Thy Will Be Done: Jesus's Passion in the Lord's Prayer

Scholars have long recognized a resemblance between Jesus's prayer in Gethsemane and the Lord's Prayer in Matthew's Gospel (26:39-42; 6:9b-13), including the exact repetition of the words γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου. Recent interpreters universally account for this resemblance by claiming...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Biblical literature
Main Author: Neumann, James N. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Scholar's Press [2019]
In: Journal of Biblical literature
Further subjects:B Bible. Gospels
B Bible. New Testament
B JESUS Christ; Prayer in Gethsemane
B BIBLE; Criticism, Redaction
B Liturgics
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:Scholars have long recognized a resemblance between Jesus's prayer in Gethsemane and the Lord's Prayer in Matthew's Gospel (26:39-42; 6:9b-13), including the exact repetition of the words γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου. Recent interpreters universally account for this resemblance by claiming that Gethsemane has been assimilated to the Lord's Prayer. Yet it was once common to argue the opposite: that Matthew's Lord's Prayer had been expanded based on Gethsemane (so Martin Dibelius and Eduard Schweizer). I argue that there are good reasons to reconsider and embrace this earlier view on the basis of (1) a redactional study of both passages in Matthew's Gospel; (2) a survey of the Gethsemane tradition elsewhere in the New Testament, as well as (3) Gethsemane in the history of interpretation; and (4) a consideration of Matthew's literary tendencies. An investigation of the Gethsemane tradition elsewhere in the New Testament and in the history of interpretation suggests that some form of the statement "thy will be done" was intrinsic to that tradition from the beginning. Yet the inclusion of such a petition in the Lord's Prayer appears to originate with Matthew. Finally, this study builds on Dale Allison's observation that Matthew foreshadows Jesus's passion via intra-textual parallels in several other sections of his gospel. I conclude that Matthew has likewise read Jesus's passion into the Lord's Prayer via intra textual linkages to Gethsemane.
ISSN:1934-3876
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of Biblical literature
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/jbl.2019.0009