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Mat_7:7-9. The new passage concerning prayer begins, without any trace of connection with what goes before. Comp. note on Mat_7:1. It is otherwise in Luk_11:9, which, however, does not affect Matthew’s originality (in answer to Holtzmann, Weiss, Weizsäcker), nor does it warrant the opinion that some connecting terms have been omitted. Influenced by a later tradition, Luke has given the sayings in a connection of his own, and one that, so far as can be discovered, has no claim to be preferred to that of Matthew.
αἰτεῖτε , ζητεῖτε , κρούετε ] Climax depicting the rising of the prayer into intense fervour, that “he may thereby urge us all the more powerfully to prayer” (Luther).
Mat_7:8. The obvious limitation to this promise is sufficiently indicated by ἀγαθά in Mat_7:11 (1Jn_5:14), just as the childlike, therefore believing, disposition of the petitioner is presupposed[426] in Mat_7:9-11.
Mat_7:9. ἤ ] or, if that were not the case, then, in the analogous human relation must, and so on.
τίς ἐστιν … μὴ λίθον ἐπιδ . αὐτῷ ] Dropping of the interrogative construction with which the sentence had begun, and transition to another. A similar change in Luk_11:11. See Fritzsche, Conject. p. 34 ff.; Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 243 f. [E. T. 284]. This irregularity is occasioned by the intervening clause, quem si filius poposcerit panem. The sentence is so constructed that it should have run thus: ἢ τίς ἐστιν ἐξ ὑμῶν ἄνθρωπος , ὃν ἐὰν αἰτήσῃ (i.e. ὅς , ἐὰν αὐτὸν αἰτήσῃ , see Kühner, II. 2, p. 913), ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ ἄρτον , λίθον ἐπιδώσει αὐτῷ (without μή ); but after the relative clause the construction with μή supersedes that at the beginning of the sentence.
μὴ λίθον ἐπιδ . αὐτῷ ] surely he will not give him a stone? With regard to the things compared, notice the resemblance between the piece of bread and a stone, and between a fish and a serpent; and on the other hand, the contrast with regard to the persons: ἐξ ὑμῶν ἄνθρωπος , and ὁ πατὴρ ὑμ . ὁ ἐν τ . οὐρανοῖς .
[426] The specific determination of prayer that will certainly be heard, as prayer offered in the name of Jesus (John 14-16), was reserved for a further stage of development. Comp. on Mat_6:13, note 1. It is not the divine relation to men in general (Baur), but to His own believing ones, that Jesus has in view. Comp. Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 67 f., ed. 2.