Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli

Most recently, the Catholic bishops in France have offered a new translation of the Our Father. The way in which they now translate the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer (“lead us not into temptation”) caught the attention of Pope Francis and led him to make an impromptu comment on it. The Holy Father said that praying that God “lead us not into temptation” gives the idea that God would lead us to evil; and, certainly, this is not true of our all-loving God. He said, “It is not God who throws me into temptation and then sees how I fell … A father does not do that; a father helps you to get up immediately.”

The media’s reporting of the Holy Father’s comment seemed to indicate that he was about to change the Our Father. A look at the prayer itself may help dispel the unease that some have felt as a result of these reports. And, a look at the deep theology of the sixth petition can widen our understanding of a prayer that we say so often and sometimes so routinely.

First, the change the French bishops have made. Up until this moment, the French have been praying the sixth petition of the Our Father as we still do. But, now, instead of saying “ne nous soumets pas à la tentation” (“do not subject us to temptation”), they say “ne nous laisse pas entrer en tentation” (“do not let us enter into temptation”). The French translation now approximates the Spanish translation “no nos dejes caer en tentación” (“do not let us fall into temptation”).

Both the French and the Spanish translations try to avoid the idea that God would lead anyone into temptation and make them sin. The Scriptures themselves warn us that “no one experiencing temptation should say, ‘I am being tempted by God;’ for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one” (Jas 1:13). As Pope Francis has said, we should not pray thinking that God is the one who is bringing us to sin. But, there is much more to this sixth petition than this sound theological insight.

First of all, we need to understand the origin of our English translation “lead us not into temptation.” Is it a mistranslation? Must it be changed as the French and the Spanish have done in their translations? Or, is it a good translation whose words need not be changed for their meaning to be understood?

In 1383 A.D., John Wycliffe, the English philosopher, theologian and biblical translator at Oxford, translated the Scriptures into English. He used as the basis for the vernacular the Latin Bible (the Vulgate). It is his translation of the Our Father that we recite today.

When translating the sixth petition of the prayer, Wycliffe rendered the Latin phrase “et ne nos inducat in tentationem” literally as “and lead us not into temptation.” In fact, the Latin is a literal translation of the inspired Greek text. This means quite simply that the Greek, the Latin and our English translations of the sixth petition all read exactly alike: “lead us not into temptation” (Mt 6:13). This is the clearest, most direct and most accurate translation. Wycliffe made no attempt to alter the exact words to indicate any specific interpretation. He translated. He did not interpret!

But, how then are we to understand this linguistically straightforward rendering of the inspired text? The first clue to unlocking the meaning of this petition is found in the word that Matthew uses for “temptation” (πειρασμός). For us, the word “temptation” carries with it a bad sense. It almost always means an enticement or seduction to do evil and to sin. But, this is not the biblical use of this word.

In the Sacred Scripture, the root word “to tempt” (πειράζω) has a much broader meaning than to lead to sin. It means “to test” or “to try” a person. Thus, God tempted Abraham, testing his obedience. (Gen 22) In both Genesis 22:1 and Mt 6:13, it is the same Greek root word “to tempt.” God’s testing was not to make Abraham fall. It was to prove his obedience and strengthen his resolve. Certainly, this is the very reason why God allows Satan to tempt or test Job with one hardship after another.

Even Jesus himself in his humanity was put to the test or tempted. “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted (πειράζω) by the devil” (Mt 4:1). If we limit the word “to tempt” only to mean to seduce to sin, we are left with explaining how the Holy Spirit would lead Jesus, the Son of God Incarnate, into the temptations of the desert to sin. “As gold is tested in fire, so the chosen in the crucible of humiliation” (Sir 2:5).

In his gospel, Matthew uses the word temptation (πειρασμόν) only one other time than in the Our Father. In the garden of Gethsemane, through intense personal prayer, Jesus is preparing to go to the cross in obedience to the Father’s will. He recognizes this moment as the final battle against the Evil One. It is the moment of eschatological testing. And, so he warns his disciples, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Mt 26:41). Jesus knows their weakness and he is telling them to pray to God to spare them in this moment of the eschatological struggle.

In his recording of the Our Father, Luke uses the same Greek word for temptation (πειρασμόν) as Matthew does. However, in his gospel, he uses it not simply to refer to the battle of the last days, but to include all those testings or individual temptations that occur in life (Lk 4:13; 10:25). There are particular circumstances, other than the end time, when we must choose to avoid evil and do good. God allowed the ancient Israelites to pass through hard times in the wilderness. He tested their faith “in order to know what was in your heart” (Dt 8:2). Sometimes God does the same for us, always assisting us with his grace to prove ourselves worthy.

Pope Francis emphasizes an important truth. God does not try to entrap us. He is not arranging the circumstances of our lives so that we are induced to sin. But, there is more. God’s providence guides and directs all the events of history and the happenings of our individual lives. And so, we can confidently ask him not to let us face temptations where we will sin. And, we can also ask him to deliver us from the wiles of the devil in the battle of the last days. Both ideas are not lost in the Greek, the Latin and the English translations. Thus, praying as we do in English, “leading us not into temptation” is the most accurate way of voicing the full meaning of the sixth petition of the Our Father!