The “Lord’s Prayer” and “Our Father” are traditional names given to the set of petitions and doxologies recorded in Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4, which Jesus gave his disciples as a model or example for prayer. The prayer has been included in the catechisms and liturgies of most Christian traditions since the period of the apostolic fathers, usually in close association with the partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
Text and Setting
The Lord’s Prayer is the most widely known passage from the Bible, so familiar that it is usually known by its opening words: “Our Father.” In many circles of Western Christianity, it is the only part of the Scripture handed down by oral tradition, many members of the community having learned it from memory before being able to read it in the printed Bible, hymnal, or prayer book. Church bulletins usually do not need to print its words in the order of service.
Although Jesus evidently spoke the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic, the oldest sources are the Greek Gospels; the ancient Syriac (Aramaic) version appears to be a retranslation from the Greek rather than an independent Aramaic recension. The text of the prayer is given in Matthew’s narrative of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7), in which Jesus taught a large crowd on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The version of the prayer given by Luke is not set in the same historical situation but is included in that portion sometimes known as the Perean ministry, after Jesus’ departure from Galilee. The Lukan version is shorter and is incorporated into a general discourse on prayer (Luke 11:1–13).
The Lord’s Prayer is really intended to be the Disciples’ Prayer; the real “Lord’s Prayer” of the gospel record is the prayer of Jesus on the night of his arrest (John 17). Although Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer as a model to follow, rather than a fixed liturgical recitation, apparently he himself repeated it, with variations, in teaching on different occasions. For this reason, alternate versions continued to be used devotionally in different circles of disciples, and these versions have passed into the corporate worship of the church in various localities. This probably accounts for the existence of more than one form of the prayer in the inspired Word of the Gospels.
Outline and Analysis
Analysis of the Lord’s Prayer reveals a clear outline that balances petition with praise, especially when the traditional concluding doxology is taken into account.
Address. The address, or invocation, of the prayer follows, in both cases, a discourse on prayer by Jesus. The early church seems to have adopted certain liturgical phrases that combined Aramaic with Greek, as in the “Abba! Father” of Romans 8:15; the vocative “Father” was the common address for God. Although there is evidence of this familiar form of address in ancient Jewish prayer, it does not appear to have been popular within rabbinic Judaism until after the beginning of the Christian era. It is more likely that Jesus here expressed the common piety of the people, giving it the stamp of his own unique relationship with the Father. The specific sense in which God’s fatherhood is interpreted has been a matter of debate. It may refer to God’s creative fatherhood (Deut. 32:6), to God’s special relationship with Israel (Jer. 3:4), or to God’s fatherhood by virtue of redemption (Isa. 63:16). It is worth noting, however, that “father” is a title sometimes used in ancient treaties for the overlord granting a covenant to a client king, a fact that relates the address “Father” to much of the subsequent content of the prayer. The additional phrase “who is in heaven” is characteristic of the qualifying usage of both Judaism and the Gospel of Matthew; it is a reminder that the being of God transcends the efforts of people to restrict his presence within temples, religious systems, and the categories of human understanding.
First Petition: “Hallowed be your name.” That is, “May your name be held in reverence.” This clause refers to the giving of Yahweh’s covenant name to Moses (Exod. 3:13–14) and to the requirement of the Decalogue that his name not be invoked to a purpose contrary to the covenant (Exod. 20:7). The Lord’s name in the Bible is not merely his appellation but the characteristic revelation of himself to his worshipers. All the qualities he has disclosed in his covenant and in his working in history are summarized in the knowledge of his name, especially his covenant love or faithfulness to his word, since it is by his name or reputation that the covenant stands. To defile, deface, subvert, or dishonor the divine name is to reject the sovereignty of God and abrogate his covenant. Appeals to “bless the name” of the Lord were commonplace in Jewish prayers of the time and are found in the Psalms (Pss. 96:2; 100:4; 103:1). The hallowing or sanctifying of the divine name is the recognition of its being “set apart” for the special use of God’s worshipers. The petition does not restrict reverence for God’s name to any designated time or space but is universal in its scope: the sovereign presence of God, invoked in his name, is to be kept holy in every area of life and throughout the cosmos.
Second Petition: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Few biblical concepts are as pervasive as the kingdom, or sovereignty, of God. The term is synonymous with the covenant, for in granting his people a treaty Yahweh stands in the position of the Great King. The celebration of the Lord’s dominion lies at the heart of Israelite worship and finds expression especially in the enthronement psalms (Pss. 47; 93; 95–99; cf. Pss. 24; 29; 68; 132). Jesus inaugurated his public ministry with his announcement of the restoration of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14–15), and the sovereignty of God was the theme of his teaching, the source of his signs and wonders, and the reality demonstrated in his passion, death, and resurrection.
