Ever Ancient, Ever New

An interlinear Bible is nice thing to have. I am frustrated at the lack of good & readily accessible Catholic Bible study materials, so I use The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament with the New Revised Standard Version New Testament (Ed. J.D. Douglas. Trans. Robert K. Brown and Philip W. Comfort. Wheaton: Tyndale, 1990). I find something surprising & thought-provoking nearly every time I open it up. Here is the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew's Gospel:






















Cleaning it up a bit, one might have …

Our one Father in the heavens,
Let your name be revered,
Let your kingdom come,
Let your will be done on earth as in heaven.

Give to us our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors,
And do not bring us into temptation,
But rescue us from the evil one.

Now, I know this will get some folks really riled up – messin’ with the Lord’s Prayer and all. People are very passionate about the issue of language. It is certainly on the Church’s front burner, as the controversy surrounding the new lectionary illustrates.

I’ll write more about this issue of language later. But the question that prompted this post is:

How would you respond if the Church introduced a new English translation of the Lord’s Prayer like the one above? Why?

Final thought: As we prepare during Advent for the coming of the Kingdom, remember that it isn’t something in the distant past we celebrate, or something off in the distant future. It happens today. Right now. Wherever you happen to be. Whatever you happen to be doing…