Prayer Collision! ~ Greg J

This is from a sermon series on the Lord's Prayer. Eric and Wadmar were other presenters. See the October 2024 videos.  Here I consider technical issues with Matthew 6:12, “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.” I hope you like the pictures! Other articles will pursue the emotional perspectives of forgiveness.

If you want to see a train wreck in church, ask everyone to pray the “Lord’s Prayer” together from memory. English-speaking crowds start in mumbled confusion:

• “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallow-ed be thy name…”
• “Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…”
• “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…”
• “Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy…”

 
You say: just read the words from a screen or from paper. Ah, but a child will pipe up, “Mommy says we pray with our eyes closed!” The elderly may sigh, “That’s not the way I learned it.”
 
After that rocky start and a few more blips, Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Methodists saying “Our Father” reach this combo request and commitment:

• “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us.”

Other Christians are terse:

• “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

 
If everyone can regroup to end the prayer, many finish abruptly:

• “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” 
  

But the King James Version crowd continues onward for a big finish, a magnificent and rousing doxology:

• “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen!”

Even if we all read from a projected image, you know that down the street someone is reading different words. This train wreck may not happen Sunday morning, but is pretty much guaranteed for Christian weddings and funerals. The confusion isn't perceived as robust diversity. It doesn't help the perceived integrity of this model prayer, of the Bible, and Christian unity. 

Good news: the oldest manuscripts of the Lord’s Prayer are consistent, word-by-word. I'll demonstrate this in a minute. More good news: Instead of digging like Indiana Jones or traveling to distant museums or monasteries, you can access images of these foundational documents online.  Moreover, we'll demonstrate that traditions—not Bibles, not translations—are the primary cause of these word collisions.

This evidence requires some technical trekking. Please consider these encouragements to keep on praying, keep on praying:

“If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest.”

“In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don't know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words.”

(If you are reading this on a phone, you might want to rotate to landscape mode.)
 
THE LORD’S PRAYER IN STEREO

English Standard Version, Matthew 5:1: Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him… 6:9 “Pray then like this:        Our Father in heaven,      hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come,      your will be done,      on earth as it is in heaven.	ESV, Luke 11:1: Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 And he said, “When you pray, say:      Father,    hallowed be your name.    Your kingdom come.
11  Give us this day our daily bread,	3 Give us each day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts      as we also have forgiven our      debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation      but deliver us from evil .     /For thine is the kingdom, and the     power, and the glory, forever.     Amen./	4 and forgive us our sins,     For we ourselves forgive     everyone who is indebted to us.     And lead us not into temptation.
14 For if you forgive others their      trespasses, your heavenly Father      will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their     trespasses, neither will your Father     forgive your trespasses.	5 And he said to them, “Which of you    who has a friend will go to him at    midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend    me three loaves, ..." 9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given    to you; seek, and you will find; knock,    and it will be opened to you.... 13 If you then, who are evil, know how    to give good gifts to your children, how    much more will the heavenly Father    give the Holy Spirit to those who    ask him!

This comparison suggests that Jesus adapted prayers to the situation—even this model prayer.  Please, for a minute, focus on the features in common, like "Father" and "hallowed be your name". I suggest that these are essentials. I consider a third column: What praise, requests, and commitments in the "Our Father" also tend to be in my prayers? Yay me. Which features am I missing on my prayers? Oops. What do I add that Jesus omitted? Hmm...

But having spotlighted them, I confidently propose to here clear up those translation collisions, starting with "Forgive us our debts" versus "Forgive us our trespasses". Do these originate in the source manuscripts? Do different Bible translations to English account for these collisions?

As you'll see, the sources use just one Greek word for what gets translated as debts, trespasses, sins, etc. Here is a picture of that source word as penned around AD 350:

Pronounce that "oh-pheel-EH-mahtah". As in English, another form of the same word is used for "debtors", "those who trespass against us", etc.

As a visual aid, below is a someone feeling a tomato, er, tehmahtah. She also is paying her tehmahtah bill. Let's call this young lady,"Ophelia" to associate her with this mystery word OpheelEHmahtah in its various forms.