By parallelism, the petition “your kingdom come,” or “may your kingdom come,” is interpreted by the phrases, “may your will be done, as in heaven so upon earth.” The kingdom is the application of the sovereignty of God not only in the realm of the transcendent but also in the here-and-now of human culture and personal issues of life. As this is the prayer of Jesus’ disciples, the dominion of the sovereign God must begin first of all in their personal obedience; the will of God is the goal of Christian ethics and the norm of Christian behavior, and must certainly be the governing factor in their life together as a church. The teaching of Scripture on God’s will must be applied and reapplied in each situation by the people of God. But since the Lord is “the Judge of all the earth” (Gen. 18:25), there are societal and cosmic dimensions to the kingdom. God’s will applies to the created order, for all things owe their existence to that will and to its expression in the Word that has ordained them (Ps. 33:6; Isa. 40:21–26; John 1:1–3; Rev. 4:11). The concluding words of this petition introduce a certain eschatological dimension; what is presently the reality in heaven will also be fulfilled on earth. Although the Bible says relatively little about heaven, in this context it is viewed as the place and state where God’s will is carried out perfectly in all respects; in like manner, earth, the sphere of human activity, must also, in the end, become fully the environment of God’s will.
Third Petition: “Give us today our daily bread.” This request is based on a common Semitic ideal, the king’s provision for the needs of his subjects. It is expressed in ancient treaties and may be seen in the Bible in such passages as Psalm 72. As supreme King, the Lord is the provider of that which sustains life (Ps. 104:15; Acts 17:25; 2 Cor. 9:10). The “daily bread” of this petition is reminiscent of the manna that sustained the Israelites in the wilderness after their deliverance from Egypt; except for the day before the Sabbath, it could be gathered only for use on the same day, and it spoiled if held for later use (Exod. 16:13–21). Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray in faith for what they need—to depend on the Lord’s provision alone (Ps. 37:4–5) and not on human schemes for attaining material security, schemes that ultimately come to nothing (cf. Prov. 16:1; passim, Eccl. 2:11; 6:1–2). He returns to this theme in the discourse following the prayer. Moth, rust, and thieves can destroy what we so diligently lay up (Matt. 5:19); believers are not to “worry about tomorrow” but to “seek first his kingdom” (Matt. 6:33–34).
Although in context Jesus is clearly referring to God’s care for the physical needs of his children, the believer’s “daily bread” is also the “bread of life,” or spiritual food. Jesus spoke of this particularly in his discourse following the feeding of the multitude (John 6:22–59). “Do not work for food that spoils,” he said, “but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). The manna of the wilderness was perishable, and those who ate it died; in contrast, Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life.… Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 6:48, 54). Jesus here equates his death on the cross with the release of the “bread” of eternal life. In the structure of John’s Gospel, however, this is also clearly teaching concerning the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist, which is missing from his narrative of the meal on the night of Jesus’ arrest. The passage pointedly refers twice to Jesus’ “giving thanks” (eucharisteō, 6:11, 23) in the feeding of the crowds. Jesus’ discourse centers on the symbolism of the “living bread,” as Paul’s discussion of the Lord’s Supper also focuses on the “one loaf” as emblematic of “one body” (1 Cor. 10:17). In early Christian art, the loaves and fish alone, without the chalice, were a symbol of the Eucharist. The comparison of the “daily bread” of the believer with the life released in Christ’s death, as symbolized in the Eucharist, is the principal reason the church found the Lord’s Prayer especially appropriate for use at that point in the liturgy immediately before the participation in the Lord’s Supper.
Fourth Petition: “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.” The Lukan version reads, “forgive us our sins” (Luke 11:4). In each case, God’s forgiveness of an offender’s wrongdoings is linked to the offender’s forgiveness of those who have offended him or her. Jesus illustrated this truth in his parable of the slave, forgiven a great debt, who refused to forgive the lesser debt owed him by a fellow slave (Matt. 18:23–35). Paul took up the same theme in exhorting the Ephesians to forgive one another “just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:32). It is ludicrous to dwell on the petty offenses of others against us when we have been forgiven a much greater offense against God. In the covenant, all are servants of the same Lord, who alone is supreme; to refuse to forgive a brother’s or sister’s infraction is to elevate oneself to a position of judge in rivalry with the Lord. Citizens of the kingdom are to “not judge” (Matt. 7:1) in this sense (as opposed to the appropriate judgment of recognizing evil for what it is), for “God himself is judge” (Ps. 50:6). But beyond this, there is a principle of the kingdom of God at work here, the “law of reciprocity,” which applies to all forms of behavior: loving, blessing, giving, lending, showing mercy, pardoning, as well as negative actions (Luke 6:27–38). Just as when we give it is given to us, so only in forgiving can we be forgiven; the forgiveness of others takes the prideful self out of the center, the very obstacle to receiving the pardon of God for our own failures and misdeeds.
