The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. And Jesus taught them a prayer which we all know today as the ‘Lord’s prayer’ – the Our Father (Lk 11: 1-4). The prayer has been handed over to numerous generations, translated into hundreds of languages and said at various prayers and services. But a small phrase within the prayer – do not lead us into temptation – always raised eyebrows, because that seemed to go against the very idea of who God is. How can a God who is ‘All Good’ and ‘All Holy’ lead us, frail human beings, into temptations? Keeping in mind these thoughts a need was felt to study the phrase in question and come out with a better translation of the phrase from the original text.
The line is found in both the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew. Thomas Stegman, S.J., a Biblical scholar at Boston College, says the original Greek is the same in both cases. After more than 16 years of study, some biblical researchers say a better translation of the scripture would be: “Abandon us not when in temptation.”
The change in the Italian translation, which was officially approved by the Holy See recently, was many years in the making. The revised version of the Our Father had been published in a version of the Bible approved by the Italian bishops’ conference in 2002, and published in 2008. For the Lord’s Prayer both in Matthew 6 and Luke 11, they chose “do not abandon us in temptation,” although they did not incorporate this translation in liturgical use.
The French bishops’ conference made a similar change to its translation of the Our Father. In 2017 it adopted a translation reading “ne nous laisse pas entrer en tentation” (do not let us fall into temptation), whereas the former translation had read “ne nous soumets pas à la tentation” (lead us not into temptation). The common Spanish translation already is “no nos dejes caer en la tentacion” or “do not let us fall into temptation.”
The Greek verb for lead is “eisphero” and the original Greek word for testing or temptation is “peirasmos.” But peirasmos can be understood in two ways according to Father Stegman: “It can refer to testing (in the sense of determining one’s character) or to tempting (in the sense of enticing one to sin).” God does tempt us or entice us to sin. According to Pope Francis, “A father doesn’t do that, a father helps you to get up immediately. It’s Satan who leads us into temptation, that’s his department.” Therefore, if we understand peirasmos as enticement to sin, then the translation that Pope recommends is not only theologically sound but also exegetically defensible, says Father Stegman.
James 1: 13 speaks in this regard: 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. This text from James brings out the fact that God is not the one who tempt us, rather our own desire.
But another text from St. Paul implies that God tempts which needs to be understood properly. In 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul says: No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing He will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. It may seem to imply that God tempts us, but Paul actually wants to speak about the conviction that everything is under God’s control. The logic of the Pauline text is that God helps in time of temptation, but certainly does not lead to sin.
Further Pope Francis says, “I’m the one who falls. But it’s not (God) who pushes me into temptation to see how I fall. No, a father does not do this. A father helps us up immediately.” That is why we immediately ask God to deliver us from evil.
News reports in English may have given the impression that Pope Francis had changed the Our Father for the whole of the Church, rather than his See having confirmed a change made by the bishops of Italy. The Apostolic See’s confirmation of the text was communicated during the conference’s meeting last month. Though the new Italian translation of the Our Father was not Pope Francis’ “change,” he has several times been publicly critical of the way the petition “ne nos indúcas in tentatiónem” is translated in some languages.
Therefore, the change in Our Father, at least for now, will be used only in approved languages. The change has not yet been officially approved by the Holy See in English and therefore we will still continue to use ‘do not lead us into temptation,’ till changes are done to the English version of the text. But let us keep in mind the theology behind the text and behind the change that has been approved. God will not lead us into temptation, but protect us from all evil.
Fr. Movin Menezes
Asst. Parish Priest