The third major functional class of intercessory prayer passages consists of those in which the apostle either exhorts the readers to practise regular prayers and intercessions; e.g.,

or requests them to join together in supplications on his behalf: e.g.,

We have already remarked how he prepared for the prayer-requests in several letters, by emphasizing the urgency of his own constant thanksgivings and supplications for them, in the wish-prayers and particularly in the prayer-reports. Now we come to his pleas that the believers in return take up their own share, by offering up prayer for him in his costly work of spreading the gospel. In these passages a crucial, additional dimension will be added to our understanding of the network of intercessions that lay behind the Pauline epistles.

REQUESTS FOR PRAYER

We begin with the five direct and indirect requests for prayer, and inquire first about their stylistic peculiarities in the light of any Jewish or Hellenistic usage that may be discovered.

Formal characteristics and background of the prayer-requests

When we compare the wish-prayers and the prayer-reports with the requests for prayer, we seem to encounter a more heterogeneous group of passages as far as their formal characteristics are concerned.