<<I was brought up in the Anglican Church where up until its replacement by
the ASB in 1980, the Series 3 communion service featured the line 'Do not
bring us to the time of trial' - but this was dropped in the ASB
(Alternative Service Book), presumably because it was not much liked.>>
Mark, the Episcopal Ch. USA *Book of Common Prayer* (p. 364) in the
Eucharistic liturgy carries an alternative translation of the Lord's Prayer,
"save us from the time of trial." I do not have an old RSV before me but
would guess that this rendering reflects that translation.
You also said,
<<Ben Crick commented on the meaning of PEIRASMOS in context in
Luke. I am much in favour of this kind of exegesis - I think that it
is always advisable first to look for the meaning of the word
elsewhere in the book(s) in which the passage occurs.>>
That technique, sound as it is, would reflect the Lukan redaction in the
Lord's Prayer more than the original referent in Jesus' teaching.
It seems to me that the eschatological ring in the petitions hAGIASQHTW TO
ONOMA SOU, ELQETW hE BASILEIA SOU is more responsible for the eschatological
reading of MH EISENEGKHiS hUMAS EIS PEIRASMON than any other single factor.
The prayer begins w/ a petition for the eschaton, making it natural to
conclude that to pray for deliverance fr/ the messianic woes would be a
fitting end to such a prayer.
Also, the Matthean beatitudes that have an eschatological ring (5:5
KLHRONOMHSOUSIN THN GAN; 5:6, hOI PEINWNTES KAI DIYWNTES THN DIKAIOSUNHN;
5:7 AUTOI ELEHQHSONTAI; 5:8 AUTOI TONQEON OYONTAI), tends to color our
reading of the final petitions of the Lord's Prayer. Granted some of these
beatitudes can be read noneschatologically.
Finally, our mindset tends toward "either-or" discussions. We want clean
linguistic referentiality. My own reading persuades me more and more that
the biblical writers might not have been quite so "dichotomous." Could we be
setting up a false dichotomy to insist that Jesus meant it one way or the
other?
DAvid Perkins
Good Shepherd Episcopal Ch
Vidalia, LA