ContradictionsReading order 456Bible context 2 min read
Do Christians know how to pray?
Jesus supplies specific prayer requests, while Paul describes believers as unable to identify what they should pray for properly.
- Textual conflict
- Weak contradiction
- The supplied passages do not establish incompatible claims. Different events, meanings, or conditions may account for the difference.
- Importance
- Major
- A major event or claim with wider implications.
Receiving a model prayer does not establish sufficient knowledge of every appropriate request in every circumstance.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Jesus gives his followers a model for prayer
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Matthew 6:9-13
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Matthew 6
Paul says believers do not know what to pray for
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.