Fifth Petition: “And lead us not into temptation [trials], but deliver us from the evil one.” The usual translation, “lead us not into temptation,” obscures the true intent of Jesus’ words. The Greek term peirasmos means “testing, trial,” and refers more to pressure from outside than to inward weakness or moral failure, although of course the two concepts overlap. The testing the infant church would have undergone would be that of persecution by its enemies; the individual Christian might be tempted to yield to such pressure in both the verbal denial of his or her faith and the practical denial represented in behavior falling short of the standards of the kingdom. James, the Lord’s brother, exhorted the church to rejoice in such testing, as an opportunity to develop endurance (James 1:2–3), while Paul reminded the Corinthians that they could withstand the pressures of idolatrous influence, since God in his faithfulness to the covenant “will provide a way out” (1 Cor. 10:13). The thrust of Jesus’ petition is similar, but perhaps we are to understand it specifically in view of the great testing he predicted would come with those events leading to the destruction of Jerusalem and its sanctuary (Mark 13:9–13). He teaches his followers to pray for deliverance in that time, for “who stands firm to the end will be saved.” To the faithful, the risen Christ promises, “I will also keep you from the hour of trial” (Rev. 3:10).
The corollary “deliver us from evil” may equally be translated “deliver us from the evil one,” in harmony with Jesus’ later prayer for his disciples, that the Father might “protect them from the evil one” (John 17:15). The New Testament personification of evil in Satan or the devil does not exclude its personification in human authorities as well, such as the “man of lawlessness” described by Paul (2 Thess. 2:3) or the “beast from the sea” and the “beast from the land” in the Revelation. The New Testament writers are vague concerning the identity of these authorities, but their meaning must have been clear to a church that faced great danger from these figures—and the system they represented—in the latter part of the first century.
Doxology and Close: “For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.” This addition, found in no ancient version, commentator, or exegete, has evidently been added from liturgical use of the Lord’s Prayer as a congregational response in worship. In both the Didachē from the second century and the early liturgies of the third and fourth centuries, the congregation responded antiphonally as the deacon or presbyter led the prayers. The doxology of the Lord’s Prayer is similar to the blessing or brakhah so characteristic of synagogue prayer as it was developing in the New Testament period. Whether the use of this doxology originated with Jesus himself or was a Christian adaptation of Jewish practice, the doxology is ultimately modeled on David’s prayer at the coronation of Solomon (1 Chron. 29:11). As a celebration of the surpassing dominion of the Great King, it well summarizes the thrust of Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God.
The Lord’s Prayer in the Church
The pronouns of the Lord’s Prayer are plural. The prayer was not formulated for singular, personal devotion; it was to be an act of corporate worship, the petition of a community or body of believers. The prayer is addressed to the Father, articulating the needs of the church and of its members in view of the emergence of the kingdom of God. At the same time, the prayer is Christocentric, its character entirely determined by the person and work of Christ in redemption; it is by his act of atonement that any or all of the petitions may be heard and granted, for he says, “no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
The Jewish temple service, and later the service of the synagogue, was rich in liturgical material drawn from the Psalms, the Law, and other scriptural sources, much of it incorporated in prayers and responses repeated in unison or antiphonally by the congregation. Probably the early church drew on these resources in the evolution of its worship and added liturgical material of its own, some of which has been preserved in the New Testament (for example, the hymns of Luke and the Revelation to John; prayers, doxologies, and creedal statements preserved in the epistles of Paul; the doxology of Jude 24–25). The Lord’s Prayer was involved in this process, evidently from an early period.
The use of the Lord’s Prayer in the eucharistic liturgy can be traced back to the fourth century, although originally it did not come at the end of the great thanksgiving or prayer of consecration. Pope Gregory I (c. 540–604) made it the climax and the most important part of the consecration. In the early centuries, when the church was persecuted, the Lord’s Prayer was considered one of the “mysteries” to be said only in the company of baptized believers. In contemporary pre-baptismal rites that follow the fourth-century catechumenate pattern, the Lord’s Prayer is formally “presented” to baptismal candidates shortly before their baptism. Devotional manuals from the early medieval period indicate the repetition of the Lord’s Prayer at all six of the stated “hours” of prayer: matins, lauds, terce, sext, none, and vespers. The wealth of conflicting rituals led the Franciscans to condense and collate the services in the Breviary, and its companion the Missal, for Holy Communion, but the Lord’s Prayer was central in both.
The Lutheran liturgy followed the custom of the Lollards and the Bohemian Brethren, precursors of the Protestant Reformation, in simply translating the prayer from Latin into the colloquial speech. The Reformed churches that followed Calvin and the Swiss Reformation dispensed with much of the medieval liturgy but retained the Lord’s Prayer in a French version. In other Reformed churches, it was removed from the liturgy but placed in the catechism for the instruction of those to be confirmed. Although the Lord’s Prayer has not usually been incorporated into the regular worship of evangelical and charismatic churches, which tend to view written or recited prayers with some reservation, its use is increasing today. Familiar to Christians of all traditions as a prayer given for their use and example by Christ himself, the Lord’s Prayer is a unifying element in the revival of scriptural forms of worship in the contemporary scene.