(May 14, 2014 at 1:15 pm)alpha male Wrote: As has already been discussed, the focus of the matthew passage can be read as regarding public prayer, or hypocritical prayer, or both. Luke 18:9-14 has a parable about two men who went up to the temple to pray. The hypocritical man's prayer was not accepted, but the sincere man's prayer was, even though both of them could have stayed home to pray. The logical conclusion is that the focus of the Matthew passage is therefore on hypocritical prayer and not public prayer.
Given that the four gospels get a lot of details wrong between them, and the two stories you mentioned aren't the same story (one is a parable and the other is a set of instructions), I don't think I'd call that "the logical conclusion".
I mean, maybe you're right, but there's no way to assert that given what you said.
