The Poetry of the Lord’s Prayer

I accept previously written about the poetic structure of Jesus' educational activity, drawing on examples from the Beatitudes and Jesus' eschatological didactics at the finish of Matthew. In item, I highlighted David Wenham'due south study of the Lord's Prayer, where he identifies the careful structuring of the prayer as a poem in 2 parts:

six words Opening accost
iv words        First invocation in relation to God
4 words        2d invocation in relation to God
4 + 6 words Third invocation in relation to God with second clause
8 words invocation for our needs
6 + vii words Outset invocation in relation to ourselves with second clause
6 words        Second invocation in relation to ourselves
vi words        Tertiary invocation in relation to ourselves

This month's Journal of Biblical Literature includes an commodity by Michael Martin of Lubbock Christian University that looks in more detail at the poetic devices in the prayer—something which previous studies take passed over (JBL 134, no. 2 (2015): 347–372). Martin identifies ix classical devices, gives examples of their occurrence in the Hebrew and Greek OT, and where they occur in the Lord's Prayer.

ane.Homoeoteleuton is similarity of sound at the conclusion of affiliated cola, usually in the concluding syllable(s) of the concluding discussion(southward).

2.Homoeokatarkton is similarity of sound at the showtime of affiliated cola, usually in the concluding syllable(s) of the opening word(south).

3.Antistrophe (also, epiphora) is the repetition of precisely the same word(s) at the conclusion of affiliated cola.

4.Epanaphora (too, anaphora) is the repetition of precisely the same discussion(s) at the beginning of affiliated cola.

5.Anadiplosis (also, palillogia, epanadiplosis) is the repetition of a preceding colon'south last discussion(s) at or near the beginning of a subsequent colon.

6.Polyptoton is the repetition in affiliated cola of the same substantive or pronoun in dissimilar inflections, including case, gender, and number alterations.

7.Antithesis is the juxtaposing of reverse terms, reverse meanings, or (about com­ monly) both in two affiliated cola.

8.Parisosis (also, parison, isocolon) is a parallelism of structure across affiliated cola and consisting minimally of a roughly equal number of syllables30—but adopt­ ably of boosted parallel features (semantic parallels, grammatical parallels, paral­ lelisms of audio and sense).

9.Paronomasia (also, parachesis) is a play on words seen either in the intentional juxtaposition of two words separated by slight phonetic modification, or in double entendre.

Equally a result of identifying these features, Martin draws conclusions about the prayer and nearly Jesus' limerick of information technology:

It is clear that Lord's Prayer displays a highly poetic course characterized by the recurring employ throughout of multiple coordinated figures of spoken language and idea. This usage, together with the prayer'due south religious and liturgical themes and historical origins, suggests that the prayer belongs to the tradition of ancient Jewish liturgical poetry.

He offers some possibilities of translation to reverberate these poetic devices, some of which parallel Wenham's suggestions. In his decision he sets out a 'minimalist' and a 'maximalist' version (I include them as graphics to preserve the layout).

All this has some interesting implications for our use of the prayer, and our understanding of how it has come to u.s..

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First, if Martin and Wenham are right, and then it would appear that the prayer was formed very advisedly every bit something to exist memorised and repeated. Although each invocation can be reflected on and used as a focus for prayer in itself, information technology appears as though Jesus actually did expect his followers to memorise it and utilize it equally a liturgical, structured, poetic prayer themselves. This would suggest that the Anglican habit of memorising structured prayers ('Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known…') does have a clear biblical warrant.

Secondly, information technology raises the interesting question of whether Jesus taught in Greek as well as Aramaic. Martin mentions those who have argued in different directions, though does not comment on this explicitly in this article. (I understand he has a forthcoming monograph on the subject area, and then it might exist explored there.)

Thirdly, equally I highlighted previously, the poetic structure of Jesus' didactics, peculiarly here and particularly in Matthew, might imply that Jesus taught in a way to be remembered, and that lends weight to the reliability of the gospel records even if passed on orally for some period.

Finally, this also raises the question of Jesus' literacy. This is a hot topic in some quarters just at present, and of course (as Martin mentioned to me in correspondence about this article) there is a departure betwixt 'literacy' understood as being theologically competent and able to construct a poetic prayer like this, and 'literacy' understood as being trained either as a scribe able to read and write manuscripts, or as someone adhering to the formal traditions of scriptural exegesis equally accepted by the religious authorities.

This all confirms what a rich resource the Lord'southward Prayer is, and why information technology was a key office of Jesus' answer to the request 'Lord, teach us to pray' (Luke 11.1)

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