Theory or Practice

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1  NIV

Teach – Do you know how to pray?  Do you know the purpose of prayer?  Do you understand the importance of prayer?  Great, you’re Greek!  You would be right at home with the word Luke uses here—didáskō.  In this case, it is an active, aorist, imperative, that is, an commanded action completed in the past.  Prayer time is over.  Thank God!

But, of course, the disciple wasn’t speaking Greek.  He used (probably) the Hebrew verb lāmad.   It’s not quite the same as the Greek term.  “As one of the twelve words for teaching in the ot, lāmad has the idea of training as well as educating.”^[1]

“A novel feature in the Gospels is the absence of the intellectual emphasis which is common everywhere else among Greek writers.”^[2]

“While Greek uses two different words for ‘to learn’ (manthanō) and ‘to teach’ (didaskō), each having its own content, goal, and methods, Hebrew uses the same root for both words because all learning and teaching is ultimately to be found in the fear of the Lord (Deut 4:10; 14:23; 17:19; 31:12, 13). To learn this is to come to terms with the will and law of God.”^[3]

This disciple did not ask Yeshua to give an intellectual explanation of prayer, nor a model prayer, nor a theology of prayer.  He asked to be trained to pray.  How does that happen?  Well, let’s start with “Repeat after me.”  Training is copying.  An apprentice copies the master.  A student (if you’re not Greek) copies the teacher.  Until, at last, the followers are so familiar with the process that they can do it on their own.  So, there’s a purpose behind repetition, but the purpose isn’t to continue to repeat.  It’s to be trained to master the technique.  The problem with my prayer training is simple: there wasn’t any.  I was taught to repeat for the sake of repetition, and then left to invent my own prayers without the training of a master.  This disciple realized he was in the company of a master and he asked to be trained to be like a master whose prayers were more than repetition, more than modifications of a known theme.  His master prayed with the full apprehension of the divine.  That’s what the student wants—to be able to see the world the way the master sees the world.  To paint like DaVinci.  To shape stone like Michelangelo.  To capture sounds like Mozart.  To see the folds of space like Einstein.  To have the master’s eyes and ears.  To take what is known and envelop what is unknown.

So, if I’m going to save my soul, I’ll need someone to copy.  Who will that be in this shallow and hollow age?  Well, maybe I should start with David.

Topical Index: teach, didaskō, lāmad, train, practice, prayer, Luke 11:1

^[1] Kaiser, W. C. (1999). 1116 לָמַד. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 480). Chicago: Moody Press.

^[2] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (p. 162). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.

^[3] Kaiser, W. C., op. cit.