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term “repay” here and in vv. 6 and 18 may suggest a quid-pro-quo
transaction which sits uncomfortably alongside a Pauline doctrine of
salvation by grace and not by merit. It is, however, counter-balanced by the
wider Matthean understanding of God’s disproportionate rewards which
comes to the surface in 19:29; 20:1–15; 25:21, 23 (see above on 5:12).³
c. Secret Prayer (6:5–6)
The second example of religious practice is prayer, which will be dealt with in
vv. 5–6 in the same way as alms-giving and fasting in vv. 2–4 and 16–18, before
the theme is taken further in the additonal sayings of vv. 7–15. For the standard
formulae repeated in each of the three illustrations see above on vv. 2–4. The
hope that other people will witness the public prayers of the “hypocrites”
probably indicates that prayers were said aloud, not just that they were visibly
engaged in prayer. Just as even private reading in the ancient world was done out
loud, so too people generally prayed audibly. Even the call to secret prayer in v.
6 does not necessarily mean silent prayer: the point of going into a secret place is
so that no one else will be in a position to hear. If synagōgē here refers to the
gathering for worship (see on 4:23), prayer would of course be expected there,
but the privilege of leading it was not open to everyone. But the following
mention of praying out in the streets perhaps supports a more secular sense of
“assembly” here; wherever people are gathered as a potential audience the
“hypocrites” will make sure that their prayers are heard and seen. We should
probably think of something more obtrusive than the silent prayer on a mat in the
street or in a corner of a public room which is so familiar in Muslim countries
today. Devout Jews prayed three times a day (Dan 6:10), not necessarily at fixed
times (m. Ber. 1:1–2; 4:1),⁴ though the ninth hour (3 p.m.) seems to have been
normal (Acts 3:1; 10:30). Standing was the normal Jewish attitude for prayer (cf.
Mark 11:25; Luke 18:11, 13),⁴¹ though sometimes people knelt (2 Chron 6:13;
Dan 6:10; Luke 22:41) or even, in special circumstances, prostrated themselves
(Num 16:22; Matt 26:39).
The “most private room” is probably an inner store-room, which is likely to have
been the only lockable room in an ordinary Palestinian house (the same term is
used for a secret place in 24:26; Luke 12:3). Cf. 2 Kgs 4:33 for shutting the door
before prayer, and Isa 26:20 for locking oneself in the store-room (LXX uses the
same word tameion) for secrecy, though in the latter case the aim is not prayer
but safety from God’s judgment on other people. In such a secret place⁴² the
disciple encounters the God who “is in secret.” This remarkable phrase⁴³ (not
just who sees in secret, as in the following clause) used here and in v. 18
suggests not only that God is omnipresent, even in the secret place, but also that
he is himself invisible, in stark contrast to his pretended worshipers who are only
too visible.
This passage is not intended to prohibit audible prayer in public as such. While
Jesus is often portrayed as praying privately (Mark 1:35; 6:46 etc.), he also on
occasion prayed aloud where others could hear (11:25; 14:19; 26:39, 42; Luke
11:1). The pattern prayer given in vv. 9–13 is worded in the plural, as a corporate
rather than a private prayer, and gatherings for prayer together were a regular
feature of the life of Jesus’ disciples from the beginning. The issue here is not the
prayer but the motive.
d. Further Teaching on Prayer (6:7–8)
The “digression” on prayer which breaks into the tripartite unit of teaching on
religious secrecy (see above p. 233) begins with a similar contrast between the
wrong and the right ways of praying, in which “the Gentiles” take the place of
the “hypocrites” in v. 5.⁴⁴ The focus this time is not on prayer performed with a
view to human approbation but on an attitude and practice in prayer which
betrays a misunderstanding of how God expects to be approached by his people.
The term for “Gentiles” is the same as that used in 5:47 (on which see below on
18:17) to denote the world outside the disciple community. The emphasis here is
not so much on their not being Jewish as on their being religious outsiders,
people who do not understand what it means to know God as a heavenly
Father.⁴⁵ So instead of trusting a Father to fulfill their needs, they think they must
badger a reluctant Deity into taking notice of them (cf. the expressive modern
term “God-botherer”). Their approach to prayer is characterized by two colorful
terms, first “babbling,”⁴ a noisy flow of sound without meaning, and polylogia,
“much speaking,” “many words.” It is an approach to prayer which values
quantity (and perhaps volume?) rather than quality. It is not necessarily purely
mechanical, but rather obtrusive and unnecessary. It assumes that the purpose of
prayer is first to demand God’s attention and then to inform him of needs he may
have overlooked. The terms used do not prohibit the use of liturgical forms as
such (after all, a formulated prayer follows in vv. 9–13), nor do they denigrate
persistence in prayer, as the unfortunate KJV rendering “vain repetitions” has
often been taken to suggest.⁴⁷ The issue is not the method or the frequency of
prayer (Jesus himself repeated his prayer in 26:44, apparently spent a whole
night in prayer in 14:23–25, and taught his disciples to keep on praying in Luke
18:1), but the attitude of faith which underlies and inspires it.
The reason why “you” (plural, the disciple community united in prayer) are not
to be like them lies in a theology which attributes to God both the benevolent
concern of a Father and an omniscience which makes the prayer apparently
unnecessary (cf. Isa 65:24: “Before they call, I will answer”). But if God does
not need to be informed of our needs, why does he expect us to tell him about
them? Christian spirituality has traditionally found the answer in a concept of
prayer not as the communication of information, still less as a technique for
getting things from God (the more words you put in the more results you get
out), but as the expression of the relationship of trust which follows from
knowing God as “Father.” The pattern prayer which follows illustrates how such
a relationship works.
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