Our Father, from whom the breath of life comes,
who fills all realms of sound, light and vibration (heaven).
May Your name be set apart.
Your Kingdom (counsel)
comes.
Your will (desire) comes true - in
the universe
and also on earth.
Give us our needful daily bread.
Free us from our offenses,
Just as we free those who offend us.
Do not let us enter into superficial things (materialism),
but separate us from the evil one.
Amen (Sealed in trust, faith and
truth, I confirm with my entire being)
--Aramaic (Our Translation)
Probably the most well-known of all Christian prayers, what we call the Lord's Prayer appears in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke
11:2-4. Interestingly enough, the doxology that appears at the end of the version from the Book of Common Prayer (For thine is the
kingdom, the power, and the glory, or ever and ever.) doesn't actually appear in the Bible. There are also variations in the
translation of "trespasses," "debts," offenses," "sins," etc. We've included an Aramaic translation as well. For a number of
reasons. Jesus spoke Aramaic, so that would be the language he used when speaking to the disciples. Our Bibles were translated
from the Spoken Aramaic to Greek and then into Latin, English, etc. Aramaic, like Hebrew, is a rich language with layers of meaning
for each word or phrase that is not easily captured in a translation into a language like Greek or English. We like the richness
that the Aramaic adds to familiar Biblical passages like the Lord's Prayer.
Which one is the "correct" translation? We have no idea. Nor do we believe it matters. The words themselves
do not have magical qualities. The point of the prayer as Jesus taught it was to praise God, recognize His sovereignty, and ask for
our needs to be met, our sins to be forgiven, to keep us "in this world" but not "of this world," and for protection from
Satan. As with all prayer, the words matter less than what's in our heart.
