I am really liking Karen Oberst's book about the Beatitudes, But I Tell You: Jesus Introduces a Better Way to Live. The way she translates The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6: 9-13) from the Greek in an expanded way is eye-opening in her chapter entitled "Teaching on Prayer, " pp. 132-138:
"Without further ado, pray like this:
Our heavenly Parent, may you be reverenced because of who you are.
May your kingdom come into being through us, as citizens of the kingdom.
May your will be carried out by human beings as it is all over the created universe.
Give us what we need for today, both physically and spiritually.
Don't hold us accountable for our moral lapses, even as we also don't hold others accountable when they don't treat us as they should.
Don't bring us into a place where we are tempted to do wrong, but protect us from the one intending evil."
Then Oberst adds:
"The Authorized or King James Version adds, 'For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.' This version of the Bible was translated in the 1600's when only a single Greek manuscript of the Bible existed, The Tischendorf manuscript. Other, older manuscripts that do not contain this phrase have since been found. Scholars believe this phrase was not originally part of the Lord's Prayer, and was likely added when these verses were used in the corporate prayer life of the early church." (138)
I also appreciate Oberst's writing from her Quaker perspective.
4 comments:
Jan, I am going to copy this for future use. Thanks for the book reference.
LOVE THIS!
wonderful...never could get my parish to use it...but lovely!
I'm hooked on Luther's Small Catechism b/c it does much the same thing--I can pray better reading the explanations. Sometimes if I catch my mind wandering, I just say the "Hallowed be Your name for us" and suddenly hear something again. I'm very interested in Oberst's book too, in light of your explanation of the Greek being re-translated.
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