Lord's Prayer, the

There are two versions of the Lord's Prayer in the New Testament. Of the two versions (Matthew 6:9–15; Luke 11:2–4), Luke's is widely considered the earlier in form, and it does seem plain that Matthew presents what is, in effect, a commentary woven together with the prayer. The relative sparseness of Luke has won it virtually unanimous recognition among scholars as the nearest to the form of an outline which Jesus recommended.

The same basic prayer of Jesus is reflected in both these versions. The differences between them show that early Christians allowed themselves considerable freedom in how they put their prayers into words. They understood that true prayer was not a matter of literal repetition, and Jesus specifically warned against mechanical and ostentatious prayer (Matthew 6:5–8). Matthew gives us the version of the prayer most often used in its community, just as Luke provides us with the received view in its community.

The different versions of the prayer present the same meaning behind Jesus' teachings, but in different styles and wordings. The basic model or outline of the Lord's Prayer upon which both versions are based consists of calling God father, confessing that his name should be sanctified and that his kingdom should come, and then asking for the bread God will provide that day, forgiveness, and not to be brought to the test (i.e., not to be forced into disloyalty to God).

Assessed by its individual elements, the Lord's Prayer may be characterized as a fairly typical instance of the Judaic piety of its period. To call God “father” was—as such—nothing radical, and the association of his fatherly care with his actual provision for prayerful Israel is attested in Psalm 68:5. The same passage shows that the connection of God's holiness to his fatherhood was seen as natural, and the importance of sanctifying God's name within the earliest of Rabbinic texts of prayer—such as the Kaddish, which means “Sanctified [be God's name]”—is well known. That his holiness is consistent with people being forgiven and accepted by him is also unexceptionable. Finally, the idea that God's being king amounts to a “kingdom” that was about to be revealed is amply precedented within the Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible known as the Targumim, and they insist upon the loyal response of God's people to that revelation.

According to the prayer, God is to be approached as father, his name sanctified, and his kingdom welcomed. The act of prayer along those lines, with great variety over time and from place to place and tradition to tradition, has been a hallmark of Christianity.

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