Diocese of Nottingham Ongoing Formation for the Clergy SEVENTEENTH Sunday in ordinary time Luke : year c Luke 11:1 13 THE LORD S PRAYER : A LUKAN VERSION Christians have inherited three versions of the Lord s Prayer. The version most familiar to all Christians, east and west, is that given in St Matthew s Gospel (6:9-13), though it has to be said that many European languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, modern Greek, and Gaelic, manage to mistranslate, certainly two of the seven petitions, and maybe
2 three. While the word translated daily (ε πιου σιον; epiousion, as in daily bread) has always troubled translators, two verses are mistranslated because of the influence of St Jerome s Vulgate (still the official Bible of the Western Church). Jerome s final two petitions of the Pater Noster, as we all know, are: Et ne nos inducas in tentationem; sed libera nos a malo. To which he added Amen, without so much as by-your-leave. There is no Amen in the Greek New Testament text. But that will not keep us awake o nights. It is the two above petitions that are of concern. Scholars as eminent as Father Raymond Brown point out that the verses should be translated as, And do not put us to the test, but deliver us from the evil one. 1 It is just possible that the second version of the Lord s Prayer given in a liturgical setting in The Didache may be as old or nearly as old as that of Matthew. It certainly comes from the first century of Christian witness. It is The Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) that adds to Matthew s version a doxology that many Reformation Churches use in their liturgies (as do we); 1 See Raymond E. Brown, S.S., New Testament Essays, New York: Image Books, 1968, which contains an essay entitled The Pater Noster as an Eschatological Prayer, pp.275-320. Brown points out that the standard English form of the Pater Noster scarcely renders justice to the Greek of Mt. (p.280). He adds that the reader should remember that not one of the traditional versions of the Pater Noster in English, French, German, or for that matter in Latin, is a real translation from a critical Greek text (p.281). The very best book on the Lord s Prayer is that of Ernst Lohmeyer, The Lord s Prayer, London:Collins, 1965. This is one book I cherish above all commentaries on Matthew s version of the Our Father.
3 For thine is the power and the glory forever. It is almost, but not quite, certain that The Didache version is borrowed from Matthew s text. LUKE S VERSION OF THE LORD S PRAYER The almost universal opinion of scholars is that Luke s version of the Lord s Prayer most closely represents the form of the prayer spoken by Jesus. Since Matthew s Gospel was the most influential in the churches from its first appearance and is so to the present day, the version we find in Matthew is an expanded version of that recorded in Luke s Gospel. The Lectionary JB translation of Luke s Lord s Prayer is admirable except I think it should have stayed closer to familiar words and phrases. Something like this: Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive all who are indebted to us. And do not put us to the test. I shall comment of five of the differences between Matthew s and Luke s versions of the Our Father. 1. Father The most obvious difference between Luke and Matthew (apart from the brevity of Luke s version) is its address to God: Father. Even scholars, who are aware of the differences between Luke and Matthew, always speak of Luke s verion of the Our Father,
4 for that is the traditional title we all use. 2 But this fact stresses that Matthew s Our Father and not Luke s Father, has always been the preference of Christians, east and west. Luke s unadorned Father is a true translation of the Aramaic abbā. In Luke 10:21, unfortunately omitted from our Year C Lectionary, the evangelist addresses God as Father twice. And see 22:42. Jesus address to God as Father is unique and is not found in any Jewish prayer before the Christian era. The word abbā is an intimate term and it is this intimacy which Luke s version extends to all in the Christian community. As Jesus has an intimate relationship with God the Father, so it is with all who are one with Jesus. As he is Son, so they are sons and daughters of a loving Father. Need I point out that the term Father as applied to God does not have a sexual or gender specific connotation? It means that God s covenant love embraces all that must be done by a father in days long gone by to ensure the safety, security, and destiny of all peoples that on earth do dwell, that is, all who make up the family of God. Bishop Patrick has informed us that May Magdalene has now a Feast Day (on 22 July). It used to be that her feastday (before it was reduced) was the only occasion, apart from Our Lady, when a woman s day had the Creed recited at Mass. Since the apostola apostolorum is a saint for our times and since the revelation Jesus makes to her in the culmination and key to the whole of the Gospel according to Saint John, I will send around some comments on the Fatherhood of God in the Fourth Gospel before the feastday. This will be in time for the 17 th Sunday of the year. 2. Our daily bread το ν ἀ ρτον η μω ν το ν ε πιου σιον δι δου η μι ν το καθʼ η με ραν the bread of ours the daily give to us everyday 2 As Father Joseph Fitzmyer observes in the second volume of his commentary The Gospel according to Luke, New York: Doubleday, 1985, p.896.
5 As commentators since the days of Origen remind us, the ton epiousion of this petition in both Luke and Matthew is obscure. Origen says the word is unknown in all Greek literature and that the evangelists made it up. Joseph Fitzmyer has three pages of suggestions as to its meaning and he offers Give us each day our bread of subsistence which is as awkward as can be. But it might be right. Who knows? I think that since the prayer in Matthew, Luke, and The Didache, is an eschatological prayer, that is, a prayer that looks to the telos or fulfillment of creation, this petition may mean that today we need that sustinence which will be ours at the end of time. So I suggest that ton epiousion might refer to the future consummation of all things and that we might translate give us today the bread of tomorrow. We are used to referring to the Eucharist as the bread of heaven and the phrase the bread of tomorrow well reflects that. We pray that when we receive today the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are privileged to taste the future which lies before us and that will be a present strength to sustain us in the testing that is to come when the telos, the end, is near. Or, as we say at Mass, When we eat this Bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again. 3. Forgive us our sins Luke has Forgive us our sins, instead of Forgive us our trespasses. This may be that Luke is orientated to the Gentile mission, as his Acts of the Apostles makes abundantly clear. The concept of trespasses is more at home in Judaism than in the Greek/Gentile world of Luke s churches. Since debts were and are associated with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and refer to a very wide embrace of offences related to the Torah and to Jewish religious practice, Luke employs the more common term sin which would be a more familiar word to Gentile congregations. We should remember that God s mercy is a major
6 theme of Luke s Gospel and I think that the petition that our sins be forgiven can best be understood by a prayerful meditation on the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector who went up to the Temple to pray (18:9-14). 4. Do not put us to the test As we have seen, this is what Matthew records but which got confused in the western Latin tradition of the Our Father. There can be no doubt that neither Luke nor Matthew nor The Didache speak of present temptations, the everyday inclination to our besetting sins. What is meant is the eschatological testing that comes as the last days unfold. This is a feature of Mark 13, of Luke 21:25-36, of Matthew 24:1-50, of the Book of Revelation, and frequently found in Paul, and throughout the whole of the New Testament. A final word. Throughout every version of the Lord s Prayer, we meet with first person plural prounous: Give us our daily bread forgive us our sins we ourselves, those indebt to us and do not put us to the test The Lord s Prayer is always a community prayer. In The Didache it is presented in the section dealing with liturgical celebration and, from its earliest days, this prayer has always been part of our
7 celebration of the Lord s Supper. We need, too, to be aware of the number of times Jesus is at prayer in Luke s Gospel (Luke 5:16; 6:12; 6:28; 9:28; 11:1; 11:2; 22:40-46) and how often his praying spills over into the life of his disciples. Those who journey on the way with Jesus will soon learn that prayer is a necessity that may not be neglected. Perhaps the best commentary on the prayer Jesus has just given to his disciples is to be found in the words of today s Gospel: So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. Best wishes, Joseph. P.S. Has anyone supplied parishioners with a copy of Luke s Gospel?