The Our Father is one of the pillars of Christian prayer. Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants they pray it daily and know that it is the universal prayer of Christianity. But where does it come from?
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The Our Father Prayer
“Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name,
let your kingdom come
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive our offenses,
as we also forgive those who offend us.
And do not let us into temptation.
and deliver us from evil.
Amen.”
The Our Father in the Gospel
The Our Father prayeras we know it today, is taken from passage from the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew 6: 9-13: “You pray this way: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your Name, may your Kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our bread of every day. Forgive us our offenses, as we forgive those who have offended us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Jesus’ disciples come to him to ask him to teach to pray. Jesus teaches them the Our Father, transcribed in Saint Matthew, on this occasion.
Saint Luke, one of the four apostles, also records Jesus’ prayer, but under different words: “He then said to them: “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your Name, may your Kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread; forgive our sins, because we also forgive those who offend us; And do not let us into temptation””. (Luke 11: 2 – 4).
The Church has preserved the version of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, to which words are added. The “Dad”either “abba” either “father”a very familiar way of addressing God has become a “Our father” more formal, which reestablishes a distance between a transcendent God and us. To mark this real difference from the Lord, Matthew’s version adds “that you are in Heaven”, a phrase that emphasizes our earthly nature fundamentally different from God’s heavenly nature. This version, more complete, would have been chosen by the Church because it is more understandable for the greatest number of people: there are some words that vary between the two versions, such as the word “offences”which in Lucas, becomes “sins”, making it more evocative. The “Our father” it also allows us to situate ourselves in the universality of the Church: we are all children of the Father, members of the body of Christ.
Although Jesus probably taught his disciples in Aramaic, we only have the Greek translations of this prayer in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, which are already modifications of the original text, which were subsequently translated into all existing languages, ( French, English , Italian, German, etc.) so that we can pray to him together. For centuries, the only authorized language to recite the Our Father was Latin, the Pater Noster. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century spread translations of the Our Father, which became essential during the 20th century in churches.
(To live this prayer even more deeply, see the meaning of each phrase of this prayer discovering the Our Father explained)
The Our Father in the Jewish religion
Like the Hail Mary, the prayer of the Our father It consists of two parts: a first part of praise and a second part of supplication. The formulation of him has its roots in the jewish tradition.
Let us not forget that Jesus himself was a Jew!
Its first part, relating to the sanctification of the name of the Lord and the coming of his kingdom, is taken from the Kaddish, one of the central texts of the Jewish liturgy, as well as from the prayer of the 18 blessings. These two texts are, furthermore, almost contemporary with the life of Christ. The rest of the sentence finds its origins in various parts of the Talmud and its treatises.
Then, the Our Father is, above all, a prayer of unity: Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Evangelicals, etc., we all pray the same prayer, which comes to us from the Jewish religion. To learn how to pray it better, we must take the time to understand it.
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