6:13

[jeidsath]

A bible study group at church has been going through Knuth's "3:16", alternating between the Old Testament and New Testament, as they look at chapter 3 verse 16 of each book in turn. The inevitable has happened, and they've run out of books of the New Testament before the Old. So they plan to continue with verse 6:13 of NT books. However they have no Knuth commentary to go by, and I was asked to contribute something on the Greek.

First up is Matthew 6:13, which turns out to be a doozy. Here's what I've written up, and hopefully people can point out any errors, or worse, that they find before I send it off.

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Matthew 6:13

Westcott and Hort give the Greek text of Matthew 6:13 as:

καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.
ESV: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Notes on the text:

W&H certainly give the original text, and it is found in the ancient codexes and nearly all the ancient commentators. Chrysostom, however, and the entire Latin church include an added doxology, incorporated from the liturgy of the Syrian Church, probably from 1 Chronicles 29:11. This also made its way into the texts of the Greek church. So the text for Matthew 6:13 that was used and read by nearly all Christians from early times to the 19th century was:

καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοῦς αἰῶνας ἀμήν
KJV: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Lutherbibel 1912: Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung, sondern erlöse uns von dem Übel. Denn dein ist das Reich und die Kraft und die Herrlichkeit in Ewigkeit. Amen.

Language Notes:

πειρασμός (peirasmos) is semitic Greek, occurring often in the LXX and can refer to suffering (the ten plagues), testing (as when the Israelites put God to the test at Massah/Πειρασμός), or a trial to be endured (the "fiery trial" in 1 Peter 4:12)

Though in classical Greek πονηρός (poneros) is evil in the sense of toil or hardship, in the LXX it refers especially to wickedness or moral evil. In Matthew it is also applied (with the article, as here) to the wicked person to whom we are told to offer the other cheek, and to the devil himself.

The verb choice, ῥῦσαι (rhusai) instead of σῶσον (soson), "rescue" instead of "save", suggests rescue on the battlefield rather a delivery from sickness or trial (so says the 1st century BC grammarian Ptolemaeus).

εἰσφέρω (eisphero) (εἰσενέγκῃς) is literally "carry into". Our word "ferry" is related to the Greek φέρω (phero) through the Proto-Indo-European. When used for people, I immediately think of "convey". The translation of "lead" seems quite appropriate, and it's not too far a stretch to think of God as being the leader or captain of our expedition.

Interpretation:

Though translators are forced to choose, the original language here seems inclusive of different possibilities. I would expect that the early Greek-speaking Christians using the Lord's Prayer, depending on personal circumstance, would conceive that they were asking God not to direct them into tests, temptations, suffering, or persecution -- though, by speaking the prayer, they declare that they follow him regardless wherever he leads -- and that they would sometimes have used these words to ask God for rescue from evil, from evil men, and from the Devil himself. Beginning in Syria at an early date, and followed by nearly all Christians of later times and places, they would have added the doxology, as we do also.

[Barry Hofstetter]

So they decided to change from 3:16 to 6:13?

The latest critical edition of the GNT is Nestle-Aland 28. It's available for free online:

https://www.academic-bible.com/en/onlin ... ible-text/

There is also the SBL text:

https://www.biblestudytools.com/sblg/

Both of which would be better choices than the venerable W&H.

Some have read τοῦ πονηροῦ as neuter, "from evil" rather than a masculine substantive.

Other than that I think you have covered the basics.

[C. S. Bartholomew]

Particularly on the meaning of πειρασμός (peirasmos) and the Lord's Prayer in general. Jeffrey B. Gibson has published and presented papers at SBL and written books. You should also look in b-greek archives starting in the late 1990s.

Jeffrey B. Gibson D.Phil Oxford
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_B._Gibson