LORD'S PRAYER
.
I. The Time and Place of Institution.
II. The Contents.
1. The Invocation.
2. The First Petition.
3. The Second and Third Petitions.
4. The Fourth Petition
5. The Fifth Petition.
6.
The Sixth Petition.
7. The Seventh Petition.
8. The Doxology.
I. The Time and Place of Institution: The text
of the prayer is found in
Matt. vi. 9-13
and in somewhat different form in
Luke xi. 2-4.
In
Mark xi. 25
there is a reminiscence of
Matt. vi. 9, 14,
and 15. Compare these passages with Christ's teaching to the woman of Samaria; God is the Father
and must be worshiped in spirit and in truth
(John iv.
21).
Matthew introduces the Lord's Prayer as
supplementary to the Sermon on the Mount; Luke
under altogether different circumstances, although
he leaves time and place unspecified. It is immediately after the visit to Martha and Mary at Bethany
(Luke x. 38-42)
that the institution of the prayer is related and the Mount of Olives is traditionally pointed out as the place where this incident took place, although there is nothing in the
text to warrant this idea. It was, however, the
sight of Jesus himself in prayer that suggested to
his disciples the request they made, '` Lord, teach
us to pray." His power and willingness to do this
seemed all the more probable because his forerunner the Baptist had taught his disciples how to
pray. In a Syrian fragment in the Bodleian Library an early fabrication of the Baptist's prayer is
still extant and runs, " God make us worthy of thy
kingdom and the joy that is therein, and show us
the baptism of thy Son." On comparing Matthew's
account with that of Luke the impression is produced that the prayer was on some occasion given
not only to the personal companions of Christ but
to the general multitude, after the delivery of the
Sermon on the Mount and the calling of the twelve apostles
(Luke vi. 20-49),
and that the institution took place on two separate occasions. But a closer examination warrants the belief that there is no
real connection as far as time and place are concerned between the giving of the prayer and the
delivery of the Sermon on the Mount. Closely related with the text of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew is the prayer found in the
Didache (viii. 2), "Do not pray as the hypocrites do, but as the Lord
commanded in his Gospel, so pray ye," and then
follows St. Matthew's version, with the variant " for
thins is the power and the glory for ever."
II. The Contents: Examination of this prayer
leads to the conclusion that it is not a new prayer
in the sense that it introduces anything out of harmony with the historic traditions of
Jewish piety
and devotion. Thus the Kaddish or Synagogue
liturgy begins with the words, "Glorified and hallowed be his great name in the world which he has
created, according to his will, and may his kingdom prevail, and his redemption spring up, and
may he send his Messiah and redeem his people."
In the same tenor runs the great Jewish prayer, the
Shemoneh `Eareh, or prayer of eighteen petitions,
which the Jews offered thrice every day. Yet from
the sense in which Christ's words in the Lord's
Prayer moat be interpreted this composition may
be fairly looked upon as a new prayer. It illustratea in the fullest degree the meaning of the proverb "if two say the same thing it is
not the same," for while the Lord's Prayer can be used today by
every Jew who may know nothing and wish to
know nothing of Christ, yet it can only be properly
offered by those who pray in the name of Jesus,
and who know what is meant by praying in the
name of the Crucified.
1. The Invocation: In the words, "Our Father
which art in heaven," is summarized the whole Gospel, although in certain senses they might be used
by Jews or heathen. In the Homeric poems the
Greek prayed to Father Zeus, father of men and
gods, and the Jews, although with much profounder
consciousness of religion, called upon Yahweh, acknowledged him as their father and claimed the relationship of children
(Deut. xxxii. 6;
Isa. lxiii. 16,
Isa. Ixiv. 8).
Yet the word "our" was not meant to
include the disciples in the same relation of sonship as that in which Jesus stood to the
Father.
Jesus made a distinction to this effect when he said
" my father " and " your father "
(Matt. vii. 21;
cf.
Matt. v. 16, vi. 8).
