In chapter 6 he tells his disciples how they must differ from other leaders and be examples to the people, and then in a miracle of condensation he sets forth the purpose and rationale of the Church. It is all in the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father (Matthew 6:9 [Matt. 3:28-29]). We know that he is Jesus’ Father—but ours as well? Yes, but the world will not accept it; even now the pious authors go into all sorts of contortions to get around it. But it was the same in Jesus’ own day. Jesus was put to death for the specific claim that God was his Father, that he was the literal Son of God. As we read later on, “Tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: . . . Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; . . . What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death” (Matthew 26:63–66 [Matt. 12:14-15]).
God as a Father is rarely mentioned in the Old Testament: at times, however, in the New Testament the concept is everywhere: My Father, Your Father, the Father in Heaven, etc. What is wrong? Either Christ is teaching a drastically new doctrine—and that is what the scribes and Pharisees accused him of, or else the Jews have strayed from an older gospel and lost it. Which was it? The prophets leave us in no doubt. Their constant refrain is that Israel has strayed from the law and broken the everlasting covenant. The opening words in Isaiah are those of an offended Father: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider” (Isaiah 1:2–3 [Isa. 1:1]). And the last prophet, Malachi, writes: “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? . . . O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? ” (Malachi 1:6).
Alms, Prayer & Fasting: the Lord’s Prayer
Give, pray and fast, and do all three where no one can see, because an audience is the one thing that will cost you the reward. At the center, the prayer he taught them to say.
Tap a Gospel to show or hide its column. Narrow to any two to read them side by side.
Note. Two JST changes land inside the Lord’s Prayer itself: “debts… debtors” becomes “trespasses… them who trespass against us,” and “lead us not into temptation” becomes “suffer us not to be led into temptation.”
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
1And it came to pass as Jesus taught his disciples, he said unto them, Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them; otherwise, you have no reward of your Father who is in Heaven. 2Therefore, when you do thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Truly I say unto you, they have their reward. 3But when you do alms, let not your left hand know let it be unto you as your left hand not knowing what your right hand does, 4that your alms may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret himself shall reward you openly.
5And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. For truly I say unto you, they have their reward. 6But you, when you pray, enter into your closet. And when you have shut thy the door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly. 7But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do the hypocrites, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8Therefore, be not like unto them, for your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask him. 9Therefore, after this manner you shall pray, saying:
Our Father who is in Heaven, hallowed be your name. 10Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth, as it is done in Heaven. 11Give us this day our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us. 13And lead us not suffer us not to be led into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
14For if you forgive men their trespasses who trespass against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses.
16Moreover, when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Truly I say unto you, they have their reward. 17But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18that you appear not unto men to fast, but unto your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly.
1Verily, verily I say that I would that ye should do alms unto the poor, but take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them; otherwise, ye have no reward of your Father who is in Heaven. 2Therefore, when ye shall do your alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as will hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. 3But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, 4that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
5And when thou prayest, thou shalt not do as the hypocrites, 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. 6But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8Be not ye, therefore, like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.
9After this manner, therefore, pray ye: Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. 10Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. 11And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. 12And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 13For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. 14For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
16Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. 17But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, 18that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
13I categorically say that I want you, whenever you contribute to the poor, to be careful not to make that a public show for others to see; otherwise, you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2Therefore when you contribute help, don’t blow a trumpet to announce it, as hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to impress others. I’m warning you: They have their only reward. 3But when you give charitably, don’t even let your left hand know what your right hand does, 4so your donations are kept in secret; and your Father who sees that secret will Himself openly reward you.
5And when you pray, don’t imitate the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, hoping to be noticed by others. I’m warning you: They have their only reward. 6But when you pray, go into your closet, and after shutting the door, pray to your Father in secret; and your Father who sees that secrecy will openly reward you. 7When you pray, don’t use arrogant chanting like the heathen, for they think they’re noticed because of their conspicuous noise. 8Absolutely do not be like them, for your Father knows everything you need before you even ask Him.
