> Regarding a "final/eschatological" test makes sense.
>
> The prayer begins first and foremost with "Thy kingdom come" - a
> significant emphasis on the rule of heaven on earth. This is the keynote
> message of John and Jesus. When examined in the light of a final Jewish
> holocaust before the Kingdom comes, the word PEIRASMOS could be understood
> as mentioned by Jeffrey. It also significant when viewed from the
> perspective of the Jewish remnant before the Second Coming of Christ.
>
> KAI MH EISENEGKHS HMAS EIS PEIRASMON is a prayer for deliverance from that
> holocaust. The version in Luke is abridged. Matthew is the full version.
> Why the prayer was a shorter form compared with that of Matthew does not
> really produce a controversy with regards to the accuracy of the original
> message. Both have their points to make.
>
> The word AMHN makes this a distinctly Jewish prayer. Eschatological
> connotations should be held to better understand the passage.
>
Lemuel,
I am a bit confused. Are you claiming that because the Lord's
Prayer begins with ELQETW hH BASILEIA SOU (Matt. 6:9//Lk. 11:2), it
has in view throughout the end times? Do the petitions about bread
and forgiveness also indicate this?
But let us assume that the prayer DOES have in view a time of final crisis
(something I doubt, by the way, if by final one means the end of history).
It does not follow from this that in Matt. 6:13//Lk. 11:4 PEIRASMOS means
the "final/eschatological" test to be experienced by believers, let alone
that KAI MH EISENEGKHS hHMAS PEIRASMON is really a petition to be guarded
by God from experiencing this test. For as we see from Jesus' example in
Gethsemane, where the petition of Matt 6:13//Lk 11:4 is echoed (and from
the parenetic tradition in Deut. 6-8, as well as from the warnings about
PEIRASMOS in Ps 78, 95, and in the exhortation to believers in Heb. 3:8-9
that during the "today" that they are undergoing they must not "...
harden [their] hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the
wilderness (KATA THN hHMERAN TOU PEIRASMOU EN TH ERHMW), 9where [their]
fathers put me to the test (OU EPEIRASAN) and saw my works for forty
years) - as we see from all of this, it is, after all, in a time of crisis
that the believer is both most open towards, and most likely to question
and then reject, the propriety/reasonableness/effectiveness of the way that
God has constrained his elect to follow in living out faithfulness to him
- that is, to doubt God and to engage in (enter into) putting God to the
test.
If anything, seeing the Pater Noster as an "eschatological prayer"
(and I'm not certain I really understand what that means), demands
my understanding of the meaning of PEIRASMOS (engaging in testing
of God) and of the intent of the petition ("keep us from putting
you, Father, to the proof) NOT your perspective.
Jeffrey Gibson
jgibson@acfsysv.roosevelt.edu