Cold Day in Heaven


Clergy colleague and dear friend Mike opened the topic this morning, about the Lord’s Prayer petition that involves God leading us into temptation. In my 82 years I’ve both confronted temptation and given in to temptation innumerable (which means so many they can’t be counted) times. Did God lead me there? Or was it, as Jesus was tempted in the wilderness immediately after his baptism by John, satan the devil who led me to it. 

 What does the Bible say? 

Matthew 6:13 καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμό. and not lead us into temptation

Luke 11:4 καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν. and not lead us into temptation

Matthew and Luke each have lifted the phrase verbatim from Sayings Gospel Q. Saint Quelle was not standing there taking dictation as Jesus spoke, so the Q version (look it up: it will be Q 11:4, because reconstructed Q uses Luke’s chapter and “versification”) comes out of oral tradition. Can we modify it? Pater Noster, Our Father, the Lord's Prayer has elsewhere already been modified by evangelists and translators: Matthew says forgive us our ὀφειλήματα debts; Luke says forgive us our ἁμαρτίας sins; the KJV (1611) says forgive us our debts; but our traditional liturgy language (1549 Book of Common Prayer), from the Tyndale Bible (1526) that most people never heard of but that for centuries is instituted wherever English is spoken, says “forgeve vs oure treaspases eve as we forgeve oure trespacers” and "lede us not into temptation." So we're stuck with Tyndale.

There is no recording of Jesus speaking. Meanings change over Time. “Lead us not into temptation” is institutionalized language that, though theologically problematic, is not easily, readily or acceptably changed, revised or corrected. Leave it alone and let it come up in Sunday School every year at question and discussion time. Or change it to “Let us not yield to temptation” and enjoy the fireworks. A cold day in heaven.

Thanks, Mike. Wishing you a speedy and increasingly painless recovery from yesterday’s neck procedure.



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