9
mercy."
20
Earlier in the chapter, in Matt 6:7-8, the nature of God's knowledge of our needs
is clarified. In these verses, Jesus says to his disciples,
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be
heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows (oi=den)
what you need before you ask. (Matt 6:7-8).
Again the Father's knowledge of our needs is emphasized,
21
grounding Jesus' efforts to motivate
his disciples to pray "with simplicity, directness, and sincerity in talking to God."
22
Jesus
contrasts this kind of prayer with that of the pagans, who believed that the value of their prayers
is in direct relationship with the volume of words they utter.
23
This is not to be the case with
20
Craig L. Blomberg, Matthew (NAC, vol. 22; Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992), 126.
21
The verb oi=den is put first in the ground (ga.r) clause of 6:8b for emphasis.
22
Blomberg, Matthew, 118.
23
As an example, see 1 Kgs 18:26-29. Leon Morris writes, "The Gentiles think of prayer
as effective only if long. They agree that God hears and answers prayer, but hold that he
does so in proportion to their wordiness" (The Gospel According to Matthew [Leicester:
InterVarsity Press and Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992], 142). Gundry says that the pagan
babbling (battalogh,shte) "may denote meaningless or repetitive speech, as in the extensive
listing of divine names by pagans. They hoped that at least one of the names might prove
effective for an answer. (It was thought that knowing the name of a god and pronouncing it
correctly gave a certain power to manipulate the god)" (Matthew, 103-104). Blomberg adds