Following is a photo from what scholars consider the oldest manuscript of the whole New Testament. It is in the Greek language. (There are rather older manuscript fragments of individual parts of the Bible.) Featured here is the Lord's Prayer.  Highlighted toward the bottom are the two Ophelia words. Highlighted at the top and magnified below is a Greek word that transliterates as "PATER".  What do think PATER means in English?

Over on the right, look at the fourth line. It starts with a word "PONHROU" meaning "evil", as in "deliver us from evil", Matthew 6:13. The next word after that is "EAN" meaning "if" as in "if you forgive" beginning Matthew 6:14.  What is between? Nothing. This is where we expect, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, amen." This expected praise doesn't show up in a source manuscript until 200 years later. We'll show that in a minute.

But first, here is a second source manuscript from AD 300-400, Codex Sinaiticus. It was found in Mount Sinai monastary and now resides in the British Museum in London. Apart from spelling abbreviations and respectful halos for "PATER" and heaven, Sinaiticus agrees with Vaticanus.

Wrapping our show and tell: 200 years after Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, here from the Smithsonian in Washington DC is Codex Washingtonianis. This third manuscript also has "PATER" and two "Ophelias" just where expected.  But there's more.

Do you see the "AMEN" in the largest highlighted section?

You might also spot ΔΥΝΆΜΕΙς , "power". The larger highlighted section translates to English as, "For yours is the power, the kingdom, and the glory, forever, amen."

Alas, Washingtoniatis usually is in a vault not on exhibit.  You can access images of these three source manuscripts and others at: ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/liste/.

For a third time we see those two "Ophelia" words. Other manuscripts will present the "Our Father" quite as we've seen here.  We have consistency. But what do these Ophelia words mean? "Debts" or "Trespasses" or what? To answer this, we consider how these words are used elsewhere in the Bible and other writings from that time.  Aha, Matthew chapter 18 has eight Ophelias! Here is useful background info for Matthew 18:

How ought one repent? How do I apply the Torah, the laws Moses presented in the first five books of the Bible? How ought I respond to life's complicated challenges? Such applications quite occupied  Jewish thinkers, especially after Daniel's time. By the time of the Pharisees, the professors advised that offenders should publicly confess their fault and then request forgiveness by saying, “Please” three times. This they based on Genesis 50:17, where in Hebrew the brothers beg Joseph, “Please, please, please forgive us!”  The first two chapters of Amos also figure in.

The devout Jews identified additional opportunities and safeguards to deal with repentance, forgiveness, and restitution, Yom Kippur and prayer are among these. When I mess up, of course I should make things right with the victim, who is then obligated to forgive. I should also make things right with the Almighty, who in his steadfast love also forgives. But what about jerks who would exploit easy forgiveness?  The sages and later the Pharisees maintained that after a third forgiveness—nine pleases—the victim need not forgive. Indeed, the persistently abused should call in the authorities to investigate and deal with this forgiveness moocher.
 
Now meet sincere, impulsive, fisherman Peter. Peter is a follower of Jesus. Maybe Peter is thinking, “Jesus is big on forgiveness.  The Pharisees say to forgive three times. I bet Jesus wants us to forgive four times. Maybe five. Hmm... perhaps I can impress Jesus.”
 
THE CASE OF THE UNFORGIVING SERVANT - MATTHEW CHAPTER 18 VERSE 21+

Then Peter came up and said to Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
 
Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times; but seventy-seven times!”

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants:

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When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed [opheiletēs] him ten thousand talents. [Around 34 million in today's dollars]

And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
 
So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything!’

And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and even forgave him!

But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed [ōpheilen] him a hundred denarii [about 20 bucks].

Seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe [opheileis]!’

So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him:
‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you!’

He refused and went and put his fellow servant in prison until he should pay the debt [opheilomenon].

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When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed!

They went and reported to their master all that had taken place.

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Then his master summoned him and said to him,

‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt [opheilomenon] because you pleaded with me.

And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’

And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt [opheilomenon].”

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“So also my heavenly Father will do
to every one of you,

if you do not forgive your brother
from your heart.”

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Minor point: The source manuscripts, whether early or late, in Matthew 18 use eight "Ophelia" words like OPHELHMATA, all for money owed. So, "forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors" accurately translates Matthew 6:12.

