Lord's Prayer
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The Lord's Prayer,[1] also known as the Our Father or Pater noster is probably the best-known prayer in Christianity. On Easter Sunday 2007 it was estimated that 2 billion Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Christians read, recited, or sang the short prayer in hundreds of languages in houses of worship of all shapes and sizes.[2] Although many theological differences and various modes and manners of worship divide Christians, according to Fuller Seminary professor Clayton Schmit "there is a sense of solidarity in knowing that Christians around the globe are praying together…, and these words always unite us."[2]
Two versions of it occur in the New Testament, one in the Gospel of Matthew 6:9–13 as part of the discourse on ostentation, a section of the Sermon on the Mount, and the other in the Gospel of Luke 11:2–4.
The prayer's absence from the Gospel of Mark (cf. the Prayer for forgiveness of 11:25–26), taken together with its presence in both Luke and Matthew, has caused scholars who accept the Q hypothesis (as opposed to Augustinian hypothesis) to conclude that it is a quotation from the Q document, especially because of the context in Luke's presentation of the prayer, where many phrases show similarity to the Q-like Gospel of Thomas.
The context of the prayer in Matthew is as part of a discourse deploring people who pray simply for the purpose of being seen to pray. Matthew describes Jesus as instructing people to pray after the manner of this prayer. Taking into account the prayer's structure, flow of subject matter and emphases, many[who?] interpret the Lord's Prayer as a guideline on how to pray rather than something to be learned and repeated by rote. Some[who?] disagree, suggesting that the prayer was intended as a specific prayer to be used. The New Testament reports Jesus and the disciples praying on several occasions; but as it never describes them actually using this prayer, it is uncertain how important it was originally viewed as being.
[edit] Versions
There are several different translations of the Lord's Prayer. One of the first texts in English is the Northumbrian translation from around 650. The three best-known in English are
- The translation in the 1662 Anglican Book of Common Prayer (BCP)
- The translation in the 1928 version of the Prayer Book
- The translation of the ecumenical English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC),
These are given here along with the Greek text of Matthew 6:9-13 and the Latin version used in the Roman Catholic Church. In four of the texts given below, the square brackets indicate the doxology with which the prayer is often concluded. This is not included in critical editions of the New Testament, such as that of the United Bible Societies, as not belonging to the original text of Matthew 6:9–13, nor is it always part of the Book of Common Prayer text. The Roman Catholic form of the Lord's Prayer never ends with it.
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Original text in Greek Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· |
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Other English translations are also used. The Eastern Orthodox Churches use a modified version in their English services. Some non-Christian groups, such as Religious Science, sometimes use the prayer also, often with modified wording, such as replacing the word "evil" with "error".
Though Matthew 6:12 uses the term debts, the older English versions of the Lord's Prayer uses the term trespasses, while ecumenical versions often use the term sins. The latter choice may be due to Luke 11:4, which uses the word sins, while the former may be due to Matthew 6:12 (immediately after the text of the prayer), where Jesus speaks of trespasses. As early as the third century, Origen used the word trespasses (παραπτώματα) in the prayer. Though the Latin form that was traditionally used in Western Europe has debita (debts), most English-speaking Christians (except Presbyterians and others of the Reformed tradition), use trespasses. The Established Presbyterian Church of Scotland as well as the Congregational denomination follow the version found in Matthew 6 in the Authorized Version (known also as the King James Version), which in the prayer uses the words "debts" and "debtors".
Roman Catholics usually do not add the doxology, "For Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory, forever and ever." However, this doxology, in the form "For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever", is used in the Catholic Mass, separated from the Lord's Prayer by a prayer, spoken or sung by the priest, that elaborates on the final petition, "Deliver us from evil." In the 1975 ICEL translation, this prayer reads: "Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ."
All these versions are based on the text in Matthew, rather than Luke, of the prayer given by Jesus:
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Matthew 6:9–13 (KJV)
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Luke 11:2–4 (KJV)
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