Study Bible - "
Mundo Hispano" (Hispanic World)
Editorial:
Mundo Hispano (Hispanic World)
Baptist Publishing House
Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 6
HERMENEUTICAL NOTES
6:1 This verse introduces the examples of
private piety discussed in 6:2-16.
Prayer, fasting, and charity to the poor were the basic components of Jewish Pietism (Tobit 12:8).
Many rabbis listed qualities in groups of three.
In contrast to the works of mercy that the Jews did, neither the Greeks nor the Romans supported this help made in a personal capacity; when they did make generous contributions,
it was usually for political and egotistical purposes.
6:9-12 Luke has an abbreviated form of the Our Father.
Apparently it is a
community prayer, due to the plural use in the first person.
It has two parts, one referring to God and the other to man.
The first relative to the glory of God that has three petitions:
to sanctify his name; consummation of his kingdom and the fulfillment of his will.
The second is related to three specific personal requests of the disciples:
provision, forgiveness and protection.
CULTURAL NOTES
6:2 The word hypocrite (hipocrites) has its origin in the Greek theater, and describes the actors who represented characters using a mask, leaving their true face "under" it.
For the Greeks it was not something bad in itself, on the contrary, a hypocrite was an eloquent person and admired as a great actor. They even used the word to name their children. Over time it gained a moral dimension.
In the NT it
describes a person who deceives himself.
6:7 The phrase
vain repetitions as the gentiles alludes to the practice of pagan or gentile peoples of mentioning, in their prayers, all the names of their different deities in order to avoid the possibility of forgetting any that should be mentioned.
So, on the other hand, to make sure you don't miss out on any "blessings" because of it.
6:9 ss. The Jews generally addressed God as "
our heavenly Father" when they prayed.
A classic Jewish prayer of that time proclaimed:
"Exalted and hallowed be his... his name... his and his kingdom come quickly and quickly."
Although the rabbinical teaching considered sins as debts before God,
they did not contemplate them in their prayers.
That was the added value in the prayer that Jesus taught.
TEXTUAL NOTES
6:4, 6, 18 The phrase "in public" may have been augmented to create a parallel with the phrase in secret.
However, the phrase "in public" is against what Jesus intends to teach:
Things must be done before God, that is, in private, and it is in private that one can be rewarded.
6:13 The words for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen are recorded in various forms and places in different manuscripts.
However, their absence in the best manuscripts is evidence that the words were added later (perhaps based on 1 Chron. 29:11-13) to adapt the prayer to the liturgy of the early Christian church.
6:24 The word riches comes from an Aramaic term
mammon which literally means "that which is stored up" (referring to possessions).
From there it came to have the meaning of riches or abundance, to the point of being considered a pagan deity,
mammon the god of wealth, which is a personification of the god of money.
It can refer to anything in which
full trust is placed, since it means that in which one trusts.
6:27 Literally the text says "to add one cubit to his stature."
The "cubit" was a unit of measurement from the inside of the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.
"Stature" can here mean "age"; that is, “life span” or “height”.
Conceptually, the “age” option is preferable, because worries cannot add height or stature to a person, but on the other hand, they can shorten their life due to suffering.
ARTICLE - The Our Father as a prayer
More than a prayer to be repeated mechanically and thoughtlessly, the Our Father is a model prayer that embodies the theology of prayer, and synthesizes the cosmic and dynamic reality of the kingdom of God.
It marks a balance between the transcendent (the kingdom of God) and the immanent (daily bread); the protection of the Father and the reality of the tempter; the perfect will of heaven and earthly stewardship; the grace of divine forgiveness and the reality of human conflict; the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man.
Regarding God, three fundamental aspects are emphasized, after marking the cosmic jurisdiction of God, who is in heaven: That the name of God be sanctified, which is equivalent to saying his person.
May his kingdom be consummated, because it has been started, it is in progress, but we long for the final consummation.
May his will be executed on earth, in the same way as it is done in heaven, that is, perfectly.
As for man, two substantial requests stand out, one that feeds the body (Matt. 6:11) and the other that feeds the spirit (Matt. 6:12), thus:
That the material provision of God that by grace and need is already ours, be it daily like the manna of the OT. May forgiveness flow generously from the heart of God, through us to reach our neighbor.
Finally, Jesus was not naive and highlighted two requests regarding the kingdom of evil (Matt. 6:13): May God not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can resist (cf. 1 Cor. 10:13).
May God free us from the cruel tricks of evil and the evil one, because although God is our Father and the kingdom is our flag, it is no less true that the devil is our staunch enemy.
MOUNT OF THE BEATITUDES
for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.