The Lord's Prayer
Although the Latin term oratio dominica is of early
date, the phrase "Lord's Prayer" does not seem to have
been generally familiar in England before the
Reformation. During the Middle Ages the "Our Father"
was always said in Latin, even by the uneducated. Hence
it was then most commonly known as the Pater noster.
The name "Lord's prayer" attaches to it not because
Jesus Christ used the prayer Himself (for to ask
forgiveness of sin would have implied the
acknowledgment of guilt) but because He taught it to
His disciples. Many points of interest are suggested by
the history and employment of the Our Father. With
regard to the English text now in use among Catholics,
we may note that this is derived not from the Rheims
Testament but from a version imposed upon England in
the reign of Henry VIII, and employed in the 1549 and
1552 editions of the "Book of Common Prayer". From this
our present Catholic text differs only in two very
slight particulars: "Which art" has been modernized
into "who art", and "in earth" into "on earth". The
version itself, which accords pretty closely with the
translation in Tyndale's New Testament, no doubt owed
its general acceptance -to an ordinance of 1541
according to which " his Grace perceiving now the great
diversity of the translations (of the Pater noster
etc.) hath willed them all to be taken up, and instead
of them hath caused an uniform translation of the said
Pater noster, Ave, Creed, etc. -to be set forth,
willing all his loving subjects to learn and use the
same and straitly commanding all parsons, vicars and
curates to read and teach the same to their
parishioners". As a result the version in question
became universally familiar to the nation, and though
the Rheims Testament, in 1581, and King James's
translators, in 1611, provided somewhat different
renderings of Matt., vi, 9 13, the older form was
retained for their prayers both by Protestants and
Catholics alike.
As for the prayer itself the version in St. Luke, xi,
2-4, given by Christ in answer to the request of His
disciples, differs in some minor details from the form
which St. Matthew (vi, 9-15) introduces in the middle
of the Sermon on the Mount, but there is clearly no
reason why these two occasions should be regarded as
identical. It would be almost inevitable that if Christ
had taught this prayer to His disciples He should have
repeated it more than once. It seems probable, from the
form in which the Our Father appears in the "Didache"
(q. v.), that the version in St. Matthew was that which
the Church adopted from the beginning for liturgical
purposes. Again, no great importance can be attached to
the resemblances which have been traced between the
petitions of the Lord's prayer and those found in
prayers of Jewish origin which were current about the
time of Christ. (See on this Goltz "Das Gebet", 40-41,
and Chase, "Lord's Prayer ", 31. There is certainly no
reason for treating the Christian formula as a
plagiarism, for in the first place the resemblances are
but partial and, secondly we have no satisfactory
evidence that the Jewish prayers were really anterior
in date.
Upon the interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, much has
been written, despite the fact that it is so plainly
simple, natural, and spontaneous, and as such
preeminently adapted for popular use. In the quasi
Official "Catechismus ad parochos", drawn up in 1564 in
accordance with the decrees of the Council of Trent, an
elaborate commentary upon the Lord's Prayer is provided
which forms the basis of the analysis of the Our Father
found in all Catholic catechisms. Man) points worthy of
notice are there emphasized, as, for example, the fact
that the words "On earth as it is in Heaven" should be
understood to qualify not only the petition "Thy will
be done", but also the two preceding, "hallowed be Thy
name" and "Thy Kingdom come". The meaning of this last
petition is also very fully dealt with. The most
conspicuous difficulty in the original text of the Our
Father concerns the inter pretation of the words artos
epiousios which in accordance with the Vulgate in St.
Luke we translate "our daily bread", St. Jerome, by a
strange inconsistency, changed the pre-existing word
quotidianum into supersubstantialem in St. Matthew but
left quotidianum in St. Luke. The opinion of modern
scholars upon the point is sufficiently indicated by
the fact that the Revised Version still prints "daily"
in the text, but suggests in the margin "our bread for
the coming day", while the American Committee wished to
add "our needful bread". Lastly may be noted the
generally received opinion that the rendering of the
last clause should be "deliver us from the evil one", a
change which justifies the use of "but" in stead of
"and" and practically converts the two last clauses
into one and the same petition. The doxology "for Thine
is the Kingdom", etc., which appears in the Greek
textus receptus and has been adopted in the later
editions of the "Book of Common Prayer", is undoubtedly
an interpolation.
In the liturgy of the Church the Our Father holds E
very conspicuous place. Some commentators have
erroneously supposed, from a passage in the writings of
St. Gregory the Great (Ep., ix, 12), that that doctor
believed that the bread and wine of the Eucharist were
consecrated in Apostolic times by the recitation of the
Our Father alone. But while this is probable not the
true meaning of the passage, St. Jerome as serted (Adv.
Pelag., iii, 15) that "our Lord Himself taught His
disciples that daily in the Sacrifice of His Body they
should make bold to say 'Our Father' &c.' St. Gregory
gave the Pater its present place in the Roman Mass
immediately after the Canon and before the fraction,
and it was of old the custom that all the congregation
should make answer in the words "See libera nos a
malo". In the Greek I,iturgies a reader recites the Our
Father aloud while the priest and the people repeat it
silently. Again in the ritual of baptism the recitation
of the Our Father has from the earliest times been a
conspicuous feature, and in the Divine Office it recurs
repeatedly besides being recited both at the beginning
and the end.
In many monastic rules, it was enjoined that the lay
brothers, who knew no Latin, instead of the Divine
office should say the Lord's Prayer a certain number of
times (often amounting to more than a hundred) per
diem. To count these repetitions they made use of
pebbles or beads strung upon a cord, and this apparatus
was commonly known as a "pater-noster", a name which it
retained even when such a string of beads was used to
count, not Our Fathers, but Hail Marys in reciting Our
Lady's Psalter, or in other words in saying the rosary.
HERBERT THURSTON Transcribed by Tomas Hancil
[New Advent Catholic Website]
http://www.knight.org/advent
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright �
1996 by New Advent, Inc., P.O. Box 281096, Denver,
Colorado, USA, 80228. (
[email protected])
If you would like to contribute to this worthwhile
project, please contact Kevin Knight by e-mail at
(knight.org/advent). For more information please
download the file cathen.txt/.zip.
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