Nevertheless their belief in their
master as a God-sent Messiah, as the bringer of redemption and reconciliation with
God, placed them
in a position toward God as their Father which
rendered it neither impossible nor improper to join Jesus in his invocation of God as "our Father." That this prayer is not intended as an
utterance of an individual but of believing disciples as a
body
appears in Luke's version from the fourth petition, and from Matthew's in the addition to the invocation "Our Father," etc. As the
synagogue prayer was evidently congregational, so Jesus gave a prayer
which was common and not individual. God is also addressed as Father in heaven
(
Matt. v. 48, vi. 14, 26, 32, xv. 13, xviii. 35, xxiii. 9)
to indicate the distinction between him and a merely earthly father. With this may be compared the old Hebrew usage
(
Isa. xxxviii. 5),
and in the Kaddish is read: "Let all Israel pray, and flee to the Heavenly Father." The Heavenly Father is the God unlimited by
earthly bounds, who knows all, sees all, is the omnipotent. He is
the Father who "seeth in secret" and hears the secret prayer
(
Matt. vi. 4, 6, 18).
In other words he is the God who is spirit and life
(
John iv. 24, v. 26).
In the earliest years of Jewish Christianity, for the use of which the first Gospel was written, the prayer was not considered a
cast-iron form, but as the gift of Jesus which might be altered and
expounded at will in the words which Jesus himself employed.
2. The First Petition:
"Hallowed be thy name." The Greek translation of the original Aramaic uses throughout the aorist imperative, except in the fourth petition of Luke's version, didou.
The aorist is employed to express an act at once completed (cf.
I Pet. i. 13,
where teleios elpisate expresses a hope continuing to the end). The petition is not expressed in the active voice, " Hallow thou thy name," but " let thy
name
be hallowed by men, especially by thy disciples." As Bengel
says: "God is holy, that is God is God, he is therefore hallowed when he is acknowledged, worshiped and proclaimed to be what he is" (Gnomon, on
Matt. vi. 9).
3. The Second and Third Petitions:
"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Although it might be said that the full object of the prayer is attained when God's name is
hallowed, yet this can actually never be realized until
heaven and
earth become one. God is manifested in his children, and his children walk as under his eye. Therefore Jesus directs the gaze of his
disciples toward the future union of the heavenly and the earthly
world. These two petitions must therefore be taken in an eschatological sense. "The kingdom of God, which we pray may arrive, tends unto the consum- mation of
the age" (Tertullian, De oratione, v.; ANF, iii. 683).
Then shall the world be changed from a state of sin and death into a land of peace and life and the perfect congregation of the saints
shall praise their king whose will it is their delight to fulfil.
The next four petitions deal with the earthly interval which must elapse before the consummation of all things and the actual kingdom of
God arrive. The disciples of Jesus are taught to pray that they
may have strength to live in faith and love as children of God and thus hallow the name of the Father, who is asked to supply their material and spiritual needs.
4. The Fourth Petition:
"Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew),
"Give us, day by day, our daily bread" (Luke).
Bread is the staff of life, "all that pertains to the support and necessities of life" as Luther says. The followers of Jesus may well
expect to receive
daily the bread they need, as on the night of
his passion Jesus asked his disciples: When I sent you without purse
and scrip and shoes, lacked ye anything?
(Luke xxii. 35).
The anxiety of the Gentiles or pagans about food and clothing is put forth by Jesus as a
warning in
Matt. vi. 25-34.
Although Cyprian (" On the Lord's Prayer," viii.;ANF, v. 452) and Tertullian (De oratione, vi.; ANF,
iii. 683) emphasize the spiritual meaning of the word "bread,"
yet they admit that it is used here also in a material sense. Jerome in translating epiousion by supersubstantialis also attributes to it a
spiritual meaning; still not only
is this a false translation
but it gives a false meaning to the words of Christ. Hugo Grotius is perhaps nearer the true interpretation when he says (Critici sacri,
, vol. vi.): "Epiousia is all that period of life which we have yet to
live; unknown to us, known to God; epiousionwhat is sufficient for that period."
In the same way Bengel interprets the word (Gnomon, on
Matt. vi. 11),
"Bread, as a single gift, is to be supplied to us for our whole life, but the giving of it is portioned off day by day."
6. The Fifth Petition:
"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew),
"Andforgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us" (Luke).
The interval which the disciples of Jesus must spend before the coming of his glorious kingdom brings them not
only in need of bodily nourishment but of
permanent peace in the soul also. Man lives not by bread alone
(Matt. iv. 4),
especially sinful man. This is the connection of the fifth with the fourth petition. The forgiveness of sins prayed for refers to a daily forgiveness. The words imply
that in comparison with God the suppliant is not good but evil
(Matt. vii. 11);
the spirit being willing but the flesh weak
(Matt. xxvi. 41).
