NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible CBSB_Digital Sampler | Page 45
Matthew 6:15 | 1621
Giving to the Needy
“Be careful not to practice your righ
teousness in f ront of others to be seen
by them. a If you do, you will have no re
ward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the n
eedy, do not
announce it with trumpets, as the hyp
ocrites do in the synagogues and on the
streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell
you, they have received t heir reward in full.
3 But when you give to the n
eedy, do not let
your left hand know what your r ight hand
is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in se
cret. Then your Father, who sees what is
done in secret, will reward you. b
6
Prayer
6:9-13pp — Lk 11:2-4
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the
hypocrites, for they love to pray standing c
in the synagogues and on the s treet corners
to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they
have received their reward in full. 6 But
when you pray, go into your room, c lose
the door and pray to your Father, d who is
unseen. Then your Father, who sees what
6:1 a Mt 23:5
6:4 b ver 6, 18;
Col 3:23, 24
6:5 c Mk 11:25;
Lk 18:10‑14
6:6 d 2Ki 4:33
is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And
when you pray, do not keep on babbling e
like pagans, for they t hink they will be
heard because of t heir many w
ords. f 8 Do
not be like them, for your Father knows
what you need g before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you s
hould pray:
“ ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom h come,
your will be done, i
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread. j
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors. k
13 And lead us not into temptation, a l
but deliver us from the evil one. b ’ m
6:7 e Ecc 5:2
f 1Ki 18:26‑29
6:8 g ver 32
6:10 h Mt 3:2
i Mt 26:39
14 For if you for
give other people when
6:11 j Pr 30:8
they
sin against you, your heavenly Father
6:12
k Mt 18:21‑35
will also forgive you. n 15 But if you do not
6:13 l Jas 1:13
forgive others t heir sins, your Father will
m Mt 5:37
6:14 n Mt 18:21- not forgive your sins. o
35; Mk 11:25,
26; Eph 4:32;
a 13 The Greek for temptation can also mean testing.
Col 3:13
b 13 Or from evil ; some late manuscripts one, / for yours
6:15 o Mt 18:35 is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
concluded a section with a summary. After offering six
examples, J esus climaxes with a conclusion that encom-
passes all righteousness. See note on v. 45.
6:1 Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of
others. Ancient speakers and writers would sometimes
state a thesis and then develop it with illustrations; J esus
illustrates this thesis with examples from charity (vv. 2 – 4),
prayer (vv. 5 – 15), and fasting (vv. 16 – 18). Because sages
offered riddles and statements meant to provoke thought
rather than systematic outlines of their beliefs, some of
a sage’s statements could appear to be in tension with
some of his other statements. J esus provokes thought in
the tension between 5:16 and the command here in v. 1:
the difference is whom one seeks to honor. (Note that the
Greek term translated “honored” in v. 2 is the same Greek
term translated “glorify” in 5:16.)
6:2 Truly I tell you. See note on 5:18. Givers did not literally
use trumpets to announce their gifts; this image is graphic
hyperbole. they have received their reward in full. When one
had been paid in full, ancient business receipts used simi-
lar language. Some scholars note that “hypocrites” means
“play-actors”; by this period, though, it meant anyone act-
ing in pretense, including for insincere religious activity
(Sirach 1:29; 32:15; 33:2).
6:3 Again J esus employs hyperbole as a graphic way to
focus attention on the point (see notes on v. 2; 5:22,30,32,40).
6:6 go into your room, close the door. Most people lacked
private rooms; this could be a closet or storeroom, prob-
ably again hyperbole (cf. 14:23; 26:36 – 44) to emphasize
the importance of seeking only God’s approval by one’s
religious activity.
6:7 keep on babbling like pagans. Gentiles sometimes piled
up many names for the deities they invoked, and often
appealed to deities’ “obligations” to reward the petitioners’
sacrifices and the like. This approach contrasts with simple
dependence on one’s faithful heavenly Father (v. 8).
6:8 your Father. In Jewish culture, a father was normally
someone loving and trustworthy, on whom a child could
depend for needs (cf. 7:9 – 11).
6:9 – 10 Jesus here echoes a prayer regularly recited by
Jewish people, a prayer known as the Kaddish. Its earliest
form began, “Exalted and hallowed be his great name, in
the world that he created according to his will; may he
cause his kingdom to reign . . .” The Jewish prayer invited
God’s future reign to change the world; J esus presumably
intends it the same way, although for believers in J esus
the kingdom is “already/not yet” (see the article “King-
dom,” p. 1616). Scripture promised that in the future God’s
name would be “hallowed,” or “proved holy,” in the world
(Eze 36:23; 38:23; 39:27). Even in the present, many Jew-
ish teachers consider honoring God’s name the supreme
objective and profaning it the most terrible sin. your . . .
your . . . your. In Greek, the word “your” is emphatic in these
first three petitions of Jesus’ model prayer (cf. v. 33).
6:9 Our Father. Some Greeks called Zeus “father”; more
pervasively, Jewish people addressed God as “heavenly
Father” in prayers. (On Jesus’ special use of “Abba,” see
note on Mk 14:36.) For dependence on one’s father, see
note on 6:8.
6:11 our daily bread. Prayer for food was one of the
most common prayers in antiquity. God, who supplied
daily bread to his people for 40 years in the wilderness
(Dt 8:2 – 3), can be trusted for sustenance.
6:12 forgive us our debts. Scripture commanded God’s
people to forgive all economic debts every 7th and 50th
year so that no one would be permanently impoverished.
Jewish teachers, however, also recognized sins as “debts”
before God (cf. 18:21 – 35). The sixth benediction in a regu-
larly prayed Jewish prayer, the Amida, included a prayer
for forgiveness; cf. also note on v. 14.
6:13 lead us not into temptation. A similar Jewish evening
prayer meant not, “Do not let us be tempted,” but “Do not
let us fail when we are tested” (cf. 26:41 – 42,47). The late
addition, “for yours is the kingdom . . .” (see NIV text note)
fits the church’s use of the prayer; Jewish people often
added such doxologies at the close of prayers.
6:14 your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Some other
Jewish sages also emphasized that one who wants to
seek God’s forgiveness must also forgive other mortals
(Sirach 28:1 – 8).