ContradictionsReading order 339Bible context 2 min read
Should Christians pray in public?
Matthew recommends secret prayer against public display, while John depicts Jesus speaking a prayer for bystanders and Timothy encourages prayer everywhere.
- Textual conflict
- Weak tension
- The alleged conflict needs substantial assumptions, such as treating an omission as a denial or figurative language as literal.
- Importance
- Major
- A major event or claim with wider implications.
Matthew's private-prayer instruction targets conspicuous hypocrisy, while the approved public prayer states a different purpose.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Jesus directs prayer behind a closed door
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Matthew 6:5-6
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Matthew 6
Jesus prays for listeners and Paul permits prayer everywhere
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.