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Mat 6:7. Μὴ βαττολογήσητε, use not vain repetitions) Gattaker has collected from antiquity many persons called Battus, celebrated for their stammering, and thence for their frequent repetition of the same word (tautologia), and deriving their name from that circumstance. Hesychius[251] renders βαττολογία by ἀργολογία (idle talking), ἀκαιρολογία (unseasonable talking): he says, βατταρίζειν appears to me to be derived from an imitation of the voice,” etc., and he explains βατταρισμὸι by φλυαρίαι.[252] It is clear, therefore, that βαττολογεῖν means the same here which πολυλογία (much speaking) does immediately afterwards, sc. when the same things are repeated over and over again, as is the case with stammerers, who endeavour to correct their first utterance by a second.-ὥσπερ οἱ ἐθνικοὶ, as the heathen do) In all things the practice of hypocrites is to be avoided, in prayer that also of the heathen.-ἐν τῇ πολυλογίᾳ αὐτῶν, in their much speaking) i.e. whilst they say many words. They think that many words are required to inform their deities what they want of them, so that they may hear and grant their requests, if not at the present, at some future time. Cf. on the other hand, “your Father KNOWETH,” etc., Mat 6:8. The same word, πολυλογία (much speaking) occurs in the S. V. of Pro 10:19. Ammonius[253] says, μακρολόγος is one who utters many words concerning few things, πολυλόγος, one who utters many words concerning many things. Christ commands us to utter few words, even when praying for many things; see Mat 6:9-13.-εἰσακουσθήσονται, shall be regarded. The Hebrew ענה, to answer, is rendered by the LXX. ΕἸΣΑΚΟΎΕΙΝ. God answers substantially;[254] see ch. Mat 7:7.
[251] Hesychius. There were several distinguished men of this name. The individual here intended was a celebrated grammarian and lexicographer of Alexandria, who lived somewhere about the fourth century.-(I. B.)
[252] βατταρισμὸς signified either originally stuttering, or derivatively idle prating: φλυαρία, silly talk, nonsense, foolery. It is used also in the plural. The kindred adjective φλύαροι is rendered tattlers in 1Ti 5:13, and the cognate participle φλυαρῶν, prating in 3Jn 1:10 by the Eng. Ver.-(I. B.)
[253] Ammonius the grammarian must not be confounded with the author of the Ammonian Sections. He was a native of Alexandria, and flourished in the fourth century. The work here alluded to is his treatise De differentia dictionum.-(I. B.)
[254] In the original “Deus respondit solide.”-(I. B.)