The Wrong Lords Prayer?

 Someone asked me why Catholics, when saying the Our Lord’s Prayer in their private prayers, stop at “deliver us from evil”, while Protestants, on the other hand, end with “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”

To answer this, let’s look at what Jesus actually taught and how the prayer was passed down.

The Our Lord's Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4, which was spoken by Jesus, originally ended with:

“…deliver us from evil.” — and not with “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.”

The “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen,” which is called the doxology or praise, as seen in the King James Bible, is not found in the earliest Greek manuscripts of Matthew and Luke.

So where did “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever” come from?

The line “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory…” was added later by some early Christians, who were Jewish, because in Jewish prayers they had the habit of ending with a short doxology or praise to God. For example: “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe.” Or “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours” (1 Chronicles 29:11). The early Christians derived their end praises or doxology from Scripture. The phrase “For thine is the kingdom” in the Lord’s Prayer was likely inspired by 1 Chronicles 29:11. But it was never spoken by Jesus when He gave the Our Lord's Prayer.

The doxology or praise can mostly be found in the KJV (King James Version) Bible, which many Protestants use, but it cannot be found in Catholic Bibles (or most modern ones). This is because the KJV was translated in 1611 using the Greek manuscripts available at that time, and many of those manuscripts were later copies of the Bible (not the oldest ones). Those later copies already had the doxology added in them.

The modern Bible translations (like RSV, NIV, NAB, ESV, etc.) use older and more reliable manuscripts discovered later (like Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, from the 300s AD). In those older manuscripts, the doxology is not present.

The Catholic Church relies on the oldest, most accurate manuscripts. Since the doxology wasn’t originally in Matthew or Luke, Catholics pray the Our Father exactly as Jesus taught it.

But — the Church did not throw away the doxology. Instead, Catholics use it in the Mass after the Our Father. At Mass, the priest continues with a short prayer called the embolism:

“Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days…”

After that, the congregation responds with the doxology:

“For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever.”


So, Catholics do say the “full Our Lord's Prayer” at Holy Mass, but the doxology or praise is separated from the main prayer said by Jesus and placed after the priest’s prayer.


Think of it like this:


Jesus gave the prayer →


Early Christians added a praise line at the end →


Protestants kept it inside the prayer →


Catholics kept it outside the prayer (but still say it in Mass).


In short, Catholics follow the words of Jesus exactly as Scripture records them, while also keeping the ancient Christian tradition of ending with praise — just in a different place during the Mass.


✍🏾 John Martin


Please follow for more

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Assumption of Mary

     The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a commemoration celebrated by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and a few other Christian religions around the world. ----- <  ✠ > -----      This celebration of Mary's Assumption began with 5th century Christians (AD 400's), although evidence points to an earlier observance. But it was, at that time, a remembrance of Mary's life and death, without the Assumption connection. Rather, it bore a sense of Our Lady’s, “Birth Into Heaven,” or, as it was known in the Byzantine tradition, her “Dormition” (falling asleep).       The actual Feast of the Assumption, as we think of it, was first seen within the Church at Rome during the middle of the 7th century.  So while it has obviously been observed by the faithful for a long time, it took roughly 13 centuries for it to be declared doctrine:        On 1, November, 1950, Po...
Read more

Saint John

Feast of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist (d. AD 101) Christmas, December 27 Third Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) Prayer O God, who through the blessed Apostle John, has unlocked for us the secrets of your Word, grant, we pray, that we may grasp with proper understanding what he has so marvelously brought to our ears.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. -----  ------ Introduction Born in Bethsaida, John was called while mending his nets to follow Jesus.  He became the beloved disciple of Jesus. He wrote the fourth Gospel, three Epistles and the Apocalypse.  His passages on the pre-existence of the Word, who by His Incarnation became the light of the world and the life of our souls, are among the finest of the New Testament. He is the evangelist of the divinity of Christ and His fraternal love.  With James, his brother, and Simon...
Read more