The texts of “Our Father” differ from each other in different sources
From the very beginning, there were several different interpretations of the Lord's Prayer. Even in the Gospels we find prayer in two versions: a more extensive one - from Matthew and a shorter one - from Luke.
Moreover, in Matthew, the “Our Father” is part of the Sermon on the Mount, while in Luke, Jesus gives this prayer to his disciples in response to a request to “teach them to pray.” The first option is most widespread in Christianity.
Biblical scholars, meanwhile, are not sure that the final phrase of the prayer (doxology) is “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen” was generally included in the original text, since it is absent in the oldest versions of the Gospel of Matthew, and does not appear at all in Luke.
There is a version that it began to be used only in early Christian times in liturgies. The texts in different languages also differ, since the translators apparently sought to highlight and make more significant certain aspects of the prayer.
A few words about prayers
Religious scholars argue that believers of the two Christian denominations have differences not only in the words and form of the main prayers, but also in the very structure of the appeal to God. This question is basic and shows how far apart these currents have moved.
So, the Orthodox are commanded to communicate reverently to the Almighty. A believer is supposed to turn to God with all his soul and thought, he must be completely focused on his thoughts. Moreover, upon entering the temple, they must be cleansed and turned with an inner gaze into the heart. The prayer itself should be calm; even strong feelings and emotions cannot be expressed deliberately and demonstratively. Believers are strictly forbidden to present various images. To summarize all of the above, we can say that prayer, according to authoritative theologians, should be “mind-hearted.”
Catholics put emotions first when turning to God. They must go ahead of the mind, so a certain exaltation is allowed in the temple. It is permissible for believers to imagine various images that will stir up feelings and emotions. At the same time, it is not forbidden to express oneself in every possible way in front of other worshipers. This is considered a true manifestation of faith. That is, Catholics in church pour out everything that is in their hearts, and only then are their minds imbued with Divine grace.
In this section, one cannot fail to mention the stumbling block between Catholics and Orthodox Christians - the “Symbol of Faith” prayer. It is basic for all Christians, since its text lists the main tenets of the religion. Every believer must understand and adhere to them. However, in some words Catholicism and Orthodoxy differ, and they are considered almost the most important in all prayer.
The “Our Father” contains almost all human needs and the desire for the salvation of the soul
The prayer goes like this:
“Our Father who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen".
In these lines, a person turns to the Lord, glorifying Him and entrusting himself to Him, asking for his daily bread and other earthly goods, for the atonement of sins, as well as for deliverance from sinful temptations and the influence of dark forces.
The Pope and the Lord's Prayer. What Francis proposed to change in his most famous prayer
Photo: Pexels When news appeared in Russian news feeds that the Pope had changed the text of the Lord’s Prayer, it caused quite a noticeable stir on social networks. Users, as a rule, either expressed bewilderment or accused Francis of heresy. Be that as it may, the mention of the Pope and, apparently, the only prayer, the text of which is fully known even to Russian-speaking news readers far from the church, allowed this news to become popular.
In this sense, changes in “Our Father” for a person who is equally far from both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches can be perceived, rather, as news about a change in the line of a well-known hit. However, everyone understands the difference between a hit song and a prayer, and therefore changing well-known lines even in a foreign language from “do not lead us into temptation” to “do not leave us in temptation” or “do not let us fall into temptation” seems like an attempt on something familiar and familiar and implicitly confirms that “our Russian faith is the most correct.”
This is precisely what makes one wonder: what actually happened in the Catholic world, how unexpected this event was, and most importantly, what does the change in the line of the Lord’s Prayer mean, which in the Russian-speaking environment is known in the form “lead us not into temptation".
Temptation in Italian
First of all, it should be said that this is important news, but still it does not concern all Catholics in the world. Moreover, it was not the Pope who made changes to the prayer. Francis approved the corrections made to the Italian version of the Missal - a liturgical book that regulates the celebration of the Mass and contains the necessary texts of chants and prayers, including, of course, the Lord's Prayer. Now during the Mass in Italian, instead of è non ci indurre in tentazione (which corresponds to the Russian “and do not lead us into temptation”), it will be non abbandonarci alla tentazione, that is, “do not leave us in temptation.” The changes themselves were made by the Conference of Italian Bishops, the structure that governs the Catholic Church in Italy, which was engaged in clarifying the translation of the texts of the Missal. Among other things, in the new text of the Missal the text of the hymn Gloria (“Glory to God in the highest”) has been slightly changed; moreover, the line about temptation is not the only change introduced into the Italian text of the Lord’s Prayer. In particular, the line “just as we forgive our debtors” (come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri debitori) is now proposed to be added with the clarification anche, which means “also” or “until now”. So now this part of the prayer will sound like come anche noi li rimettiamo.
