Can you tell me what the phrase “house of prayer” means from Matthew 21:13?\u00a0 Is this word used as a synecdoche or is it meant to mean literal “prayer?”\u00a0 If prayer was not the only thing they did at the temple, could this word have been used to mean a house of ‘worship?’<\/p>\n\t
Jesus is quoting two passages:<\/p>\n
“Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples<\/em>” (Isaiah 56:7).<\/p>\n
““Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the LORD<\/em>” (Jeremiah 7:11).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A synecdoche is when a part is used to represent the whole or when the whole is used to represent a part. Even in the quote from Isaiah we can see that prayer is not the only thing that took place at the Temple, sacrifices happened as well; though, of course, prayers typically accompanied the sacrifices, as can be seen in Daniel: “While I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering<\/em>” (Daniel 9:21). There was a morning and evening offering and this was the common time for the Israelites to pray. “May my prayer be counted as incense before You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering<\/em>” (Psalms 141:2).<\/p>\n
The Temple was intended as a place where worshipers could come and pray to God. “Now therefore, O God of Israel, let Your word, I pray, be confirmed which You have spoken to Your servant, my father David. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You today; at Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place<\/em>” (I Kings 8:26-29). Therefore, to refer to the Temple as a house of prayer is to acknowledge one of the purposes for which the Temple existed.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Can you tell me what the phrase “house of prayer” means from Matthew 21:13?\u00a0 Is this word used as a synecdoche or is it meant to mean literal “prayer?”\u00a0 If prayer was not the only thing they did at the temple, could this word have been used to mean a house of ‘worship?’ Answer:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1510,93,76],"class_list":["post-47026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-prayers","tag-temple","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27378,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-group-prayer-biblical\/","url_meta":{"origin":47026,"position":0},"title":"Is group prayer biblical?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I attend a couple of churches of Christ, both of which practice group prayer. If we are so concerned with serving God strictly with biblical authority (e.g. no music in worship, etc.) then surely there must be some explicit mention of group prayer in the New Testament. Could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23465,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-pray-for-the-end-of-the-covid-19-plague\/","url_meta":{"origin":47026,"position":1},"title":"Should we pray for the end of the COVID-19 plague?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I hope this coronavirus will end soon. What should we pray for in this crisis? I believe God knows what is happening so how should we pray and what should we pray for? Answer: Prayer is the time to tell God about our desires. Consider that Jesus knew that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40628,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/marys-house\/","url_meta":{"origin":47026,"position":2},"title":"Mary’s House","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Acts 12:12-17 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In Acts 12 we learn that the persecution of the church intensified in Judea. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Herod had the apostle James killed - Acts 12:1-2 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was a popular act, and so he planned to repeat it by having Peter killed - Acts 12:3-4\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10876,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-you-get-some-verses-wrong-concerning-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":47026,"position":3},"title":"Did you get some verses wrong concerning prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a Christain who attends a Church of Christ. In a search to assist me in my study of God's word, I came across your site. I happened to be gleaning over the Scriptures listed in reference to prayer and was surprised to find that some of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49901,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-there-men-besides-paul-in-the-assembly-where-paul-met-lydia\/","url_meta":{"origin":47026,"position":4},"title":"Were there men, besides Paul, in the assembly where Paul met Lydia?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Acts 16:13 where the women had assembled on the Sabbath by the river, do you think that was a woman-only assembly, or were other men, besides Paul, there? Answer: Paul took Silas with him (Acts 15:41), Timothy also accompanies Paul (Acts 16:1-4), and at Troas Luke joins (the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19599,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-an-advent-prayer-processional-proper\/","url_meta":{"origin":47026,"position":5},"title":"Is an Advent prayer processional proper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I belong to my church women's group. I want to add an Advent candle lighting prayer processional to begin the program. Is this Advent proper? Answer: Advent is a man-made event referring to the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, which is also a man-made holiday. You will find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}