9So follow this example when you offer prayer: Our Father in heaven, let Your name remain Holy. 10May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. 12And don’t let us fall into temptation, but rescue us from evil. 13For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. 14For if you forgive others’ offenses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive yours, 15but if you don’t forgive others’ offenses, your Father won’t forgive yours either.
16Furthermore, when you fast, don’t imitate the hypocrites, acting distressed, for they act as if they’re suffering to be admired by others. I’m warning you: They have their only reward. 17But when you are fasting, clean up, wash up, dress up, 18avoid any appearance of fasting, let only your Father know in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will openly reward you.
So Prayed Joseph: Father, Forgive Me My Trespasses
The most direct thing Joseph Smith ever said about this passage he said about himself. Standing at the temple stand in 1843 he told the congregation that all was well between him and the heavens, and then prayed the prayer of verse 12 in the first person. The two letters below come from prison and from hiding, which is where “thy Father who sees in secret” stops being an abstraction.
The Alms of Your Prayers
D&C 88:1–2 (CCE T&C 86:1) · December 27–28, 1832 · scriptures.info ↗A phrase that fuses the section’s first two subjects, the alms of verses 1–4 and the prayer of verses 5–6, into one thing that is recorded rather than seen.
The alms of your prayers have come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded in the Book of the Names of the Sanctified, even they of the Celestial world.
Of You It Is Required to Forgive All Men
D&C 64:9–10 (CCE T&C 51:3) · September 11, 1831 · scriptures.info ↗The clause the prayer hangs on, stated as a standing requirement, and with the asymmetry made explicit.
You ought to forgive one another, for he that forgives not his brother his trespasses stands condemned before the Lord, for there remains in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.
This Is Fasting and Prayer: Rejoicing and Prayer
D&C 59:13–15 (CCE T&C 46:3–4) · August 7, 1831 · scriptures.info ↗Verses 16–18 forbid the sad countenance; this revelation says what belongs in its place.
Only let your food be prepared with singleness of heart, that your fasting may be perfect, or in other words, that your joy may be full. Truly, this is fasting and prayer, or in other words, rejoicing and prayer.
And inasmuch as you do these things with thanksgiving, with cheerful hearts and countenances — not with much laughter, for this is sin, but with a glad heart and a cheerful countenance…
He Will Hear Our Prayers and Reward You Openly
Writing from Liberty Jail to the scattered Saints, Joseph Smith took both halves of verse 6 (the Father who sees in secret, and the reward that is open) and applied them to a stone room and to the people outside it.
Letter to the Church in Caldwell County, Missouri, 16 December 1838, Liberty Jail (cf. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 122–123) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗To the church of latter day saints in Caldwell county and the saints scattered abroad and are persecuted and made desolate and are afflicted in divers manners for christ’s sake and the gospel’s, and whose perils are greatly augmented by the wickedness and corruption of false brethren. May grace, mercy, and peace, be and abide with you and notwithstanding all your sufferings we assure you that you have our prayers and fervent desires for your welfare both day and night. We believe that, that God who sees us in this solitary place will hear our prayers & reward you openly.
Seek to Know God in Your Closets
From his editorial on the gifts of the Spirit: an argument that God is not usually found in thunder, and a direct instruction on verse 6.
Editorial, “Gift of the Holy Ghost,” Times and Seasons, 15 June 1842 (3:823–825), p. 825; cf. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 247 · Joseph Smith Papers ↗The Lord cannot always be known by the thunder of his voice; by the display of his glory, or by the manifestation of his power; and those that are the most anxious to see these things, are the least prepared to meet them.
We would say to the brethren seek to know God in your closets, call upon him in the fields; follow the directions of the Book of Mormon, and pray over, and for, your families, your cattle, your flocks, your herds, your corn, and all things that you possess; ask the blessing of God upon all your labors, and every thing that you engage in; be virtuous, and pure, be men of integrity and truth, keep the commandments of God, and then you will be able more perfectly to understand the difference between right and wrong.
