Notes on the Lord’s Prayer: Part 1
By Kerry A. Shirts
January 24, 2003
As I study the Lord’s Prayer, I notice some things worth talking about. It is a most fascinating part of the Bible. Lets look at 5 different translations for comparative purposes. The KJV (King James Version); the NIV (New International Version); NJB (New Jerusalem Bible); YLT (Young’s Literal Translation); LUO (Luther Bible [1912]). There is so much information contained in this one mere sentence, that it is all I will cover for right now in this paper.
KJV Matthew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
NIV Matthew 6:9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
NJB Matthew 6:9 So you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy,
YLT Matthew 6:9 thus therefore pray ye: 'Our Father who art in the heavens! hallowed be Thy name.
LUO Matthew 6:9 Darum sollt ihr also beten: Unser Vater in dem Himmel! Dein Name werde geheiligt.
We see Jesus here showing the crowd that they are to being praying "Our Father." The Greek here is Pater hmwn Pater hemon, literally Jesus is not separating God His Father from being the Father of the crowd. He is our Father. This is inclusive language, not exclusive such as something along the lines of "Dear God," or some other form of addressing God. This address is to "our" Father. Hmwn (hemon) is the genitive pronoun in the first person plural from the Greek root egw (ego). The genitive, as Gerald L. Stevens, has shown (New Testament Greek, University Press of America, 1994: 46), is what describes. It shows possession or ownership, which generally answers the question "what kind?" So, using the rule of the genitive in the Greek we ask what kind of Father? "Our" kind. As Stevens notes, the genitive is the case of specification. (p. 130). The Greek ending of – wn in the Greek word Hmwn (hemon) is what tells us this is the plural genitive, hence it is translated as "our" instead of an address such as "dear God" or something else. This is shown in Stevens table on the second declension inflections on p. 51. It is also shown with the German "unser" is the plural possessive pronoun "our."
Pater is a wide ranging word in lexical semantics showing in some contexts the meaning of generator or male ancestor, natural father, an ancestor, the originator or transmitter of anything, etc. I will return to the lexical semantics (the meanings of the words, especially of "Father") a little later.
Jesus also includes God as the Father of we humans in his discussion with Mary at the tomb of his death, burial, and resurrection, where he noted:
KJV John 20:17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
The Greek is anabainw proj ton patera mou kai patera hmwn kai qeon mou kai qeon hmwn
Anabaino pros ton patera mou kai patera humon kai theon mou kai theon humon.
I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
Notice Jesus also said "I go to my brethren…" the Greek word here is adelfouj which covers ranges of an actual brother from the same womb, to fellow countrymen, associates, companions, common ancestors, etc. Here it appears that Jesus is including them in with the family of God as Father, as he indicated to Mary. It is, yet again, inclusive language, not exclusive and separation language.
This idea of God as our Father is shown in many areas of the Bible. It is an important Bible doctrine which is worth at least noting.
YLT Malachi 2:10 Have we not all one father? Hath not our God prepared us?…
The Hebrew reads:
wn)rb dx) l) )wlh wnlkl dx) b) )wlh
Halo’ ‘ ab echad lekullanu halo’ ‘el ‘echad bera’anu
‘Echad is the word for "one" which is the adjective and numeral one. The Hebrew word wnlkl "Lekullanu" is composed of the l which is the particle preposition. The Hebrew part lk is theo masculine noun in the singular construct, the suffix being the 1st person plural, hence this concerns all of us, we all, every one of us, has whatever the sentence is talking about, in this case in Malachi, we all have One God. lk is the Hebrew word corresponding to the idea of gesamtheit…das Ganze, "the whole," everything involved with the particular subject, etc. (Ludwig Koehler & Walter Baumgartner, A Bilingual Dictionary of the Hebrew and Aramaic Old Testament, E.J. Brill, 1998: 435.)
The German reads - Haben nicht alle einen Vater ? Hat uns nicht ein Gott geschaffen ? Geschaffen can range from create, to make something, clear things up, manage, as well as to be busy or creative. (The Oxford-Duden German Dictionary, Oxford, reprint, 1994: 623). Hence the Young Literal Translation rendering "Hath not our God prepared us?"
Another scripture worth noting in conjunction with the Lord’s Prayer is:
YLT Matthew 5:48 ye shall therefore be perfect, as your Father who is in the heavens is perfect.