Two verses later in Matthew 6:14-15 Jesus says,"forgive trespasses" [PARAPTOMATA]. This fine word in various forms is used in 15 other New Testament verses, and is translated trespasses, stumbling, transgressions, offenses, or wrongdoing. I conclude that whether we call them debts or trespasses or sins, Jesus wants us to forgive all kinds of faults!

Major, major point: Do I want God to forgive me? Then I must sincerely forgive!

Consider the following four statements of Jesus. How do they differ?

• “Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.” ("Our Father", Matthew 6:12)
• “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Jesus' own commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:14-15. Yes, here "trespasses" is the best translation.)
  
• “And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Story of the unjust servant, Matthew 18:34-35)
• “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11:25)

That was a trick question. In terms of content and application, there is no essential difference among these four quotes. Jesus is consistent. And scary. This is why this is called a hard saying of Jesus. 

Christian teachers will emphasize—as they should—that salvation is a free gift not earned by me. They will say that if I don't forgive when I should, then that's a sign that I was never saved, that I am a fake, that I have no roots, that I lack the fruit of the spirit called forbearance. Do I pray for my forgiveness when I remain unforgiving? I am a two-faced slimy hypocrite.   Mark says: if I have not forgiven someone, then before I continue on the train track of prayer,  I must pull the emergency brake! Immediately I should back up and fix my forgiveness. Then I can continue praying.  In this light, forgiving is a requisite to praying. It is not unusual to have trouble forgiving. Fix-it advice appears in other articles.

Before the story of the unforgiving servant, Jesus had given an escalation procedure for confronting another Christian: Matthew 18:15-20. Some Christians assert that I must follow that procedure and instances of it such as in Luke 7, Luke 15, & Acts 2. Suppose I press an offending party to repent. I escalate confrontations. If there is no repentance, then I ought to not forgive. So they say. Rather, the offender is to be shunned!  Even that exclusion is is an opportunity, an opportunity to reflect and repent. I previously pondered this sequence.

Changing a tire is hard, dirty work. That hard approach noted, the Lord's Prayer does not require repentance before forgiveness.  Some other passages likewise simply do not think it essential to mention repentance before forgiveness.

I want to do what is right. Am I out of line, usurping God's ways if I reflexively forgive before repentance?  Say, someone steals my car or vandalizes it. Do I forgive the unknown offender who may never be found?  Or else do I stew forever? Or what if someone stabs me? Suppose I die before my murderer can repent. For not forgiving, am I not forgiven? Am I bound for hell?  Arghhh, I don't want to play this game. My solution is to let the law of love govern the practice of forgiveness. I will confront as opportunity, God's spirit, and wisdom permit. Before that, I am a reflexive forgiver. So sue me. I'll forgive you.

1 Pope

To conclude: no source manuscript uses "trespasses" in the Lord's Prayer. They all use Ophelia words that translate as "debt" and "debtors". Jesus does use "trespasses" in his subsequent commentary on the Lord's Prayer.

Of over 900 English translations only two Bibles have used "trespasses" in the Lord's Prayer. These are the 1546 Tyndale Matthew Bible and the 1833 Joseph Smith Latter Day Saints Inspired Version. Some translations and paraphrases aimed at kids and learners may use neither debts nor trespasses or sins, but instead, something like "wrongdoers".


No Catholic Bible uses "trespasses" in "Our Father"! None in English, none in Latin.

Why then do Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Lutherans say, "Forgive us our trespasses"?

“Trespasses” comes from traditional catechisms, traditional devotionals, and The Book of Common Prayer!

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9,000 English-speaking nuns . .

The devout learned "trespasses" as kids.
They teach "trespasses" to kids.
They pray, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" several times a day. If not perfunctory, that's a great practice, better than not praying.

Pope Francis in 2019 directed modification of "Our Father" in Bibles from "lead us not into temptation" into "do not let us fall into temptation".  This accords with James 1:13.  Maybe "trespasses" also will get gradual updates. But there's tremendous inertia in this tradition.

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From this technical presentation, I hope you have gained appreciation for the veracity of the Bible and the labors of Bible translators.  I hope you've gained appreciation for the "Our Father" prayers Jesus taught. I hope you—as I—have come to recognize the debt we owe Jesus, that he himself forgave, paying with his own blood and righteousness. In other articles I have dealt and aim to deal with some emotional and spiritual choices involving prayer and forgiveness. 

Let us forgive. Then let us pray.