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Where Would Jesus Pray?
by Howard Thompson, reprinted from the Texas Atheist. Used by permission.

Greetings to Christians,

"Jesus prayed in public," the angry Santa Fe, Texas football fan told me. I was surprised, for I could not recall any gospel verses where Jesus prayed in public. It made me realize I had forgotten about the importance of Jesus in public prayer controversies. Jesus is Christianity's ultimate moral example. Before they act, Christians are supposed to ask themselves "What Would Jesus Do?" Christians should do whatever Jesus would do. Christians should not do what Jesus would not do.

Many Christians want government to sponsor public prayers, especially in schools. An example is the Texas controversy over football game prayers. Christians concerned about public prayers should be asking "Where Would Jesus Pray?"

Christians regard the four gospels as their best source of information about Jesus. Christians who want to live as Jesus lived use the gospels as their guide. So, wherever gospel verses describe Jesus as praying is where Christians should pray. If gospel verses describe Jesus teaching against praying somewhere, or Jesus not praying there, then Christians should not pray there.

RESULTS OF "WHERE JESUS WOULD PRAY?" RESEARCH

 I examined gospel verses to discover "Where Would Jesus Pray?" All gospel verses that talked about prayer were examined. The detailed results are in a separate paper following this one.

Some verses described Jesus praying. Some described Jesus' teachings on prayer. Other verses had non-applicable usages of the word "pray," or its variations. These other verses tell Christians nothing about what Jesus taught on prayer or how hr prayed. Only the verses where Jesus prayed or taught about praying were analyzed.

There were eighteen gospel verses that described Jesus praying or probably praying. Depending on the information of the verse and its surrounding context, each verse was assignable to one of seven categories. The counts for each kind of prayer by Jesus were:

COUNT KIND OF PRAYER

0 Public/voluntary. Jesus chose to pray in a public setting.
1 Public/involuntary. Jesus had no choice but to pray in public if he wished to pray.
12 Alone. Jesus separated himself from others to pray alone.
1 Healing prayer. Jesus spoke, or may have spoken, a healing prayer.
1 At religious ritual. Jesus prayed as part of a religious ritual.
1 With disciples. Jesus prayed with, or in the presence of, his disciples.
2 Indeterminate. There was not enough information to make a determination

WHAT DID JESUS TEACH ABOUT WHERE TO PRAY?

Most significant are Jesus' teachings in Matthew 6:5-6. This teaching contains:

* A statement against public prayer. When Jesus says it is hypocrisy to "pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets," we can be sure that "corners of the streets" are in public.

* A command to pray in private. When Jesus says, "when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door ...," we can be sure that Jesus is saying that prayers are private talking to god and not to be heard by others.

* A description of prayer as "secret." When Jesus says, "pray to thy father which is in secret," we can be sure that Jesus is emphasizing the private, non-public nature of prayer.

"WHERE WOULD JESUS PRAY?"

The count of gospel verses that describe Jesus praying answer the question "Where Would Jesus Pray?" Unless Jesus had no choice but to pray in public or was praying in a special sense (healing, religious ritual, with disciples), he went off alone to pray.

There is no gospel evidence that Jesus prayed in public in anything like the way prayers are conducted at government events, such as school graduation ceremonies, legislative sessions, swearing in of public officials, or football games.

There was a Roman Coliseum for sports just outside Jerusalem. So, Jesus had an opportunity to teach about prayers at sports events. There is no gospel evidence that Jesus prayed before sports events. There is no gospel evidence that Jesus said there should be prayers before sports events.

The best evidence Christians have about "Where Jesus Would Pray?" clearly tells Christians that they should pray in private where no one can hear them. That evidence also tells Christians that they should not pray in public.

IS PUBLIC PRAYER THE WORK OF SATAN?

Christians who believe Satan is real should be asking why some Christians want government to conduct public prayers. Who would be for public prayers in disobedience to Jesus?

The logical answer for Christians who believe in Satan is that Satan opposes what Jesus taught and did. That makes Satan a likely cause of the Christian campaign for public prayers.

Why would Satan want public prayers by government? Since Satan's purpose is advanced when Christians disobey Jesus, Satan would want Christians to disobey Jesus' teachings and the examples of his life.

