The traditional form of the final petition in the Lord’s Prayer begins with the words “Lead us not into temptation”. However, this phrase has created problems for two-thousand years. Does this mean that God is the one who leads us into temptation? It flies in the face of the main premise about God: namely, that God is good. If God is good. If God is good, then God should not be tempting us to do evil. Surely there is something wrong with the wording of this phrase.
As James wrote: “No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it” (James 1.13, 14). As Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase: “Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us” (The Message). To put it in a 21st century context, we might be having to make a big decision, perhaps for a job change. We can rightly ask ourselves if we are just listening to our own selfish desires for a higher paying job; or, if we are being tempted by the evil one (the devil) to make a change which would ultimately be the worse for us and our families; or if we are being led by God to a position where we will be greatly blessed by God. Are we being tempted, called, selfish, ambitious, or wise?
The truth is that the traditional translation of “lead us not into temptation is a poor translation of what Jesus said when he taught his disciples how to pray. With exception of the New International Version of the Bible (which, with tongue in cheek, I sometimes call ‘the Nearly Inspired Version’!), almost all other modern translations of the Lord’s Prayer translate the Greek word peirasmos not as temptation, but rather as ‘trial’ or testing’. For instance, the New Revised Standard Bible renders this petition as “Do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one”. Similarly the Good News Bible has “Do not bring us to hard testing”; and the Roman Catholic Revised New Jerusalem Bible as also The Revised English Bible have “Do not put us to the test”. Modern New Testament scholarship is agreed that Jesus was not speaking about ‘temptation’ but rather a time of testing. Peirasmos, commented John Nolland, “emphasises the pressure and difficulty of trial – the prayer is to be spared times of great pressure, times which would prove very trying”. James Edwards also agreed that peirasmos refers to a ‘test’ and not to ‘temptation’, and went on to say in his commentary: the final petition of the Lord’s Prayer “is a confession of weakness and prayer for faithfulness… They pray to be rescued from situations that, apart from God’s intervention on their behalf, they would be unable to withstand”. Similarly R.T. France commented: “peirasmos is not itself a bad thing. It was after all the Holy Spirit who took Jesus into the wilderness “to be tested” (Matthew 4.1)…. The idea of God ‘testing’ his people is a biblical one (for instance Genesis 22 and Deuteronomy 8.2).” Donald Hagner, another New Testament scholar, also believes that this phrase refers to ‘testing’ .
The next part of the final petition is “rescue us from the evil one” (NRV); “keep us safe from the Evil” (Good News Bible); save us from the Evil One (Revised New Jerusalem Bible & Revised English Bible). Some people are uncomfortable with the personification of evil. Some don’t believe in Satan at all; they prefer to say that Satan is just a metaphor for the nature of evil with us all. Others look for a literal demon or devil behind every bush. Martin Luther once threw an inkwell across the room attempting to hit the Devil. However, regardless of our theology of Satan, we all experience evil. Evil comes to us in a very personal way. Luke ends his description of the temptations (or better, testings) of Jesus with these words: “When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4.13).
The traditional version of the Lord’s Prayer ends with “For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. Amen”. However, the fact is that the most ancient manuscripts leave that line out, but most people prefer to stay with the tradition version because it adds a magnificent doxology. For the Kingdom does belong to God. God is ultimately sovereign over all things. The power belongs to God, including the power to bring this world to a final consummation and the power to give us the strength for our daily walk with God.
Hello Paul,
I came across the following by CS Lewis from his book Letters to Malcolm (Chiefly on Prayer) which I find interesting:
I was never worried myself by the words lead us not into temptation, but a great many of my correspondents are. The words suggest to them what someone has called “a fiend-like conception of God,” as one who first forbids us certain fruits and then lures us to taste them. But the Greek word ([Greek: peirasmos]) means “trial”— “trying circumstances”—of every sort; a far larger word than English “temptation.” So that the petition essentially is, “Make straight our paths. Spare us, where possible, from all crises, whether of temptation or affliction.” By the way, you yourself, though you’ve doubtless forgotten it, gave me an excellent gloss on it: years ago in the pub at Coton. You said it added a sort of reservation to all our preceding prayers. As if we said, “In my ignorance I have asked for A, B and C. But don’t give me them if you foresee that they would in reality be to me either snares or sorrows.” And you quoted Juvenal, numinibus vota exaudita malignis, “enormous prayers which heaven in vengeance grants.” For we make plenty of such prayers. If God had granted all the silly prayers I’ve made in my life, where should I be now?