However, none of these changes, which may also be of interest to philologists and theologians, interested the public as much as the decision of the Italian bishops to change the line “lead us not into temptation.” Which, as you can see, was accepted by the Italian church and only in relation to the version of the prayer in Italian. Francis approved changes that concern exclusively the Italian text.
However, it is also not entirely correct to imagine the pope as a passive observer of changes in the text of the most famous Christian prayer. In 2021, he drew particular attention to the line “lead us not into temptation,” speaking about it during a conversation on the Italian Catholic television channel TV2000. The pope then said that in his opinion, the “introduction to temptation” option allows believers to think that God is responsible for their weaknesses.
What the Savior said
It is, apparently, worth explaining that Francis’ reasoning is not some kind of free interpretation of the words of a prayer or a proposal to change the basis of the Christian faith, but a complex question at the intersection of theology and philology. There has been a long and long-standing debate about how exactly the line “lead us not into temptation” should be interpreted and how an all-good God can tempt. What especially complicates this dispute is that the Lord’s Prayer itself, according to the gospels, is the prayer that Jesus himself conveyed to his disciples, but at the same time, the texts of the gospels of Luke and Matthew that have come down to us are written in Greek. That is, the Savior’s prayer originally came to us in translation, since, according to most assumptions, Jesus spoke to his disciples in Aramaic, which means he conveyed the prayer in this language. Be that as it may, the penultimate line of the Greek version of the “Our Father” (that is, the first known) looks like καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν. The word εἰσενέγκῃς (isenengis), translated here as “enter,” allows for ambiguous interpretations. The Latin translation of the Bible uses the verb inducere, which does not allow for further interpretation. Also ambiguous is the concept of πειρασμόν (pirazmon), which can be translated as “test” rather than “temptation” in the modern sense.
“The verb εἰσενέγκῃς can indeed be understood in different ways. In particular, how to “introduce,” Andrei Desnitsky, a leading researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explains to Snob. - But in the text itself it is used in a very peculiar way. In Jesus' speech at this point there was some kind of Aramaic or Hebrew verb, the meaning of which was transferred to Greek. In any case, you should not translate it into other languages in isolation, simply substituting roots and prefixes.” In addition, as Andrei Desnitsky explains, in order to correctly translate the penultimate line of “Our Father,” one must understand the meaning of what was said, that is, have one’s own idea of God and temptation.
Mutable Strings
One way or another, the version with “introduction into temptation” has been established in many translations and has always caused controversy. Doubters pointed, in particular, to the lines of the Epistle of the Apostle James, which directly state that “God is not tempted by evil and does not tempt anyone.” In response, examples were given of how God allowed Satan to tempt Job, or the temptation into which the Savior himself was led by the will of the Father. The question is complex, all priests and believers had and still have to answer it, one way or another “excluding” God from responsibility for the temptations to which the sinner succumbed. The Pope only took a position that had been encountered before: the accepted translation allows for too ambiguous interpretations.
There have been cases before when the line about temptation in the Lord’s Prayer changed in different languages. In particular, until the mid-1960s in French, the penultimate line of the prayer sounded like ne nous laissez pas succomber à la tentation, that is, “do not let us succumb to temptation,” but then the lines were changed to ne nous soumets pas à la tentation, that is, “ do not expose us to temptation.” Now the French bishops have changed the text again. In the new version, it sounds like ne nous laisse pas entrer en tentation, which means “do not let us fall into temptation.”
Every tongue praises God
In other words, the debate about how to convey the prayer given by Jesus to his disciples in native languages has been going on for a long time. And Francis only slightly updated them, based on his convictions. It is worth noting that his convictions are not the notorious “papal infallibility” in matters of doctrine. Apart from the fact that these subtleties little affect the fundamentals of faith (which, of course, did not and do not assume that God is responsible for human weaknesses), Francis simply does not impose his opinion. His words do not mean that changes will immediately be made to the texts of the prayer in all languages.