Satan would use the government prayer controversy to tempt Christians with anger, pride, righteous vanity and arrogance. Satan would tempt Christians into perverting God's spiritual kingdom into an earthly kingdom of powerful Christians who want the personal triumph of creating their human idea of God's kingdom on earth.

Christians who believe Satan exists can marvel at how Satan seduces Christian enthusiasm for Jesus. Satan tempts Christians into perverting Jesus' teachings and actions on prayer into an earthly instead of spiritual activity. The "diabolical" cleverness is that Satan tricks Christians into disobeying Jesus by exploiting Christian eagerness to glorify Jesus and demonstrate their faith.

I hope this discussion helps Christians understand what the gospels says about Jesus' position on prayer. The detailed information in the following research report is provided so that you may easily see where this information came from.

If you are concerned about public prayer, I hope you will read this information and give the teachings and example of Jesus the consideration they deserve. Sincerely, Howard Thompson Editor: The Texas Atheist Newsletter An independent, free e-mail newsletter Subscribe to gofreemind@aol.com

"WHERE WOULD JESUS PRAY?" FOUR GOSPELS RESEARCH RESULTS

By Howard Thompson Editor: The Texas Atheist newsletter

Copyright © 1999 by Howard M. Thompson

This paper describes research methodology and gospel verses used.

1.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1.1 Categorizing the kinds of prayers. Prayer was considered to be someone talking to God, silently or spoken, privately or with others. Examination of gospel versus shows that prayers can be divided into several categories:

General talking to God. People talk to God, for whatever purpose, but not while trying to heal someone with their prayers (which is different from praying for someone to recover from illness), and not as part of a religious ritual, such as baptism or Temple prayers.

Healing prayers. Requests for God to use his power to directly heal an illness. This is a special kind of prayer that differs in quality from the general "talking to god" kind of prayer.

Prayers in religious rituals. Prayers that are part of religious rituals. The ritual may be in a holy building (Temple or synagogue), outdoors (baptisms), or as part of daily living (blessing meals). This is another kind of special prayer that differs in quality from the general "talking to god" kind of prayer.

1.2 Identifying instances of Jesus praying. Two methods were used to identify gospel versus where Jesus is described as praying.

A word search on "pray" was conducted with an electronic King James bible. The search found all occurrences of the word "pray" and the variations of "prayed," "praying" and "prayer."

The four gospels were also read to identify other verses that might be prayers but which were not described in the text as prayers. Several such verses were found, but perhaps some others were not discovered by this method.

2.0 DIFFERENT USES OF "PRAY" IN THE FOUR GOSPELS

 "Pray" was used in several different ways in gospel verses. The following categories and sub-categories were used to distinguish between different uses of "pray" and different kinds of prayers by Jesus.

2.1 Category 1) Descriptions of Jesus praying. All of these verses were examined and assigned to one of the following sub-classifications.
  • Public/voluntary. Jesus chose to pray in a public setting.
  • Public/involuntary. Jesus prayed in a public setting, but had no choice but to pray in public if he wished to pray.
  • Alone. There was enough information to determine that Jesus was praying alone.
  • Healing prayer. There was enough information to determine that Jesus may have spoken a healing prayer.
  • At religious rituals. Jesus probably praying as part of a religious ritual.
  • With disciples. Jesus prayed with, or in the presence of, his disciples.
  • Indeterminate. There was not enough information to determine if Jesus was praying alone, with disciples, or in public.
2.2 Category 2) Jesus teaching how to pray. These verses were examined to see if they described anything that related to the public prayer controversy or where Jesus prayed.

2.3 Category 3) Descriptions of others praying. These verses were not further analyzed since they don't tell Christians anything about "Where Jesus Would Pray?"

2.4 Category 4) "Pray" is used to mean approximately "you should hope" or "you should wish." These verses were not further analyzed since they don't tell Christians anything about "Where Jesus Would Pray?"

