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The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Didache) - The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles

Chapter VIII.—Concerning Fasting and Prayer (the Lord’s Prayer)

Chapter VIII. ^[2447] --Concerning Fasting and Prayer (the Lord's Prayer).

1. But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites; ^[2448] for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week; but do ye fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday). ^[2449] 2. Neither pray as the hypocrites; but as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, ^[2450] thus pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us to-day our daily (needful) bread, ^[2451] and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (or, evil); for Thine is the power and the glory for ever. ^[2452] 3. Thrice in the day thus pray. ^[2453]

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[2447] The entire chapter is found almost verbatim in Apostolic Constitutions, vii. 23, 24.

[2448] Comp. Matt. vi. 16.

[2449] The reasons for fasting on Wednesday and Friday are given in Apostolic Constitutions (the days of betrayal and of burial). Monday and Thursday were the Jewish fast-days. The word "Preparation" (day before the Jewish sabbath) occurs in Matt. xxvii. 62, etc., and for some time retained a place in Christian literature.

[2450] Matt. vi. 5, 9-13. This form of the Lord's Prayer is evidently cited from Matthew, not from Luke. The textual variations are slight. The citation is of importance as proving that the writer used this Gospel, and that the liturgical use of the Lord's Prayer was common.

[2451] On this phrase, comp. Revised Version, Matt. vi. 11; Luke xi. 3 (text, margin, and American appendix).

[2452] The variation in the form of the doxology confirms the judgment of textual criticism, which omits it in Matt. vi. 13. All early liturgical literature tends in the same direction; comp. Apostolic Constitutions, vii. 24.

[2453] This is in accordance with Jewish usage. Dan. vi. 10; Ps. lv. 17. Comp. Acts iii. 1, x. 9.

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