Prayer Within and Without the Temple. From Ancient Judaism to Early Christianity

This article defines the relationship between prayer and the temple cult, examining in turn the evidence on Temple-related prayers in Ben Sira, 1 Maccabees, Josephus, Philo, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Luke-Acts, Hebrews, Revelation, the Didache, and early rabbinic literature. It aims to demonstrate that institutionalized, public prayer emerged from within the Temple, and that Qumranic, and to certain extent early-christian, prayer also developed under the Temple's influence. However, while the Qumran sects sought to serve as a subtitute for the Temple cult, while in the NT, prayer was sometimes modeled after Temple sacrifices, and did not seek to usurp it.