The Lord's Prayer?

Jesus is traditionally regarded as the author of the most famous Christian prayer. How could anyone question this? The answer is not skepticism, but the evidence of the earliest texts.

The prayer probably came to Matthew and Luke from Q, but their versions differ. Matthew presents the familiar form among sayings that he adds to Q's opening sermon. He credits the edited sermon as a whole to Jesus, not this prayer by itself.

Matthew's version was designated "the Lord's prayer" due to the influence of the Didache. The author of this earliest Christian liturgical handbook urges using it "as the Lord commanded in his gospel." This introduction shows that the Didache took the prayer directly from a written text rather than from oral tradition. Other comments identify that text as the gospel of Matthew. In adopting Matthew's wording as the norm for use in church worship services, the author of the Didache added a doxology, which is still recited by many, even though it is not ascribed to Jesus in any gospel.

Luke's version of this prayer is shorter and worded somewhat differently than Matthew's. The common elements indicate that both authors got this prayer from Q. As we have seen repeatedly, Matthew was more apt to expand a Q passage than Luke to condense it. Thus, the familiar "Lord's prayer" is probably a later expansion of the prayer that Luke got from Q.

But where did Q get this prayer from? Scholars have long recognized that its development  is closely related to Jewish tradition. In fact, some phrases are identical to prayer formulas still in use in synagogues. This might be expected since Jesus was Jewish. But so were his followers and other early Christians who did not know Jesus personally. They would use traditional Jewish formulas when they prayed, whether Jesus told them to or not. Thus the origin of this prayer is a legitimate historical question.

To answer it, the Jesus Seminar took two sets of votes. The first considered the prayer as a unit. The weighted results were grey. Faced with evidence of Jewish models and later modifications, few Fellows would credit Jesus with creating this prayer in any of its recorded versions. But a majority thought some elements in this prayer probably could be traced to Jesus. Thus, the second set of votes considered each petition separately. The accumulation of these votes led the bulk of the prayer to be printed pink. Together, these votes mean the Seminar considers the evidence insufficient to prove that Jesus himself taught people to pray this prayer, but there is good reason to believe that much of it is based on things he actually said.

Luke 11:2-4	Matt 6:5, 9-13	Didache 8:2-3
2 He said to them,
"When you pray,	5 "When you pray,	2 And do not pray
	don't act like phonies.*	like the phonies,*
	They love to stand up
	and pray in synagogues
	and on street corners,
	so they can show off
	in public.
	Let me tell you,
	they've already received
	their reward...
	9 Instead,	but as the Lord commanded
you should say:	you should pray like this:	in his gospel:
'Father,	'Our Father	"Our Father
	in the heavens,	in the heavens,
your name be revered,	your name be revered.	your name be revered.
establish your empire. *	10 Establish your empire; *	Establish your empire; *
	your will be done on earth	your will be done
	as it is in heaven.	as in heaven,
		so too on earth.
3 Provide us	11 Provide us	Provide us
with the bread	with the bread	with the bread
we need day by day.	we need for the day.	we need for today.
4 Forgive our sins,	12 Forgive our debts,	Forgive our debts,
since	to the extent that	to the extent that
we too forgive	we have forgiven	we have forgiven
everyone in debt to us.	those in debt to us.	those in debt to us.
And don't make us	13 And don't make us	And don't  make us
face the test."	face the test,	face the trial,
	but rescue us	but rescue us
	from the evil one.'"	from the evil one.
		For the power and the glory
		are yours forever."
		3 Pray like this
		three times a day.

* See cameo essay on the empire of God

Invocation

Father	%	Red	Pink	Grey	Black	WA	Print
Luke 11:2c Matt 6:9c (except "Father")		62 4	15 8	15 23	8 65	77 17	red black

Luke's prayer calls God "Father." Matthew's addresses God more formally as "Our Father in the heavens." The second formula is a common invocation in Jewish communal prayers. It comes from the old scriptural view of God as Parent of the people of Israel (see Deut 32:6, Isa 63:16). It belongs to Jewish community tradition. On the other hand, "father" by itself is a name commonly used by any child in everyday conversations with its human parent. Neither Jews, nor pagans, nor even early Christians generally addressed God in such an informal manner.

