The Disciples' Prayer: The Prayer Jesus Taught in Its Historical Setting

Christians around the world recite the Lords Prayer daily but what exactly are they praying forand what relationship does it have with Jesus own context? Jeffrey B. Gibson reviews scholarship that derives the so-called Lords Prayer from Jewish synagogal prayers and refutes it. The genre of the prayer he shows is petitionary and understanding its intent requires understanding Jesus purpose in calling disciples as witnesses against this generation. Jesus did not mean to teach a unique understanding of God; the prayer had its roots in first-century Jewish movements of protest.In context Gibson shows (pace Schweitzer Lohmeyer Davies Allison and a host of other scholars) that the prayer had little to do with calling down into the present realities of the age to come. Rather it was meant to protect disciples from the temptations of their age and thus to strengthen their countercultural testimony. Gibsons conclusions offer new insights into the historical Jesus and the movement he sought to establish.