Again, it is our Father which shows a relationship. We are God’s children, He is our Father as the Lord indicates. Paul uses even stronger language however. He says in Acts 17: 28-29:
KJV Acts 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
Notice this closely with me if you will. We literally exist, we move, we have our being (the Greek esmen esmen, in the present tense indicative mood, which means this is indicating the reality of the present moment. It is assumed that first class conditional sentences like this are assumed true, [cf. 1 John 3:2 – "now we are children of God…"!] from the root eimi which means "to be"). Because of these conditions right now in our lives (remember this is in the indicative mood now), this, according to St. Paul demonstrates the obvious. We are the "offspring of God." The Greek for "offspring" is genoj genos, which incorporates the various correspondences such as 1) race 1a) offspring 1b) family 1c) stock, race, nation 1d) i.e. nationality or descent from a particular people 1e) the aggregate of many individuals of the same nature, kind, sort.
This is an astonishing biblical doctrine. We are the same species as God. The German is equally powerful: "Wir sind seines Geschlechts." We are his offspring! The German word here for "offspring", namely Geschlechts just knocks us out when we read it means "sex," "generation," "sexual characteristic," etc.
Did not Jesus quote with approval the Psalms where he noted in the Gospel of John that we are Gods?
John 10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
Notice the powerful Greek expression here – kai ou dunatai luqhnai h grafh
kai ou(k) dunatai luthenai he graphe
"…And the scripture cannot be broken."
The New Jerusalem Bible has – "…and scripture cannot be set aside."
The German – "und die Schrift kann doch nicht gebrochen werden," The German word "gebrochen" meaning something being broken, while used in another context, can also mean have a disturbed relationship, something disrupted, etc. This is what is not allowed in the scripture of the Jews saying "Ye are Gods."
The Greek word dunatai dunatai, is from the root dunami which is the inability or being incapable of doing something, whether personally or from an external means. There is no capability or capacity for it. The Greek word luqhnai luthenai is from the root luw luo meaning to loose, untie, undo, to set something free that is constrained. The scripture, as Jesus explained to the crowd of Jews cannot be loosed or changed, untied or set free from its simple declaration "Ye are Gods." No wonder Jesus is addressing our Father in Heaven as "our Father in Heaven," when he prays. He is Jesus’ Father, as well as ours. The word genos is the basis of our English word "genetics" as well as "geneology" indicating descendants and a similar species. Paul was saying since we are the same race and species as God, being his offspring, it is utterly silly to think of God as either wood or stone, because we are not that.
But Paul has more to say on this.
Romans 8:14-17
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
The Greek word for "sons" in the "sons of God" portion here is uioj huios, "heirs, mature children." Note this! Children of God, and heirs of God. This is St. Paul’s teaching as it is Christ’s in his prayer. It is "our Father" he addresses, as well as His own Father he [Christ] addresses.
Now it is rather obvious that God the Heavenly Father is not the father of our earthly bodies. But He is the Father of our spirits in our bodies. The Bible teaches this. This is the Mormon understanding of our doctrine as well. God is the Heavenly Father of our immortal spirits. Lets look at a few Biblical scriptures to confirm this interesting doctrine.
NIV Numbers 16:22 But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, "O God, God of the spirits of all mankind,
Again, the Hebrew is remarkable:
r#b -lkl txwrh yhl) l)
‘El ‘Elohe haruhot lekol-basar
The Hebrew word basar, is the flesh of die Menschenwelt, the human family, or humankind. (Koehler, Baumgartner, Ibid., p. 157).
In the New Testament we find:
KJV Ephesians 4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
The Greek kai pater pantwn kai pater panton, is literally the father of every one, or of each and every individual. Panton is the genitive adjective here, which means this is answering the question of what kind of.
NIV Hebrews 12:9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
God the Father is the Father of our spirits, as the Bible plainly teaches, and as Christ reiterated on occasion in his ministry and prayers and discussions with some of the people he was in contact with. Hence the interesting opening of His prayer, "our Father."
The other aspect of this first sentence which I found most interesting was in reading Young’s literal translation of the Greek wherein he notes the prayer of Jesus says "Our Father which art in the heavens." It is plural. The Greek word is ouranoij ouranois, which is indeed, the plural (heavens) of the singular ouranoj.
This has become long enough for a supplement, even though it only dealt with the first line of Jesus’ prayer. But what a prayer! As we look into the scriptures with thought and prayerful attention, we find gems all over the place. I hope we can keep looking and learning and enjoying.