So Prayed Joseph
At the temple stand, near the end of his life, Joseph Smith named the prayer as a pattern and then prayed it aloud in his own name, with the forgiveness clause turned toward everyone who had wronged him.
Discourse, 9 July 1843, the temple stand, Nauvoo; Joseph Smith Journal, kept by Willard Richards, p. [300] · Joseph Smith Papers ↗Joseph remarked that all was well between him and the heavens that he had no enmity against any one. and as the prayer of Jesus. or his pattern so prayed Joseph. Father forgive me my trespasses. as I forgive those who trespass. against me. for I freely forgive all men. —if we would secure & cultivate the love of others we must love others, even our enemies—as well as friends
The July 9, 1843, sermon was also taken down by James Burgess and Levi Richards, but neither touches this passage (Burgess records the material on prophets and revelation, Levi Richards a single summary line), so only Willard Richards appears as a witness here. Note too that Joseph prays “forgive me my TRESPASSES… those who TRESPASS against me,” the JST’s wording of verse 12, not the King James “debts.”
A Miracle of Condensation
Nibley gave a verse-by-verse commentary on this prayer, and read it as the charter of the Church rather than a devotional formula: a name to focus on in the absence of a face, a kingdom defined as the place where God’s will is actually obeyed, bread given rather than earned, and debts canceled in the same measure we cancel them. His reading of verse 12 sits in open tension with the JST, which is worth seeing rather than smoothing over.
It is the need for daily bread that enables men to exploit each other and deny free agency. If God does not provide daily bread, most people will have to sell their lives for bread. He does not want that; he wants us to have it as a gift. A gift does not have to be earned—other things must be earned, and they present a much harder challenge, but not the elements for preserving life. Air and water are more vital even than food, and some are trying to make even them marketable, controlling and holding back supply until their price is met. Eternal salvation must be earned, but the chance to take the test is given to all freely; you do not buy a gift from a giver or engage in a free-for-all to see who can grab the most of those gifts which a generous Father has provided for us all. The prime source of food in Israel, as everywhere else, is the rain, and the Lord tells us in Matthew that he lets his rain fall equally on the just and the unjust alike, the deserving and the undeserving. His direct gift of food to Israel was manna. The manna was literally daily bread, replenished fresh each day, but lasting for just one day only— after 24 hours it rotted and stank and could not be hoarded; it was not negotiable, no futures, no sales. Is there a subtle implication in the fact that when used for business it would be a foul and dirty thing? (I seem to recall lines about filthy lucre, the deceitfulness of riches, thy money perish with thee, etc.) And that went on for forty years? Was God trying to ruin their characters by giving them all a free lunch? No, they had plenty of tests to undergo, but they were not tests in acquiring stuff or negotiating deals, as we see in what immediately follows.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Matthew 6:12 [Matt. 3:29]). Some translators have obligingly tried to soften the passage by turning debt and debtors into the generic “trespasses,” but what is here used is strictly business language referring to money owed. God recognized that Israel could not be free without the Lord’s release. Which meant that all debts were canceled every seven years. There was simply no other way; otherwise, men inevitably lose freedom of action, bound by debts both owed and owing. We ask God to forgive us what we owe him in the exact proportion as we forget the debts that are owed to us. This theme is repeated in Matthew in some powerful parables. And what do we owe God? Everything, says King Benjamin. Though a man should work zealously in the kingdom all day long everyday, he would still remain an “unprofitable servant” —that is, consuming more than he produces. We are all in God’s debt, says Benjamin, and forever shall be, which means that our only hope is to show him how much we want to be delivered by following his instructions and canceling all debts to us. The law of the release was the only way to get out of the debtors’ prison in which men keep each other. It is God’s will that men cancel debts to each other, and until they cease holding debts, accounts, mortgages, bonds, etc., over each other, God’s kingdom will never be established on earth as it is in heaven.
