Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Matthew 6:1-18, Alms, prayer and fasting in secret
Jesus warns against doing acts of piety to be seen, and teaches his disciples the Lord's Prayer.
Matthew 6:1-18, in every translation this tool compares.
Giving to the poor, praying and fasting are each done for the Father who sees in secret, not for an audience. Do not sound a trumpet when you give, pray standing on street corners, or put on a gloomy face when you fast. Jesus gives a short prayer that asks for God's name to be hallowed, his kingdom to come, daily bread, forgiveness of debts as we forgive our debtors, and rescue from the evil one.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/almsgiving\/","n":"Gifts to the poor","s":"Giving to the needy was one of the three pillars of Jewish piety, with prayer and fasting. Greeks and Romans had nothing quite like it.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/synagogue\/","n":"The synagogue","s":"The local gathering place where Jews met on the Sabbath to pray and study Scripture. It was also a community center, run by people of standing.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/jewish-prayer\/","n":"Prayer in Jesus' day","s":"Set prayers, set hours, standing to pray, God addressed as Father, and prayers for his name and his kingdom. Jesus taught his own disciples a prayer inside that world.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/fasting\/","n":"Fasting","s":"Going without food, and often washing and oil, as a sign of mourning, penitence and longing. The law required one fast a year; the devout kept many more.","r":""}
Jewish teaching called sins debts before God, and one Aramaic word served for both; Bailey names it khoba (Keener and Bailey). The law cancelled debts every seventh and fiftieth year, though lawyers had found ways round the release so that lending could go on (Keener). Keener's background commentary reads lead us not into temptation as a prayer not to fall when tested, and Bailey reads it the same way. On their reward, Keener notes the phrase is the wording of a business receipt. Wilkins mentions the view that the trumpets were the trumpet-shaped chests in the temple where coins were dropped, though he reads the phrase as irony, and notes that the Didache (8.2-3) has Christians saying this prayer three times a day by the end of the first century.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 6:1, 6:2-4, 6:5-6, 6:7, 6:9-10, 6:12, 6:13 and 6:16-18
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 6:2, 6:6, 6:7, 6:9-10, 6:12, 6:13, 6:14 and 6:17
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Matthew 6:2 and 6:16
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 10, The Lord's Prayer: Our Sins and Evil
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 6:2 and 6:9-10
