Clergy split on Pope Francis call to amend Lord’s Prayer

A call by Pope Francis to amend the Lord’s Prayer to remove the suggestion that it is God who leads people into temptation has been met by varied reactions the world over.

The pontiff believes the line “lead us not into temptation” was wrongly translated from the original language of the Bible.

Pope Francis told TV2000, an Italian Catholic television channel, that it is not a good translation “because it speaks of a God who induces temptation”.

“‘Do not let me fall into temptation’ because it is I who fall. It is not God who throws me into temptation and then sees how I fell,” he said on Wednesday. “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.” 

The Pope noted that the Catholic Church in France recently adapted the line to say “do not let us fall into temptation”.

ASKING GOD

Most English translations of the prayer contain the notion of asking God not to lead people into sin. Britain’s Guardian on Friday quoted the Pope’s biographer Austen Ivereigh saying he was not aware of any plans to change the translation in the English-speaking world but noted that there was logic in doing so.

“It is not God who tempts us into sin but the enemy of human nature. But tradition and familiarity are also important factors in weighing up any decision to modify a translation,” he said.

Bishop Philip Anyolo, chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, told Nation on Saturday he had not received any official communication from the Pope on the matter.

Rev Anyolo believes the Lord’s Prayer is contained in scripture and thus cannot be changed, but can be adapted to fit various situations.

GOOD DECISION

“This is Biblical text. It can only be adapted into the situation for a reason,” he said.

Canon Peter Karanja, the general-secretary of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, said the decision might be good or bad, depending on whether the changes would deviate from the original text.

He said language had changed over time and they would have to rely on modern translation of the original text, which was in Greek. “Let’s wait for the outcome. Maybe the translation will even add flavour to the text and nothing much will change. We will desire to see the outcome,” said Rev Karanja.

The Lord’s Prayer is vital to Christians as it is the one Jesus advised his followers to recite when talking to God.

PRAY

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words,” said Jesus in Matthew 6:7 as recorded in New International Version.

Memorised by most Christians, it is the prayer President Kenyatta said after his swearing-in for a second term at Kasarani Stadium on November 28. His deputy William Ruto said the same in Kiswahili.

The BBC reports that the current English versions of the Bible were translations from the Latin Vulgate, a 4th century Latin translation of the Bible, which itself was translated from ancient Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic.

Some of those opposed to the Pope’s opinion, the New York Times reported on Friday, are conservative evangelicals in the United States.

The paper quoted Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jrsaying he was shocked by the suggestion. “This is the Lord’s Prayer. It is not, and has never been, the Pope’s prayer, and we have the very words of Jesus in the New Testament. It is those very words that the Pope proposes to change. It is not only deeply problematic, it’s almost breath-taking,” he told the publication.