This week it was announced that the Pope authorized a change in the wording to the Lord’s Prayer. Rather than “lead us not into temptation,” the prayer will now be recited with “do not let us fall into temptation.”
The Pope reasoned that lead us not into temptation gives the false impression that God tempts us. Indeed, we know from James 1:13-14 that God does not tempt us with evil.
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
James 1:13-14
So why would Jesus tell us to pray against something that is not a possibility in the first place?
In the original Greek, the word for “lead” means to cause or to bring in. The Greek word for “temptation” can mean temptation or testing. So the words “do not let us fall into temptation” is not a literal translation.
But is that what the verse means?
There are two statements in the context of the Lord’s Prayer that I meditated on to understand the verse more fully.
Deliver Us from Evil
In Matthew 6, after we pray for God to lead us not into temptation we ask that instead He deliver us from evil or from the evil one depending on the translation we read.
This reminds me of another famous prayer, Psalm 23, in which the psalmist states that he will “fear no evil, for you are with me.”
I think it’s God’s presence that delivers us from evil both now on the earth and in eternity. His indwelling Holy Spirit gives us wisdom to avoid evil, but we need to be aware of the Holy Spirit’s leading and heed Him when He lets us know where to go to stay away from evil.
John Piper from Desiring God couples deliver us from evil with another prayer that Jesus prayed in John 17: “sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth.” Therefore, sanctification is the means by which God leads us not into temptation, but delivers us from evil. You can read his explanation here.
In either case, being delivered from evil is a work of God, not a work that we can do on our own apart from God.
I noticed one more thing when I was studying this passage. When I looked at the Lord’s Prayer, I noticed that it is a collective prayer. The verse does not say “lead ME not into temptation,” it says “lead US not into temptation.”
I looked for the collective group mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer, and I found it in the kingdom context of the prayer.
Kingdom Context
Who is the “us” in the verse? I believe it is the church: the body of Christ, God’s followers who make up the kingdom. Earlier in the prayer we are to pray for God’s kingdom to come and for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. In praying lead us not into temptation or do not let us fall into temptation and deliver us from evil, we are in part asking the Lord to hasten His coming at which time we will finally be delivered from Satan who is the prince of this world (John 12 and John 14). Praying this prayer in a kingdom context reminds us that this world and it’s struggles are not forever. Satan and the evil of this world does have an end.
So is the Pope’s new translation accurate?
It is not a word for word literal translation, but it still calls us to rely on the Lord for strength in times of temptation and testing and it calls for us to look forward to the coming kingdom when we are delivered from evil once and for all.
What do you think of the Catholic church’s update to the Lord’s prayer? Comment below!
Further Reading:
- Liz from My Messy Desk ran a blog series word by word through the Lord’s Prayer. Here is the blog post on the word “lead.”
- Here is the official news story on the new wording of the Our Father. Note: the changes are taking place in Italian, not in the English speaking Catholic Churches.
I was curious so I looked up a few different versions of the verse. I’m assuming that the Catholic church generally uses KJV. They did when I was little. The NKJV interprets it as “And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.” I suppose if there’s any change the church is going to make, this one seems minimally damaging change. I hadn’t really considered the semantics of the verse before, but I can understand why some people may be confused and hear it as God literally leading them into temptation. In my mind I always felt it was asking God to guide us away from anything tempting that lie ahead of us. Interesting debate, for sure.
I feel like if you grow up in church and learning who God is, you are going to understand that God does not lead us into temptation. But like you said maybe that is confusing for some people? I’m curious about the reason why this change was necessary. Did they have lots of reports about people misunderstanding it?
Rachel, the changing of the wording just makes me think of His truth: Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you (Deut. 4:2). I often say God is not looking for an editor. He who was, who is and forever will be has written His book the way He wants it. May God bless your rest and write on your heart tomorrows priorities. In Christ, Julie
I think this type of discussion shows the difficulty of Bible translation. How do you convey what is meant in one language when the other languages don’t have a word for word match for each other? Since the original is Greek, how do we accurately keep the wording while literally needing to use different words since we are speaking in a different language? Even reading articles about this word change, I saw different English translations to describe this Italian word change. Definitely still feeling the effects of the consequences from the tower of Babel!
As a Catholic, I can assure you that the Church has always taught us that God does not tempt anyone; James is explicit as are other passages. So, the new Italian wording gives a translation we always understood without changing the original Greek. So, doesn’t that mean the Pope’s action is constructive and helpful? NO, it is the opposite of constructive. That’s because he presumes to directly disobey Christ’s own admonition against changing this prayer! In doing so, he give the gullible the impression that there may be many errors in God’s own word! He states that there is an error when there is not; the Church always interpreted the meaning to exclude the possibility of God tempting us, though He will, in fact test us individually and as a Church at several times: testing IS a proper translation because the original Greek means both verbs. But the Tradition (capital T) of the Church is preserved from the lies of Satan (the gates of hell). So the harm done by the pope is to undermine for the uneducated belief in the inerrancy of God’s Word. Again, the pope makes it appear that the bibke errs when it does not; he fails to emphasize the 2,000 years of correct interpretation of the verb while presering a word that had two meanings. The popes damage appears as a needed and good thing, like saying a woman should be in charge of her body, when actually the Pope’s action undermines faith. He does this frequently, confusing subtly about homosexual behavior versus having that proclivity. Another example of apparent “good” that is destructive: inviting Satanist Chelsea Clinton and her ilk to the Vatican health conference; and his signing the Abu Dhabi document that proclaimed that it’s God’s will that there be a multitude of religions. Don’t misunderstand me here: the Catholic Church is founded by Christ and its teaching (not a Pope’s opinion or those of certain bad leaders) is infallible. Pope Francis’ opinikns are not given ex catherdra (designated as inspired directly by the Holy Spirit & so infallible). This pope and certain leaders are abominable to God because they are ignorantly, and yet in an organized way, bringing scandal upon the Church. Good Catholics continue as always to BE the Church, but a sub-church is being formed that decieves little by little and with highly intelligently designed camouflage; many wrong-way clerics and theologians do not acutely realize that their works are evil.
Thanks for your input, Dan. It’s good to hear some feedback from your perspective. To be honest, since I am not Catholic, I haven’t been following everything about the Pope very closely so thanks for your info. And I’m concerned as well about changing the wording can give the impression that there are errors in Scripture. Plus, I think we can trust that believers are capable of understanding the meaning of “lead us not into temptation” without going to these great lengths. We can give people a little credit that they can understand what this means.
Amen, Sister!