Luke 11:1

Luke 11:1-13. The Lord's Prayer. Persistence in Prayer.

1. And it came to pass that, as he was praying in a certain place The better order is -as he was in a certain place, praying." The extreme vagueness of these expressions shews that St Luke did not possess a more definite note of place or of time; but if we carefully compare the parallel passages of Matthew 12:22-50; Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 3:22-35, it becomes probable that this and the next chapter are entirely occupied with the incidents and teachings of one great day of open and decisive rupture with the Pharisees shortly before our Lord ceased to work in Galilee, and that they do not belong to the period of the journey through Peraea. This great day of conflict was marked (1) by the prayer of Jesus and His teaching the disciples what and how to pray; (2) by the healing of the dumb demoniac; (3) by the invitation to the Pharisee's house, the deadly dispute which the Pharisees there originated, and the terrible denunciation consequently evoked; (4) by the sudden gathering of a multitude, and the discourses and incidents of chapter 12. For further details and elucidations I must refer to the Life of Christ.

praying Probably at early dawn, and in the standingattitude adopted by Orientals.

as John also taught his disciples The form of prayer taught by St John has perished. Terrena caelestibus cedunt, Tert.; John 3:30. It was common for Jewish Rabbis to deliver such forms to their disciples, and a comparison of them (e.g. of "the 18 Benedictions") with the Lord's Prayer is deeply instructive.