It is quite significant that shortly before his remarks on the text of the Lord's Prayer, Francis, in a decision of October 2021, granted national bishops' conferences autonomy in matters of translation of liturgical texts into national languages - previously only the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (now a division of the Roman the Curia only confirms the decisions made by the hierarchs of the Catholic Church in various countries). This also applies to the text of “Our Father”. In particular, it is known that German Catholics firmly refused to change the existing translation options. There are no plans to make any changes to the English text in Ireland. Poland is not ready for this either.
Perhaps it is worth saying that changes in the Italian or French text of the Missal mean precisely corrections in the translation. The original itself is written in Latin, the text of “Our Father” (Pater noster) is given there in Latin, and no changes were made to it.
Like you
The news that excited everyone about the Pope suddenly changing the text of the Lord's Prayer, if we look at it more closely, turns out to be more news about lively debates over important issues of theology, which are conducted openly and in which the final truth is not imposed on anyone. Of course, one can also approach the very need to argue about all the known lines and whether the old tradition or the exact meaning is more important here.
On behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church, a member of the Synodal Biblical and Theological Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archpriest Andrei Novikov, has so far spoken about the question that has seduced the Russian public, and his answer leaves no room for different interpretations: “No one, of course, will change the text of the prayer. As we received the Scripture, let us leave it that way.”
The rector of the Church of St. Tatiana at Moscow State University, Vladimir Vigilyansky, in a conversation with “Snob,” advised not to pay attention to such minor issues, “when over the past 150 years the Catholic Church has made decisions for which they were previously anathematized at councils.”
Both answers reflect a completely understandable approach not only to the particular question of the lines of “Our Father.”
“An honest and responsible approach to such complex issues as changes in liturgical texts and their, as they used to say, “from the right,” requires at least a good knowledge of the New Testament and various theological and philological disciplines,” says Orthodox publicist Sergei Chapnin . “That is why the Russian Orthodox Church is now not inclined to dive into serious theological issues. She bypasses them, declaring that “everything is traditional” with us. And this must be understood in such a way that we have answers to all questions and we are not going to change anything.”
It is worth saying that Archpriest Andrei Novikov’s promise to preserve the Scriptures unchanged does not fully reflect the essence of what happened in Italy - they made changes to the version of the services in Italian. In our country, worship in Russian is perceived rather as dangerous freethinking. And in the church “Our Father” is read in Church Slavonic. It is really difficult to imagine that someone will change the lines in this version.
Leading researcher at the Center for the Study of the Church Slavonic Language of the Vinogradov Institute of Russian Language, Alexander Kravetsky, is quite skeptical about the need to preserve the current version of the Russian translation of the Lord’s Prayer as the only correct one: “Any changes that are made to the sacred texts, for whatever reasons this happens , always cause widespread controversy. Especially when it comes to “Our Father,” which everyone knows. But this has nothing to do with theological issues, but with linguistic habits. In the same way, 30 years ago there was a heated debate about whether coffee could be neuter.” According to him, in the Orthodox community they now quite often answer the question of ordinary people about how God can tempt, precisely in the sense in which this line will now be translated into Italian. And finally, in the new translation of the Bible into Russian, made by the Bible Society in 2010 (second edition), the line from the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Matthew looks like this:
"Don't let us give in to temptation."
So it turns out that God may not lead into temptation even in Russian.
The Catholic version of the “Our Father” differs from the Orthodox one
In the Latin translation of the Bible (Vulgate), which was made from the Greek original by Blessed Jerome, the final words of the prayer were omitted: “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever, Amen.”
They were also omitted from Roman Catholic worship. This was explained by the fact that the Pope was considered the vicar of St. Peter and, as it were, the deputy of God on Earth, and all divine power was formally transferred to him.
It is interesting that members of the medieval Order of the Templars (Knights Templar) read the “Our Father” according to the canons not of the Catholic, but of the Eastern Christian (Greek Orthodox) liturgy, that is, with the preservation of the final words. It turned out that they denied the claims of the pontiffs to the divine Kingdom, power and glory. This became one of the reasons for the persecution of the Templars by the Inquisition.
How does the morning begin?
If a believer is sensitive to his responsibilities towards God, then any day must begin with several prayers. First of all, Catholics offer praise for the coming day and turn to the Almighty with requests for daily matters.
The first prayer after waking up is the morning doxology. We present its text below.
Next, you can make a request to the Almighty.
