that, immediately before giving this text, Christ warned his followers to avoid \u201cbabbling like pagans\u201d when they prayed (see Matthew 6:7-8). Pagans at that time viewed prayer as something like a business contract that had the sole purpose of earning favor from whichever deity was its object. As a result, Greeks peppered their prayers with all types of honorifics and titles, hoping to flatter their way into heavenly favor. Other pagan prayers did the same, and also reminded the deity of all the ways the pray-er had kept his end of the blessing bargain by making sacrifices and\/or defending the reputation of the so-called god.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus dismissed this approach to prayer as worthless and insulting. Instead he offered a prayer structure based on an intimate, family relationship with our Heavenly Father. Many people today call this a \u201cmodel prayer,\u201d because it demonstrates key elements of prayer for us. In Jesus\u2019 day, though, his disciples would have known it as an \u201cIndex Prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Index Prayers were common in ancient Judaism, something a rabbi would use to teach people to practice\u00a0praying. These were what we might call \u201cdirected prayers,\u201d delivered in outline form. For instance, a rabbi would \u201cgather together a number of short sentences, each of which suggested an item for prayer.\u201d The intent was that a person following an Index Prayer would start with one of those statements, then \u201cenlarge upon it, drawing out some of its implications and applications.\u201d They were not to simply memorize and recite each line, but to use each line as a catalyst for deeper, more personal times with God. That\u2019s the kind of \u201cIndex Prayer\u201d that Jesus gave in Matthew 6:9-13, and it has proved a timeless model for Christ followers ever since.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[BBC, 62; APB, 92]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew 6:9-13 is one of the most famous biblical texts of all time. Known as \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Prayer,\u201d it records Jesus\u2019 specific instructions for how to pray. It\u2019s important to notice that, immediately before giving this text, Christ warned his followers to avoid \u201cbabbling like pagans\u201d when they prayed (see Matthew 6:7-8). Pagans at that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,113],"tags":[16,180,182],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matthew","category-rhetorical-influences","tag-jesus","tag-prayer","tag-the-lords-prayer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 6:5-15; Prayer (Rhetorical Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/10\/matthew-65-15-prayer-rhetorical-influences.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 6:5-15; Prayer (Rhetorical Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Matthew 6:9-13 is one of the most famous biblical texts of all time. Known as \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Prayer,\u201d it records Jesus\u2019 specific instructions for how to pray. It\u2019s important to notice that, immediately before giving this text, Christ warned his followers to avoid \u201cbabbling like pagans\u201d when they prayed (see Matthew 6:7-8). 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Known as \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Prayer,\u201d it records Jesus\u2019 specific instructions for how to pray. It\u2019s important to notice that, immediately before giving this text, Christ warned his followers to avoid \u201cbabbling like pagans\u201d when they prayed (see Matthew 6:7-8). Pagans at that&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/10\/matthew-65-15-prayer-rhetorical-influences.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-10-15T12:00:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-09-30T04:40:07+00:00","author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/10\/matthew-65-15-prayer-rhetorical-influences.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/10\/matthew-65-15-prayer-rhetorical-influences.html","name":"Matthew 6:5-15; Prayer (Rhetorical Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-10-15T12:00:56+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-30T04:40:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/10\/matthew-65-15-prayer-rhetorical-influences.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/10\/matthew-65-15-prayer-rhetorical-influences.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/10\/matthew-65-15-prayer-rhetorical-influences.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 6:5-15; Prayer (Rhetorical Influences)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}