It would be a sign of self-deceit against which Jesus gives express warning (Matt.vii.) for a man to consider himself sinless
(John i. 8).
The disciples of Jesus are to take an attitude
exactly opposite to that indicated in the proud prayer of Apollonius of Tyana, "O ye gods pay thedebts ye owe to me" (Vita APollonii
, II i. 11, ed. Kayser, p.10). The term debt, opheile, opheilema
, is primarily used of money owed but not paid (Matt.xviii. 32); hence in a spiritual sense it becomes equivalent to paraptomata
"transgressions"
(Matt. vi. 15),
or hamartiae, "sins "
(Luke xi. 4;,
cf.
Luke xiii. 4
and 2). But this prayer that God would remit our debts to him is not so much the appeal of slaves to a master
(Luke xvii. 10)
as of children to a father
(Matt. xxi.
28-31),
and the less the disciples of Jesus boast of their own perfection and the more conscious they are of their debts to God, so much the more
when they utter this prayer will they have the consciousness
of God's forgiveness and feel moved to forgive their brethren, even to the end (Matt xviii. 22;
Luke xvii. 4).
For when the disciple of Jesus forgives his neighbor it is by no
means in the sense in which God forgives him. A
man's "debtor" in a spiritual sense is not a debtor
to him as he himself is a debtor to God. As Jesus
bids the man who brings a gift to the altar while
at
variance with his brother first to be reconciled to his
brother before he dare to offer it
(Matt. v. 23, 24),
so he enjoins his disciples to "lift up holy hands,
without wrath and disputing"
(I Tim. ii. 8),
and to dismiss rancor and hatred from their hearts before
they come with a prayer to their father (cf.
Matt. vi. 14, 15).
This is illustrated in the parable of the
unmerciful servant
(Matt. xviii. 23-35).
A spirit of unmercifulness shuts the door of the father's mercy.
This petition is even more pointed and earnest than
parallel clauses in the Shemoneh `Esreh: " Forgive us, our Father, for we
have sinned; pardon us, our King, for we have transgressed:'
Polycarp recalls the intense devotion of this petition in the
words: "If then we entreat the Lord to forgive
us, we ought also
ourselves to forgive; for we are
before the eyes of the Lord"
(Philippians, vi.; ANF, i. 34). Luther in his "Greater Catechism" (iii. 64) alludes to the spirit of the
petition and says: If you do not forgive, remember that God does
not forgive you; but if
you forgive others, you
may have the certainty and consolation of knowing that you are forgiven in heaven."
6. The Sixth Petition: "And lead us not into
temptation." The connection of the sixth with the
fifth petition is evident. As the disciples of Jesus,
during the time which elapses before the
setting up
of his kingdom in glory, utter the fifth petition
with the consciousness of their sins, so they utter
the sixth petition with the consciousness of their
own weakness and of the ever-present danger of
their sinning. In this connection may be recalled
the words of Jesus to his disciples in Gethsemane:
"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak"
(Matt. xxvi. 41).
This temptation is especially imminent when men go out into the world,
where pleasure or the force of evil influence surrounds them, or the power of the
spiritual world and of the enemy of mankind seek an opportunity of sifting the disciples like wheat
(Luke xxii. 31).
This temptation is very different from the trial by which the faith of the disciples is actually strengthened
(James i. 2).
Watchfulness which avoids light-mindedness, overweening confidence, or cowardice, and sees all the dangers as they really are, prevents
the falling into temptation, and the prayer against it insures
at least that when temptation comes it may merely result in a sort of judgment in which only the unworthy fall
(I Pet. iv. 17;
cf.
Rev. iii. 10;
II Pet. ii. 9).
When the spirit of the forgiving father produces in the disciples a strong disposition toward reconciliation with others, the deliverance from
temptation asked of
the father appears in their flight from sin, so
that they do not seek out opportunities for sinning but avoid them. In strict accordance with the meaning of this sixth petition
are such exhortations as those of St. Paul to the Corinthians
(I Cor. vi. 18, x. 14).
