"Our Father who art in Heaven..."
Last week Pope Francis set the religious world abuzz by commenting that he didn't like the traditional phrasing for the Lord's Prayer, known in Catholic circles as the "Our Father." He took issue with the phrase "lead us not into temptation." He strongly preferred a new adaptation of the prayer adopted by French bishops that reads, “et ne nous laisse pas entrer in tentation.” This translates into English as "let us not enter temptation." The Pope's comments about what is certainly the most famous prayer recorded in scripture center on what is implied in the version that most of us recite in our worship services each week. If we pray "lead us not into temptation," does that not imply that God can and does at times lead us into temptation? Pope Francis' strong preference for the new version adopted for use in French churches results from its use of more passive wording, removing the thorny question of whether God does in fact tempt us. What are we to make of the pope's statements? Can a pope actually change the words of Holy Scripture?
To the heart of the matter, what is the Lord's Prayer? To begin with, the Lord's prayer as most Christians know it is found in Matthew 6:9-14 as part the much longer Sermon on the Mount that takes up all of chapters 5-7 in Matthew. Luke also records a much shorter version of the prayer in Luke 11:2-4. When we read the Lord's prayer in any of our Bibles the exact wording will vary somewhat because there are so many English translations currently in use. I've got nine translations on the shelf in my study and there are still dozens more out there that I don't have. These English versions are all translations from ancient Greek manuscripts of Matthew and Luke, but even these Greek words of Matthew and Luke are translations in themselves, because Jesus almost certainly spoke Aramaic (a Semitic language very closely akin to Hebrew of the Old Testament.) It is a matter of faith that the apostolic authors accurately record and render Jesus' words. Beyond that we have the veritable alphabet soup of translations in English. The vast majority of them agree, translating it as a prayer that God would not lead us into temptation. The issue then is more one of interpretation than it is translation.
If it is true, as seems likely, that we know what Jesus said, how do we interpret it? Does God actually lead us into sin, or tempt us? The short answer is "no." James 1:13 makes it clear that God does not tempt us. A good rule of thumb in interpreting and understanding scripture is to let scripture interpret scripture and to work from what is clear into what is less clear. We know that God is good. We know that God is love. We know that God does not tempt us. These are clear statements from scripture. We can let them guide how we should take the troublesome phrase in the Lord's Prayer. We shouldn't take it to mean that God does tempt us and that we must implore him not to do so. We should however, take this phrase and the one that follows, ("deliver us from evil" or "from the evil one") as one plea for deliverance- from temptation, from sin, from Satan.
Can a pope though change scripture though? Again the answer is "no." For all the power that the Roman Catholic Church ascribes to the papal office, not even he can actually change the words of scripture. According to their doctrine the pope is infallible when exercising his authority as head of the church, so he can definitely shape their interpretation of scripture. He can't actually change scripture itself, though. What the pope has done is to express a preference for one version over another in liturgical usage. Hymnals, books of worship, and books of common prayer all contain passages of scripture that are adapted or altered for liturgical use. The Lord's Prayer itself is an example of that. Nearly every English translation that I've seen of Matthew's version of the prayer has Jesus say: "forgive us our debts," but the common version used by most Christians in liturgical usage has been "forgive us our trespasses," for almost five hundred years. The 1989 United Methodist Hymnal also altered the wording of some of the Psalms in the Psalter to avoid using masculine pronouns in referring to God.
My take on this is that to a certain extent it is much ado about nothing. The major media cannot be faulted for reporting when pope says something. They can't be faulted, I suppose, for being largely ignorant of matters of faith, religion, and scripture. On the other hand, I would differ with Pope Francis in this way. It would have been better to use this as a "teaching moment" and teach his flock how they should interpret and apply Jesus' words. He has enormous influence on Roman Catholic doctrine and can use this as a chance to educate. This fills the need, but at the same time leaves unchanged familiar wording that has been in use for centuries. The words of sacred scriptural texts used in liturgy should be changed only sparingly. Because they are used every Sunday in worship they get ingrained into people's minds and hearts becoming a source of security because they are unchanging and remind them of the unchangeable nature God's word amid a world that changes all to quickly around them.
To the heart of the matter, what is the Lord's Prayer? To begin with, the Lord's prayer as most Christians know it is found in Matthew 6:9-14 as part the much longer Sermon on the Mount that takes up all of chapters 5-7 in Matthew. Luke also records a much shorter version of the prayer in Luke 11:2-4. When we read the Lord's prayer in any of our Bibles the exact wording will vary somewhat because there are so many English translations currently in use. I've got nine translations on the shelf in my study and there are still dozens more out there that I don't have. These English versions are all translations from ancient Greek manuscripts of Matthew and Luke, but even these Greek words of Matthew and Luke are translations in themselves, because Jesus almost certainly spoke Aramaic (a Semitic language very closely akin to Hebrew of the Old Testament.) It is a matter of faith that the apostolic authors accurately record and render Jesus' words. Beyond that we have the veritable alphabet soup of translations in English. The vast majority of them agree, translating it as a prayer that God would not lead us into temptation. The issue then is more one of interpretation than it is translation.
If it is true, as seems likely, that we know what Jesus said, how do we interpret it? Does God actually lead us into sin, or tempt us? The short answer is "no." James 1:13 makes it clear that God does not tempt us. A good rule of thumb in interpreting and understanding scripture is to let scripture interpret scripture and to work from what is clear into what is less clear. We know that God is good. We know that God is love. We know that God does not tempt us. These are clear statements from scripture. We can let them guide how we should take the troublesome phrase in the Lord's Prayer. We shouldn't take it to mean that God does tempt us and that we must implore him not to do so. We should however, take this phrase and the one that follows, ("deliver us from evil" or "from the evil one") as one plea for deliverance- from temptation, from sin, from Satan.
Can a pope though change scripture though? Again the answer is "no." For all the power that the Roman Catholic Church ascribes to the papal office, not even he can actually change the words of scripture. According to their doctrine the pope is infallible when exercising his authority as head of the church, so he can definitely shape their interpretation of scripture. He can't actually change scripture itself, though. What the pope has done is to express a preference for one version over another in liturgical usage. Hymnals, books of worship, and books of common prayer all contain passages of scripture that are adapted or altered for liturgical use. The Lord's Prayer itself is an example of that. Nearly every English translation that I've seen of Matthew's version of the prayer has Jesus say: "forgive us our debts," but the common version used by most Christians in liturgical usage has been "forgive us our trespasses," for almost five hundred years. The 1989 United Methodist Hymnal also altered the wording of some of the Psalms in the Psalter to avoid using masculine pronouns in referring to God.
My take on this is that to a certain extent it is much ado about nothing. The major media cannot be faulted for reporting when pope says something. They can't be faulted, I suppose, for being largely ignorant of matters of faith, religion, and scripture. On the other hand, I would differ with Pope Francis in this way. It would have been better to use this as a "teaching moment" and teach his flock how they should interpret and apply Jesus' words. He has enormous influence on Roman Catholic doctrine and can use this as a chance to educate. This fills the need, but at the same time leaves unchanged familiar wording that has been in use for centuries. The words of sacred scriptural texts used in liturgy should be changed only sparingly. Because they are used every Sunday in worship they get ingrained into people's minds and hearts becoming a source of security because they are unchanging and remind them of the unchangeable nature God's word amid a world that changes all to quickly around them.
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