After these two prayers, the believer should do all the usual morning activities and think over a plan of action for the coming day. Usually, after waking up, any person thinks about work, problems and everything that will surround him outside the threshold of the house. However, believers know that man himself is weak and only with God’s help can he cope with all his responsibilities. Therefore, Catholics say the following prayer before leaving the apartment:
The Lord's Prayer is a universal prayer
This is the only prayer in Christianity that can be used for all occasions. You can read it if you want to receive divine blessing in any matter, as a protective remedy against manifestations of evil spirits and other misfortunes, for healing from diseases.
There are many known cases where the prayer “Our Father” saved people who were in serious danger and even on the verge of death. Thus, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War named Alexander wrote from the front to his wife about what happened to him when he was surrounded in 1944: “I was lying in the house with a wounded leg, I heard the sound of footsteps and German speaking. I realized that I was going to die now. Ours were close, but it was simply ridiculous to count on them. I couldn't move - not only because I was wounded, but also because I was at a dead end.
There was nothing left to do but pray. I was preparing to die at the hands of the enemy. They saw me - I was scared, but did not stop reading the prayer. The German did not have any cartridges - he began to quickly talk about something with his people, but something went wrong. They suddenly rushed to run, throwing a grenade at my feet so that I could not reach it. When I read the last line of the prayer, I realized that the grenade had not exploded.”
The priests say that it is not even necessary to know the text of the prayer by heart, since Jesus gave it as an example for his disciples. It is enough to convey the meaning and pronounce the words with faith for help to come.
Schism between Christians
In order to begin a conversation about Catholic prayers, it is necessary to understand what exactly happened between believers, dividing them into two often opposing camps. Despite the fact that Catholics and Orthodox Christians wear crosses around their necks, pray to Jesus and are baptized, these two movements separated in the middle of the eleventh century.
The schism began with disagreements between the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople. Their conflict lasted for many years, but it was by the eleventh century that it reached its climax. After an unsuccessful attempt at reconciliation, the Pope ordered the patriarch to be excommunicated from the church and announced this publicly. In turn, the head of the spiritual community of Constantinople anathematized all papal legates.
This conflict affected all believers, dividing them into two large groups. Only in the second half of the twentieth century did Catholics and Orthodox Christians drop their mutual accusations and try to come to an agreement. They partially succeeded, but over many centuries the difference in the currents turned out to be so noticeable that they were no longer destined to unite together.
Today, the disagreements concern basic issues of Christianity, so we can say that since the eleventh century the conflict has only deepened and become more severe. Even Catholic prayers differ in many ways from daily Orthodox prayers. But we will return to this topic a little later.
Novena: theory and practice
When talking about Catholic prayers, one cannot help but mention the novena. This special spiritual practice raises many questions among newly converted Catholics who are just beginning to study the foundations of Christianity.
In short, a novena is a nine-day prayer recited for a specific purpose. This practice became widespread in the seventeenth century, and it originated in Spain and France.
Today there are several categories of such prayers, but the first were the novenas for the holiday. Initially, believers began to pray nine days before Christmas to glorify Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Each new day symbolized the month that God's Son spent in the womb of his Mother. Later, a similar tradition spread to other church holidays.
In addition to the category already mentioned, Catholics distinguish novenas-petitions, funerals and indulgences. Each has its own meaning and set of texts, and clergy always warn that this practice has nothing to do with magic spells that must definitely work.
The spiritual practice of reading prayers for nine days has a very deep meaning, because its implementation requires some preparation and work on oneself. All believers who are thinking about reading a novena are advised to answer the question about the need for this practice. Once you clearly understand why you need this prayer, you can set the day and hour for it to start. It is very important to read the text at the same time every day. The novena should not be abandoned without finishing. If you missed the appointed hour, it is better to start from the very beginning. Servants of the Catholic Church believe that novenas strengthen the connection with God, the church community and cleanse the soul.
Prayers said throughout the day
The day of Catholics, Orthodox Christians and other people is filled with bustle, but even in it we should not forget about the Almighty. After all, believers try to take every step they take with God and His blessing. Previously, Catholics could say up to ten different prayers during the day; this was considered worthy behavior for a Christian. However, today the Catholic Church does not make such demands on believers. Therefore, the average Catholic usually reads prayers before and after meals, as well as to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is very much revered in all Christian movements.
A Catholic's meal must be accompanied by certain words. They are pronounced silently, and it is permissible to read the text very quickly.
But turning to the Mother of God requires more careful preparation. The believer must retire, concentrate and completely abandon all vain thoughts.