Yet, there is good evidence other than Q that Jesus did just that. In Mark 14:36 Jesus begins a prayer with "Abba, Father..." The first word means "Papa" in Aramaic, which was probably Jesus' native language. Mark has to translate the word into Greek for his readers. Even before Mark's gospel was written, Paul twice indicates that Greek-speaking gentiles were taught to utter this foreign word when they became Christians (see Gal 4:6, Rom 8:15). It was considered a sign that they were joined to Jesus as children of God through "the spirit of adoption." The Aramaic term did not remain a feature of Christian prayer. But the translation "the Father" became the standard way of describing God in communities that claimed to follow Jesus (see Gal 1:1, 1 Thess 1:1, Eph 6:23, 2 Tim 1:2, Tit 1:4).

In view of this evidence, the Seminar took several votes on the origin of father terminology in prayers ascribed to Jesus. Almost every Fellow agreed that Jesus called God "Abba." For someone to call God "Papa" is startling to Christians and Jews alike. The translation "father" does not presume quite the same intimacy. But it still was close enough to be printed red. The rest of the invocation in Matthew and the Didache, however, is from Jewish tradition rather than Jesus. Matthew or any other Jewish Christian might have inserted it to make this prayer sound more respectful for community use. The Seminar decided to print it black because its conventional view of a distant sky God obscures the closeness implied by Jesus' own name for God.

Petitions

Pray: Name revered	%	Red	Pink	Grey	Black	WA	Print
Luke 11:2d Matt 6:9d		48 48	20 20	16 16	16 16	67 67	pink pink
Pray: Establish empire
Luke 11:2e Matt 6:10a		28 28	20 20	36 36	16 16	53 53	pink pink
Pray: Perform will
Matt 6:10b		0	15	33	54	19	black
Pray: Daily bread
Luke 11:3 Matt 6:11		0 33	43 25	17 29	39 13	35 60	grey pink
Pray: Forgive debts
Luke 11:4ab Matt 6:12		4 26	30 35	30 26	35 13	35 58	grey pink
Pray: No test
Luke 11:4c Matt 6:13a		17 17	13 13	25 25	45 45	33 33	grey grey
Pray: Save from evil
Matt 6:13b		0	4	21	75	10	black
Pray: Doxology
Did 8:2		0	0	9	91	03	black

Luke presents five petitions; Matthew, seven. The two that are unique to Matthew's version---requests for God to assert his will and rescue his people---parallel petitions by other Jewish teachers. Most Fellows regard them as insertions, like Matthew's invocation, that adapted Q's prayer for general use.

Q's prayer ended with the plea to be spared testing. This request contrasts with Psalms that ask for opportunities to demonstrate dedication to God (for example, Ps 17:3 and 26:2). But it may reflect tradition that Israel failed God's testing in the wilderness (Deut 8:16, Ps 81:7). Q itself introduces Jesus by showing him passing similar tests (Luke 4:1-13//Matt 4:1-11). To ask for exemption from such ordeals is a normal expression of human fear of failure. But it is unlike genuine Jesus sayings that challenge people to accept risks. Hence, most Fellows would not include it among things he probably said.

The other four petitions are printed pink for different reasons. Jewish tradition contains prayers with petitions like the following from the Qaddish:

"High and holy be his great name <of God>
in the world which he created according to his will.
And may he establish his reign in your days
and in the lifetime of all the house of Israel."

Some Fellows thought that any Jewish Christian could have echoed such common tradition. But most Fellows thought the first two petitions of Q's prayer were close enough to Jesus' focus on  the priority of the reign of God to include these in the data base of Jesus' genuine sayings.

The petitions for food and forgiveness are not paralleled in other Jewish prayers, but are closely related to genuine Jesus sayings in Q. Yet, Matthew and Luke interpret them differently.  Here most Fellows thought that Matthew preserved the original wording better than Luke. Forgiveness of debts is good reason to congratulate the poor (see Luke 6:20 above). And limiting a request for food to current needs (Matt 5:11) is consistent with Jesus sayings that show no concern for provisions (see Luke 12:22-31//Matt 6:25-34 below) than Luke's eye to the future (Luke 11:3).