To be led into temptation is, however, sometimes a punishment from God, and Origen (" On Prayer," xxix. 16) observes: " Let
us do nothing which shall cause us by the just
judgment of God to be led into temptation."
7. The Seventh Petition: "But deliver us from
evil" (not found in Luke). This petition merely puts in positive form the substance of the negative sixth petition. The Church Fathers
have been
divided as to the meaning of " the evil"--whether it
means the Evil One (Satan), as Tertullian and the Greek fathers after Origin think, or the evil thing, sin, as Cyprian and the Latin fathers interpret it.
The point seems to be decided by
II Tim. iv. 18,
where the exact words of the Evangelist are employed: " The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work."
8. The Doxology: "For thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen." The oldest form of the
doxology, as would
appear from the Didache, omits "the kingdom"
and "Amen." The Amen probably did not appear in the original text of Matthew and Luke. At an early period, however, it was imported into the
Christian liturgy from the synagogue prayers. In
the
Didache the Lord's Prayer was ordered to be
repeated thrice a day, an order in which may be
seen the influence of the Jewish custom, which was
to recite the Shemoneh `Eareh thrice a day. The
variations in the versions of Matthew and Luke
seem to intimate that the congregation of the
disciples of Jesus when assembled in prayer
were not bound in slavish bondage to the letter,
but were united in the freedom and power of the spirit.
(J. Haussleiter.)
Bibliography:
The commentaries on Matthew and Luke
are, of course, to be taken into account; many of them
give considerable on the history of the exegesis of the
Lord's Prayer. Patristic comment of note, other than
that mentioned in the text, is by Cyprian, De dominica
oratione; Augustine, De sermons Domini in monte, in
MPL, xxxiv. 1229-1308; Origen, Peri euchee; Gregory
of Nyssa, in MPG, xliv. 1120-1193. A collection of
patristic comment is by G. Tillman, Das Gebet, nach der
Lehre der Heiligen dargestellt, 2 vols., Freiburg, 1876.
From the historical and critical side may be named: A.
H. H. Kamphausen, Das Gebet des Herrn, Elberfeld, 1866;
A. Tholuck, Die Bergrede Christi, Gotha, 1872; E. Achelis, Die Bergpredipt nach Matthaus und Lukas, Bielefeld,
1875; F. H. Chase, The Lord's Prayer in the Early Church,
in TS, i., no. 3, Cambridge, 1891; G. Dalman, Die Worte
Jesu, vol. i., Leipsic, 1898, Eng. transl.. Edinburgh, 1902;
O. Dibelius, Das Vaterunser, Umrisse zu einer Geschichte
des Gebets, Giessen, 1903; E. Bischoff, Jesus und die
Rabbinen, Berlin, 1905; G. Honnicke, in NKZ, xvii (1906),
57-67, 106-120, 169-180; DB, iii. 141-144; EB, iii.
2816-23; DCG, ii. 57-63
More of the homiletical is found in: N. Hall, The Lord's
Prayer; a practical Meditation, Edinburgh. 1889; G.
Karney, Pater
Noster; Studies on the Lord's Prayer,
London, 1889; H.
J.
Van
Dyke, The Lord's Prayer, New
York, 1891; J. Ruskin, Letters to the Clergy on the Lord's
Prayer and the Church, late ed., New York, 1898; E.
Wordsworth, Thoughts on the Lord's
Prayer, ib. 1898;
C. W. Stubbs, Social Teaching of the Lord's Prayer
London, 1900; L. T. Chamberlain, The True Doctrine of
Prayer, New York, 1908; F. M. Williams, Spiritual Ineductions on the Lord's Prayer, New York, 1907. Sermonic
treatment is given by: H. Hutton, London, 1883; W. Gladden, Boston, 1881; H. W. Foots, ib. 1891; R. Eyton,
ib. 1892; M. Dods, Cincinnati, 1893; F. W. Farrar,
London and New York, 1893; W. J. S. Simpson,
London, 1893; W. R. Richards, Philadelphia, 1910.
Important or interesting are: A. S. Cook, Study of the
Lord's Prayer in English, in American Journal of
Philology, zii. 59-88; idem, in Biblical Quotations of
Old Enpfiah Prom Writers, pp. 147
sqq.,
New York, 1898; The Lord's Prayer in 500 Languages, ed. R. Rost, London, 190b,
