• the KJV translation of Mat 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4
• the NRSV translation of Mat 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4
• the TEV translation of Mat 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4
• the Greek New Testament "original texts" of Mat 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4
• the hypothetical Aramaic original spoken words of Jesus' prayer, which pre-dated both Matthew's and Luke's gospels. (Note: Though Matthew's version is most often prayed by Christians today, most scholars believe that Luke's simpler version of the Lord's Prayer more nearly represents the prayer taught by Jesus.)

 

Italicized words within brackets in the KJV above were not in the Greek original texts

• Above, in the KJV texts of both Matthew and Luke, the [italicized words enclosed in brackets] show the words and phrases that were in the KJV but were not in the original Greek texts of Matthew and Luke. For details as to how such words and phrases were added into the KJV, browse http://www.bibletexts.com/kjv-tr.htm and http://www.bibletexts.com/versecom/Mat06v09.htm. See also Bruce Metzger's A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition (NY: United Bible Societies, 1994), pages 13-14 and 130-132.

Scripture quotations above

• KJV - King James Version Bible (1873 Cambridge Edition of the KJV Bible.)
• NRSV - New Revised Standard Version Bible (Copyright, 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.)
• TEV - Today's English Version Bible (copyright 1976, 1992, American Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.)
• Greek NT - Greek New Testament, 4th Revised Edition (NY: United Bible Societies, 1994, pages 18 and 247-248.) Transliteration from the Greek letters into Roman letters was done by Robert Nguyen Cramer according to standard representations of those Greek letters.
• Jeremias - Joachim Jeremias' The Prayers of Jesus (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1964, pages 94-95.)

Joachim Jeremias' reconstruction of the Lord's Prayer is found in his article, "The Lord's Prayer in the Light of Recent Research," which is found in his book, The Prayers of Jesus. His reconstruction (and its subsequent translation into German and English) is based upon Jeremias' intimate knowledge of Aramaic, the language in which Jesus originally taught this prayer. Jeremias worked backward from the Greek to hypothesize what the original Aramaic wording would have been.

Comments by Eduard Schweizer regarding the differences between Matthew's and Luke's "Lord's Prayer":

• The Lord's Prayer ([Matthew] 6:7-13)... The Lord's Prayer is found in a rather different form in Luke 11:2-4. It is astounding how little legalism the early Christians showed in transmitting the words of Jesus. Even so central a text as this is reshaped with relative freedom, adapted to local usage, and elaborated. The community had no sacred texts in the sense of ones that had to be repeated without the slightest change. The Lord's Prayer is therefore not the letter of the law; it is an aid to prayer, a guide to be followed without being bound to this or that precise wording.

(From Eduard Schweizer's The Good News According to Matthew, Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975, page 147.)

Comments by Mary Baker Eddy regarding modern versions' corrections of the KJV's version of Matthew 6:13:

• Our Master taught his disciples one brief prayer, which we name after him the Lord's Prayer. Our Master said, "After this manner therefore pray ye," and then he gave that prayer which covers all human needs. There is indeed some doubt among Bible scholars, whether the last line is not an addition to the prayer by a later copyist; but this does not affect the meaning of the prayer itself. In the phrase, "Deliver us from evil," the original properly reads, "Deliver us from the evil one."

(From Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Boston: The First Church of Christ, Scientist, page 16.)

Bibletexts.com note: Below are also quotations from Matthew 6:13 of some of the Bible versions that Mrs. Eddy owned and used. This illustrates her use of modern Bible versions to provide clarification and/or correction to the KJV, as evident by her stating, "...The original properly reads, 'Deliver us from the evil one.' " )

Version	Wording
KJV	And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
ASV	And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
Moulton	And bring us not into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.
Rotherham	And bring us not into temptation, But rescue us from the evil one.
RV	And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
Weymouth	And bring us not into temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

Commentary by Hans Dieter Betz:

• All ancient sources agree in ascribing the Lord's Prayer to Jesus of Nazareth as the original author. There is no reason on scholarly grounds to doubt this ascription, because it meets the standard criteria of authenticity and inauthenticity as they have been developed by New Testament scholarship...
• Some famous older Jewish prayers (e.g., the Kaddish or the Shemoneh Esreh) provide parallels that come closer than others, but these prayers are as different among themselves as they are from the Lord's Prayer. In addition, the date of the composition and original form of the Jewish prayers mentioned, not to speak of others, are disputed. All of them, like the Lord's Prayer, have had their origin in the oral tradition of liturgical life, and for some of them we have different versions or recensions. Therefore, we can conclude in regard to the Lord's Prayer that the ascription of this prayer to Jesus may indeed be historically correct, but that Jesus created the prayer out of traditional elements by giving it the form and content he wanted. This method must have been the same as that of other consciously formed prayers at the time...

• This way of creating prayers was and still is characteristic of most prayers. In order to make new prayers acceptable to a liturgical community, they must reflect the traditional language and form.

(From Hans Dieter Betz's The Sermon on the Mount (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1995, pages 372-373.)

Bibletexts.com note: There have been a number of very thorough scholarly examinations of the Lord's Prayer. Dr. Betz's is certainly among the best. The excerpts above are from his monumental work on The Sermon on the Mount, a very detailed and heavily footnoted 695-page commentary, which is part of the Fortress Press' definitive commentary series, Hermeneia - A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible. In Betz's section on the Sermon on the Mount's teaching on prayer (Mat 6:5-15), including the Lord's Prayer (Mat 6:9-13), is found on pages 361-417.