Paul's Intercessory Prayers Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Texts and Abbreviations
- 1 Introductory
- 2 Intercessory prayer material in Paul's letters
- 3 Intercessory wish-prayers: their background and form
- 4 Function of the wish-prayers in I Thessalonians
- 5 Function of the wish-prayers in Romans, I Corinthians, and Philippians
- 6 Blessings and curses
- 7 Intercessory prayer-reports: their form and function
- 8 Function of the prayer-reports in the thanksgiving periods
- 9 Function of the prayer-reports in the body of the letters
- 10 Requests and exhortations about intercessory prayer
- 11 Concluding statement
- Appendixes
- Bibliography
- Index of passages cited
- Index of authors
- Index of subjects
4 - Function of the wish-prayers in I Thessalonians
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Texts and Abbreviations
- 1 Introductory
- 2 Intercessory prayer material in Paul's letters
- 3 Intercessory wish-prayers: their background and form
- 4 Function of the wish-prayers in I Thessalonians
- 5 Function of the wish-prayers in Romans, I Corinthians, and Philippians
- 6 Blessings and curses
- 7 Intercessory prayer-reports: their form and function
- 8 Function of the prayer-reports in the thanksgiving periods
- 9 Function of the prayer-reports in the body of the letters
- 10 Requests and exhortations about intercessory prayer
- 11 Concluding statement
- Appendixes
- Bibliography
- Index of passages cited
- Index of authors
- Index of subjects
Summary
What, now, does Paul do with the liturgical or epistolary language and forms that he takes over in the wish-prayers? Does he use them to express real prayer arising spontaneously from immediate needs, and linked closely with the main concerns and themes of the letters? Do they fulfil other purposes as well? The broad question of the functioning of the eight principal wish-prayer passages is considered in this chapter and the next.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF I THESSALONIANS
We may start with the two examples in I Thessalonians:
Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you; and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men, as we do to you, so that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
(I Thess. 3: 11–13)May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(I Thess. 5: 23)This letter to Thessalonica provides an appropriate beginning for our study. Besides being probably the earliest of Paul's extant letters, it was occasioned and closely shaped by a congregational emergency that was causing him the deepest anxiety.
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- Information
- Paul's Intercessory PrayersThe Significance of the Intercessory Prayer Passages in the Letters of St Paul, pp. 45 - 71Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1974