Studies in the Gospels (Part Six)

 

Welcome to the sixth installment of my series on the gospels.  In this post we will explore the Lord’s Prayer, which is part of the double tradition.  First a little review:  we’ve noted that the four canonical gospels were all composed in the first century, but were done so anonymously.  The names Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were not associated with the gospels till around 150 CE (common era). The synoptic gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke share much of the same material, but the gospel of John is very different both in style and content.  Here is a table summarizing what we have discovered about the synoptic gospels:

Name of Gospel	Date of Publication	Sources	% Of Marks Content repeated
Mark	65 CE	Oral and possibly some written traditions	-
Luke	80 CE	Mark, Q and L	50
Matthew	85 CE	Mark, Q and M	90

 

“Q” represents a written document containing the “double tradition” – a collection of Jesus’ wisdom sayings and parables which appears both in Luke and Matthew. “L” represents a source unique to Luke and “M” represents a source unique to Matthew.  Luke and Matthew both depended heavily on Mark. Luke contains 50% of Mark and Matthew contains 90% of Mark.

Let’s also look at the Christology of each gospel.  We’ve already seen that in the gospel of Mark, Jesus is declared to be “the son of God” at his baptism (Mark 3:11).  The term “son of God” in Jewish understanding of the 1^st century simply meant “the King of Israel.”  We can see that term used several places in that manner in the Jewish Bible (2 Samuel 7:14, Psalm 2:6-7, Psalm 89:26-27). “Son of God” in this Jewish sense had nothing to do with Divinity or the “Second Person of the Trinity” as defined by the church councils of the 4^th century.

In the gospel of Luke, the designation of Jesus as son of God is moved earlier in his life.  Instead of being given first at his baptism, Jesus is spoken of in this manner at his birth (see Luke 1:32).  Again, the designation simply means the “King of Israel.” Luke adds the story of the virgin birth which shows that Jesus was someone especially chosen by God.

In the gospel of Matthew, the storyline is similar to Luke. Jesus is born of a virgin and designated King of Israel at his birth (see Matthew 2:2).  In addition, Matthew relates a birth story that is not present in Luke, where an angel tells Joseph (Jesus’ human father) that Jesus will “save his people from their sins” (1:20), and that he will be called Emmanuel, which means “God with us” (1:23). In the context of Jewish monotheism, this is not an indication that Jesus is divine. Jesus is presented here as a human savior, born of a virgin. He is also someone whose life will show the people of Israel that God is with them in a marked way.

We can now add a 5^th column to our table:

Name of Gospel	Date of Publication	Sources	% Of Marks Content	View of Jesus
Mark	65 CE	Oral and possibly some written traditions	-	human king of Israel, designated at baptism
Luke	80 CE	Mark, Q and L	50	human king of Israel, designated at birth
Matthew	85 CE	Mark, Q and M	90	human king and savior of Israel, designated at birth

 

Now let’s look at the parallel passage of the Lord’s Prayer, which occurs only in Matthew and Luke.  I am using the RSV translation of 1971.  I will keep the same convention of putting in italics and brackets any content that only appears in one of the two gospels.

Matthew 6:7-15

Luke 11:1-4

[And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.]                   [Pray then like this:]   [Our] Father [who art in heaven], Hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come, [Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.] Give us [this] day our daily bread; and forgive us our [debts], as we also have forgiven our [debtors]; and lead us not into temptation, [But deliver us from evil.]   (Note: other manuscripts, some ancient, add the phrase “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever, amen.”  That phrase does not appear in the manuscript record for Luke)

[He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”]   [And he said to them, “When you pray, say:]         Father, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.     Give us [each] day our daily bread; and forgive us our [sins], for we ourselves forgive every one who is [indebted] to us; and lead us not into temptation.

 

Observations:

First let’s look at the setting.  Matthew places this prayer in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.  Luke places it much later in his narrative, after a specific mention of Jesus praying.

The fact that Matthew and Luke each choose a different setting for the prayer indicates again that these sayings of Jesus were independent floating units of tradition, not bound to a certain narrative sequence. Each synoptic gospel writer arranged them in a different sequence.

Luke’s version of the prayer seems to be earlier and more authentic. The traditions that we have in our synoptic gospels tended to get longer and more detailed over time. Since Luke's version of the prayer is shorter, it is probably closer to the original.

The fact that Matthew and Luke disagree on the content of this prayer and its wording indicates that they were not copying a literary source like Q.  Either that or Luke copied it exactly, and Matthew deliberately inserted lines like “who art in heaven” and “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” as he copied the source.

Personally, I think this prayer belonged to an oral tradition and not to a written source like Q. The prayer that Jesus told his disciples to pray would have become part of the liturgy of the early Christian communities in Galilee and in Judea.  They would have repeated it over and over and taught it to new converts.  It is very easy to memorize.  I think that at some point in that history, the community that Matthew was a part of had introduced new phrases into the prayer, and that explains the differences.  Remember there were 50 years of oral tradition between the time when Jesus spoke the prayer, and when Matthew and Luke included it in their gospels. Many changes can place in 50 years of oral tradition if there is not a strong system in place to maintain the original wording. There is no evidence that the early Christians had such a system. I agree with most scholars that the prayer in Luke is probably closer to what Jesus originally said.

In my next post I will summarize the differences in the synoptic gospels and look at the comments of some early church fathers on the gospels. After that we will move on to consider the gospel of John.