Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer, often called the Our Father after its opening words, is a foundational Christian prayer that Jesus is said to have taught. Its petitions address God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, alongside human needs, though the wording varies between different manuscripts and Christian traditions. Most scholars believe the version found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke genuinely comes from the historical Jesus. The prayer appears in two distinct forms in the New Testament, and how the Matthean and Lukan versions relate to each other is still debated. The first-century text known as the Didache includes a version very similar to Matthew’s and the modern prayer, and it ends with the Minor Doxology. Theologians generally see the prayer as a model for aligning the soul with God’s will, emphasizing praise, trust, and ethical living. Most Christian denominations use it in worship, typically in the Matthean liturgical form, and it has been set to music for services since at least the 9th century. Since the 1500s, it has been widely translated and collected for comparing languages. The prayer shares themes and language with the Hebrew Bible, Jewish post-biblical prayers, and ancient texts like the Dhammapada and the Epic of Gilgamesh, though phrases like “Lead us not into temptation” have unique theological meanings not directly found in the Old Testament. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls it “the summary of the whole gospel.” In Matthew, the first three of seven petitions focus on God, while the last four concern human needs; Matthew alone includes “Your will be done” and “Rescue us from the evil one.” The Greek adjective *epiousion* is controversial but is most often translated as “daily.” Protestants usually add a doxology (“For thine is the kingdom…”), a later addition in some Matthew manuscripts, while the Eastern Orthodox version includes a longer doxology referencing the Trinity. Most scholars accept the prayer’s authenticity, with Dale Allison and John P. Meier confident Jesus composed it. Some think Jesus spoke multiple versions, but Craig Keener calls it a Matthean construct. Its absence from Mark and presence in Matthew and Luke leads many to trace it to the hypothetical Q source, though alternative theories of direct borrowing between the gospels are gaining ground. Davies and Allison consider it possible that multiple versions existed in