chapter three
The Jews “stand upat dawn, at midday, and toward evening, three times
a day when they recite their prayersin the synagogues, and curse and
anathematize them. Three times a day they say, ‘God curse the Nazarenes.’”.Comm. Matt. . (ce). Context: Matt :–
“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love
to stand and pray in the synagoguesand at the street corners, so that
they may be seen by others.Truly I tell you, they have received their
reward.^6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door
and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in
secret will reward you.^7 When you are praying, do not heap up empty
phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of
their many words.^8 Donotbelikethem,foryourFatherknowswhatyou
need before you ask him.^9 Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.^10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on
earth as it is in heaven.^11 Give us this day ourbreadfortomorrow.^12 And
forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.^13 And do not
bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.^14 For if you
forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;(^15) but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses.”
In addition to its internal coherence, the reconstructed collection of the
anti-rabbinic texts from Matthew is also connected to the Nazarenes
exposition of Isaiah. These two collections have at least the following
points of contact:
. The Nazarenes’ Isaiah commentary (Jerome,Comm. Isa. .) refers to
an Old Testament citation found only in Matthew (Matt :–), which
proves that the Nazarenes used Matthew’s gospel in their exegesis.
. The most negative attitude towards the rabbis.
. A similar scribal method that attributes anti-rabbinic meaning to Se-
mitic names. In theCommentary on Isaiah, the names of Shammai and
Hillel are interpreted as meaning “scatterer” and “unholy.” In the Matthean
collection, Barrabban is interpreted to mean the “son of their rabbi.”
. Both collections are concerned with criticizing the prayer practices of
the rabbis. See Jerome,Comm. Isa. .– and the above reconstruction
of the socio-historical context of the Lord’s Prayer in the Nazarene collec-
tion.
. According to the Isaiah collection, the Israelitesdeny the Son of God
with the most vicious opinion (Jerome,Comm. Isa.–) and the scribes
and the Pharisees try to deceive people indenying the Son of God(Jerome,
Comm. Isa. .–). In contrast, the centurion and his companions
respond to the miracles following Jesus’ death (including the breaking of
the lintel) with the confession “Truly this man was the Son of God.”