Lord's Prayer

THE LORD’S PRAYER : M. M. NINAN
The problem for the followers of Jesus was to find an adequate form for this very petition, since they could not,
like the disciples of John and the rest of the Essenes, pray "May Thy Kingdom come speedily" in view of the fact
that for them the Messiah had appeared in the person of Jesus.
The form reported to have been recommended by Jesus is rather vague and indefinite: "Thy Kingdom come";
and the New Testament exegetes explain it as referring to the second coming of the Messiah, the time of the
perfection of the kingdom of God (comp. Luke xxii. 18). In the course of time the interpretation of the sentence
"Thy will be done" was broadened in the sense of the submitting of everything to God's will, in the manner of the
prayer of R. Eliezer (1st cent.): "Do Thy will in heaven above and give rest of spirit to those that fear Thee on
earth, and do what is good in Thine eyes. Blessed be Thou who hearest prayer!" (Tosef., Ber. iii. 7).
Relation to Messianic Expectation.
The rest of the prayer, also, stands in close relation to the Messianic expectation. Exactly as R. Eliezer(Mek.:
"Eleazar of Modin") said: "He who created the day created also its provision; wherefore he who, while having
sufficient food for the day, says: 'What shall I eat to-morrow?' belongs to the men of little faith such as were the
Israelites at the giving of the manna" (Mek., Beshallaḥ, Wayassa', ii.; Soṭah 48b), so Jesus said: "Take no
thought for your life, what ye shall eat or . . . drink. . . . . O ye of little faith. . . . Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God, . . . and all these things shall be added to you" (Matt. vi. 25-34; Luke xii. 22-31; comp. also Simeon b.
Yoḥai, Mek. l.c.; Ber. 35b; Ḳid. iv. 14). Faith being thus the prerequisite of those that wait for the Messianic time,
it behooves them to pray, in the words of Solomon (Prov. xxx. 8, Hebr.; comp. Beẓah 16a), "Give us our
apportioned bread" ("leḥem huḳḳi"), that is, the bread we need daily.
Repentance being another prerequisite of redemption (Pirḳe R. El. xliii.; Targ. Yer. and Midr. Leḳah Ṭob to Deut.
xxx. 2; Philo, "De Execrationibus," §§ 8-9), a prayer for forgiveness of sin is also required in this connection. But
on this point special stress was laid by the Jewish sages of old. "Forgive thy neighbor the hurt that he hath done
unto thee, so shall thy sins also be forgiven when thou prayest," says Ben Sira (Ecclus. [Sirach] xxviii. 2). "To
whom is sin pardoned? To him who forgiveth injury" (Derek Ereẓ Zuṭa viii. 3; R. H. 17a; see also Jew. Encyc. iv.
590, s.v. Didascalia). Accordingly Jesus said: "Whensoever ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against
any one; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses" (Mark xi. 25, R. V.). It was
this precept which prompted the formula "And forgive us our sins ["ḥobot" = "debts"; the equivalent of "'awonot"
= "sins"] as we also forgive those that have sinned ["ḥayyabim" = "those that are indebted"] against us."
Directly connected with this is the prayer "And lead us not into temptation." This also is found in the Jewish
morning prayer (Ber. 60b; comp. Rab: "Never should a man bring himself into temptation as David did, saying,
'Examine me, O Lord, and prove me' [Ps. xxvi. 2], and stumbled" [Sanh. 107a]). And as sin is the work of Satan
(James i. 15), there comes the final prayer, "But deliver us from the evil one [Satan]." This, with variations, is the
theme of many Hasidæan prayers (Ber. 10b-17a, 60b), "the evil one" being softened into "yeẓer ha-ra'" = "evil
desire," and "evil companionship" or "evil accident"; so likewise "the evil one" in the Lord's Prayer was later on
referred to things evil (see commentaries on the passage).
The doxology added in Matthew, following a number of manuscripts, is a portion of I Chron. xxix. 11, and was
the liturgical chant with which the Lord's Prayer was concluded in the Church; it occurs in the Jewish ritual also,
the whole verse being chanted at the opening of the Ark of the Law.
On closer analysis it becomes apparent that the closing verses, Matt. vi. 14-15, refer solely to the prayer for
forgiveness. Consequently the original passage was identical with Mark xi. 25; and the Lord's Prayer in its
entirety is a later insertion in Matthew. Possibly the whole was taken over from the "Didache" (viii. 2), which in its
original Jewish form may have contained the prayer exactly as "the disciples of John" were wont to recite it.””
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