From: Edward Hobbs (EHOBBS@wellesley.edu)
Date: Sat Jun 28 1997 - 18:51:57 EDT
Jonathan Robie writes:-------->
Luke 11:4 KAI MH EISENEGKHiS hHMAS EIS PEIRASMON
I grew up saying "and lead us not into temptation", but doesn't this
translate more literally into "do not bring us into temptation"? Regardless,
what exactly does it mean? Is it a prayer that God will not bring us into
temptation, as though God is the one who brings us into temptation, and we
are asking him not to? Somehow, I'm not convinced that I'm reading this
correctly...
<----------------------
Probably the most widely-held (among major scholars) view in recent years
is the one which also has been accepted by the International Commission on
English Texts (representing a majority of all English-speaking Chrisians
world-wide)-- to wit, that PEIRASMON here refers to the "final" testing of
of humanity before the End, a PEIRASMOS analogous to the PEIRASMOS of
Israel in the Wilderness, often identified with the "tribulation" of Mark
13 and parallels. Hence we are to pray, "Save us from the time of trial!"
This is the translation actually present (as an alternative form) in the
major Prayer Books of English-speaking Christianity.
(Of course, people don't change how they pray very easily, and
though it is right there in the Prayer Book every time I go to church, I
have never yet heard a congregation pray that version of the Lord's Prayer.
They don't even use the King James Version ["Forgive us our debts...."]
--used by churches founded after 1611--but stick to the good old 1539
Great Bible version ["Forgive us our trespasses.....], since that was
what was in the FIRST Prayer Book of 1549! The AV/KJV is still too new-
fangled to use for prayer, not to speak of the ICET version, first in our
PB in 1976!)
Edward Hobbs
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