The prayer spoken in the circle differs every time; it is not strictly prescribed. The one leading the prayer expresses himself as the Spirit moves him, and the others either repeat each line after him (which would not be necessary if they all knew it by heart) or add an “amen” at the end of each phrase, which is the equivalent of reciting the prayer for oneself. The most significant example of this freedom of composition is certainly the Lord’s Prayer. “Originally,”
“Ye are cursed because of your riches,” says the prophet Samuel, “and also are your riches cursed because ye have set your hearts upon them, and have not hearkened unto the words of him who gave them unto you. Ye do not remember the Lord your God in the things with which he hath blessed you, but ye do always remember your riches, not to thank the Lord your God for them” (Helaman 13:21-22 [Hel. 5:6]). They simply refused to regard or treat their riches as gifts, but insisted that they were earnings.
The gifts of God are intimate and personal. You do not ask God for gifts for someone else, because only God knows the mind, heart, and the real needs of any individual, and only he knows what is really expedient in each case. What I ask for you might be what you neither want nor need—a sheer impertinence on my part. Gifts can embarrass.
That is why we are told that in giving a gift to another you must “not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (cf. Matthew 6:3 [Matt. 3:27])—there is no bookkeeping of gifts. The manna experience and the Lord’s prayer teach us that!
There is something infinitely degrading about worrying whether others—especially those who have less than we do—are getting more than they deserve. We think of the spoiled child at the party, who jealously watches what the other children are getting, grabs everything in sight, and starts fights when the goodies are being handed out, then complains that he has not got as much as somebody else. But don’t judge the little fellow—he is merely maximizing profits, like the rest of us. We see the heroes of epic literature and oriental romances jealously measuring their “portions” at the banquet table lest the “meed of honor” of one noble lord be either too far above or below that of another. That leads to nasty remarks, jealous outbreaks, savage brawls, and usually to bloodshed—all over gifts, of all things!
A real disagreement, left standing rather than resolved: Nibley argues that rendering “debts” as “trespasses” softens the saying and loses its economic force, and the JST makes exactly that change, which is what the Matthew column above prints in green. The Book of Mormon column keeps “debts.” The three witnesses on this page do not agree, and the reader should be able to see that.
Not Daily Bread: The Bread of the Kingdom
The word translated “daily” in verse 11 is epiousios, and it is nearly unique in Greek; nobody is confident what it means. Barker follows Jerome, who reports that the Hebrew gospel he knew read mahar: tomorrow. On that reading the petition is not for today’s food at all but for the bread of the coming Kingdom, which in the temple was the Bread of the Presence eaten by priests in the holy place.
There is also the question of the LORD's Prayer, spoken by all the people before the Communion. 'Thy Kingdom come' is clearly, in this context, a prayer for the opening of the holy place, the joining of earth and heaven as in the temple tradition. 'Give us this day our daily bread' cannot at this point be a prayer for ordinary food, but for the heavenly bread. 'Daily' as a translation of epiousios has always been a problem, because the meaning of this very rare word is uncertain. Jerome (died 420 CE) in his commentary on Psalm 135 shows that there was another understanding of epiousios: 'In the Hebrew Gospel according to Matthew, it is thus: "Our bread of the morrow, give us this day" that is, the bread which Thou wilt give us in thy kingdom, give us this day.' This is reflected in the canonical Matthew 'Give us today the epiousios bread' (Matt. 6.11 [Matt. 3:29]),125 and in Jerome's rendering which became the Vulgate: 'supersubstantialis' bread. Since he seems to have invented this word, we can only guess what he intended, but it could have been a recognition that this was supernatural bread. In his commentary on Matthew 6.11 he reveals that the Hebrew word was mahar, tomorrow, and 'tomorrow' for the first Christians had a special significance. If Jerome reported accurately, the corresponding Greek to mahar may have been the very similar epiousos.
Cited from the printed book, which has no paper on Barker’s own site to link to. She has nothing on the alms, the trumpet, the closet, vain repetitions, or fasting (a search for “fast” returns nothing at all across her corpus), so this single entry is the whole of her witness here.