Luke 11:1-13, Father, daily bread and a friend at midnight

The prayer's opening echoes the Kaddish, which in its early form asked that God's great name be exalted and hallowed and that he cause his kingdom to reign (Keener's notes). Abba was not a child's word only, since adults also called their parents by it, but it was intimate, and Jews rarely if ever addressed God simply as my father or father (Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary). Sins and debts were one word in Aramaic (Keener). A refusal would shame the whole village, whose guest the traveler was (Keener and his notes; Bailey). The word in 11:8 often translated persistence is debated. Keener says it means shamelessness and may point either to the bold knocker or to the shame the sleeper and his village would suffer; Bailey takes it of the sleeper, who gets up to avoid shame; Blomberg, following Derrett, takes it of the asker's bold shamelessness and rejects Bailey's reading; the CSB Study Bible reads shameless boldness and persistence; Strauss sets out both readings without deciding. Most Jews thought the Spirit rested only on the holiest people, so the closing promise would have sounded like making them prophets (Keener).