What does "don't use vain repetitions" mean?
In praying, don't use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking. Young's Literal Translation. 'And -- praying -- ye may not use vain repetitions like the nations, for they think that in their much speaking they shall be heard, Additional Translations ...
Why do you not babble in the Bible?
When you pray, do not babble repetitiously like the Gentiles, because they think that by their many words they will be heard. New Heart English Bible.
What does "do not stutter out your prayers" mean?
(7) Use not vain repetitions. --The Greek word has a force but feebly rendered in the English. Formed from a word which reproduces the repeated attempts of the stammerer to clothe his thoughts in words, it might be almost rendered, "Do not stutter out your prayers, do not babble them over." The words describe only too faithfully the act of prayer when it becomes mechanical. The devotion of the rosary, in which every bead is connected with a Pater Noster or an Ave Maria, does but reproduce the eighteen prayers of the Rabbis, which they held it to be an act of religion to repeat. On the other hand, it is clear that the law of Christ does not exclude the iteration of intense emotion. That is not a "vain repetition;" and in the great crisis of His human life our Lord Himself prayed thrice "using the same words" ( Matthew 26:44 ). How far our use of the Lord's Prayer, or of the Kyrie Eleison of our Litanies, is open to the charge of "vain repetition" is another question. It is obvious that it may easily become so to any mechanical worshipper of the Pharisaic type; but there is, on the other side, an ever-accumulating weight of evidence from really devout souls, that they have found it helpful in sustaining the emotion without which prayer is dead.
What does "but when ye pray" mean?
Verse 7. - But when ye pray ( προσευχόμενοι δέ ). The Revised Version, and in praying, shows that our Lord is only continuing the subject, and not turning to a new one, as in vers. 2, 5, 16. But while he has thus far thought of prayer as an external act, he now speaks of the substance of the prayers offered, the δέ indicating a transition to another aspect of the same subject. Use not vain repetitions; "Babble not much" (Tyndale). The word used ( μὴβατταλογήσητε) is probably onomatopoeic of stuttering. The Peshito employs here the same root () as for μογιλάλος, Mark 7:32 (). But from the primary sense of stuttering, βατταλογεῖν, naturally passed to that of babbling in senseless repetitions. As the heathen do ( οἱ ἐθνεικοί, Gentiles, Revised Version; Matthew 5:47, note). Thinking that the virtue lies in the mere utterance of the words. Even the Jews came perilously near this in their abundant use of synonyms and synonymous expressions in their prayers (cf. Lightfoot, 'Hor. Hebr.'). Perhaps it was this fact that assisted the introduction of the reading "hypocrites" in B and the Old Syriac. For they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. In the continuance ( ἐν) of their external action lies their hope of being fully heard ( εισακουσθήσονται ).
Do not use vain repetitions in prayer?
And in praying, do not use vain repetitions, as the unbelievers do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking. "And when praying, do not use needless repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they expect to be listened to because of their multitude of words.
What does the Aramaic Bible say about praying?
Contemporary English Version. When you pray, don't talk on and on as people do who don't know God.
When you pray, speak not much?
And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard. English Revised Version. And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Nueva Versión Internacional
1»Cuídense de no hacer sus obras de justicia delante de la gente para llamar la atención. Si actúan así, su Padre que está en el cielo no les dará ninguna recompensa.
Mateo 6:1-34
1»Cuídense de no hacer sus obras de justicia delante de la gente para llamar la atención. Si actúan así, su Padre que está en el cielo no les dará ninguna recompensa.