Last weekend it was
reported that the French Catholic Church had corrected a rendering of the words
‘And lead us not into temptation.’
Apparently, the French translation, made about 50 years ago, reads as ‘And do not submit us to temptation.’ It
has now been changed to say ‘And do
not let us enter into temptation.’
I’ve always puzzled over
that part of the Lord’s Prayer. There is no question that God would lead us
into temptation, James 1:13 is quite
clear that this cannot be the case. Perhaps it is to do with the change in
meaning of the original Greek word; it originally meant something like ‘trial’
or ‘prove’ rather than an urge to have something that is bad or sinful. So, an alternative rendition would be ‘do
not let our virtue be tested’.
Also, the gift of free will
is inconsistent with the idea of a loving God leading us towards the snares of sinful
urges. Perhaps the final part of the sentence provides a clue; the plea ‘...but deliver us from evil’ may be a
request that God help us to avoid circumstances where we are faced with
choices, including occasions for sin, that may cause us to imperil ourselves by
our own weakness, of which God is well aware. So, it could be a plea that God does
not ‘test us beyond our ability to resist.’(I
Corinthians 10:13) On the other hand, the experiences of Job
and Peter tell us that we can be put to the test for God’s own purposes, so the
plea is maybe ‘don’t let us be tried - but if we are, Your will be done!’
I can see why it took 17
years of debate for the French to agree a suitable alternative. I’m glad I
became an accountant and not a theologian.
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