3.0 CATEGORIZATION VERSES

3.1 CATEGORY 1: JESUS PRAYING

There are eighteen gospel verses where Jesus prayed, or might have prayed. All quotes are from the King James Version. Those eighteen cases and their assigned sub-category are:

1. [INDETERMINATE] Mt 11:25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. (26) Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. (27)All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. (28) Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (30) For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. [NOTE: These words attributed to Jesus read like a prayer. Because of the "at that time" lead-in to a new section of the story which separates it from preceding material, and the start of a new story sequence just after, there is no information about where Jesus was, who was with him, nor the reason for the prayer.]

2. [ALONE] Mt 14:22 And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. (23) And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

3. [HEALING PRAYER W/DISCIPLES & OTHERS] Mt 19:13 Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. (14) But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. (15) And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence. [NOTE: The gospels treat healing by Jesus differently than prayers that are in the nature of talking to God for a non-healing purpose. If we assume that Jesus prayed (at least silently) as he healed, then most of his healing stories would have been in a group setting of disciples, those getting healed, and onlookers. Not all Jesus' healings were by prayer, as when people touched the fringes of his cloak, so the assumption that Jesus always prayed for healings is probably too broad. In these verses, Jesus is not described as praying. While the request was made that Jesus pray, his only described action is laying hands on the children. ]

4. [ALONE] Mt 26:36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. (37) And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. (38) Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. (39) And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

5. [ALONE] Mt 26:42 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

6. [ALONE] Mt 26:43 And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. (44) And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

7. [PUBLIC/INVOLUNTARY] Mt 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [NOTE: These words addressed to god while Jesus is being crucified could be a prayer, and it is in public. If this is considered a prayer, it is not appropriate to consider it in the same category as other instances of Jesus praying to God. Since Jesus is nailed to the cross and has no choice but to pray in public if he wants to talk to God, this event cannot tell Christians anything about "Where Would Jesus Pray?" if he were free to choose how he prayed.]

8. [ALONE] Mk 1:35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

9. [ALONE] Mk 6:45 And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. (46) And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. (47) And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land.

10. [ALONE] Mk 14:32 And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. (33) And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; (34) And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch. (35) And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. (37) And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour?

11. [ALONE] Mk 14:39 And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words. (40) And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist they what to answer him.

12. [PRAYER AT RELIGIOUS RITUAL] Lu 3:21 Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened ... [NOTE: This verse reads like Jesus may have prayed after his baptism by John the Baptist. The oldest Greek manuscripts are without punctuation, which makes them read less clearly that Jesus was praying. The other gospel account of Jesus' baptism does not mention prayers. This may be an example of group prayer, or perhaps John the Baptist prayed, or perhaps Jesus prayed. This verse describes other people present with Jesus when a prayer was conducted at a religious ritual. If Jesus prayed, it is the closest gospel case of voluntary prayer before a group by Jesus, even if it was only at a religious ritual.]

13. [ALONE] Lk 6:12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. (13) And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;

14. [ALONE] Lk 9:18 And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?

15. [ALONE] Lk 9:28 And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. (29) And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. (30)And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: (31) Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. (32) But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. [NOTE: Jesus took three others up the mountain, but they are described as being asleep at the completion of his praying and talking with Moses and Elias. This description fits the three sleeping while Jesus prayed alone.]

16. [INDETERMINATE] Lu 11:1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. [NOTE: It is not clear if any disciples were with Jesus while he prayed or if they approached Jesus after his praying was completed. The phrase "in a certain place" could be a reference to Jesus separating himself from his disciples for prayer, as is described in other verses. If Jesus was praying in the presence of his disciples, then this verse would be sub-cateorized as "With Disciples."]

17. [ALONE] Lu 22:41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, (42) Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. (43) And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. (44) And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. (45) And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow,

18. [WITH DISCIPLES] Jn 17:1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: ... (9) I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. ... (15) I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. ... (20) Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word ... [NOTE: This prayer is during the John gospel's long last supper story. In that context, Jesus prayed with his disciples present in the room of the last supper. While others were present, this was not a public prayer.]

3.2 CATEGORY 2: JESUS TEACHING HOW TO PRAY

From the King James Version. Ten other verses where Jesus teaches about prayer are not shown to save space. These verses did not give any significant new information about Jesus' teachings on public prayer beyond Mt 6:5-6.

Mt 6:5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. (6) But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.