Tuesday, July 19, 2022

The "Our Father" and What It Can Tell Us about the Gospels - Part III

אָבִינוּ יִתְקַדַשׁ שְׁמֶךָ

וְיִתְבָרֵךְ מַלְכוּתְךָ רְצוֹנְךָ יִהְיֶה עָשׂוּי

בַשָׁמַיִם וּבָאָרֶץ

וְתִתֵּן לַחְמֵנוּ תְּמִידִית

וּמְחוֹל לָנוּ חַטָֹּאתֵינוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר אֲנַחְנוּ

מוֹחֲלִים לַחוֹטִאים לָנוּ

וְאַל תְּבִיאֵנוּ לִידֵי נִסָיוֹן וְשָׁמְרֵינוּ

מִכָל רָע אָמֵן

The above is a pointed text of the Avinu (Our Father) in the Shem-Tob Hebrew Matthew, one of the treasures preserved for us by the Jewish rabbis (though they did it for polemical purposes).

Now we continue with the list of salient points begun in Part II of this article:

5) The Greek word "peirasmós" means "temptation." The Hebrew word "nisayon," while it CAN mean "temptation," literally means a test or trial. The Hebrew is saying, "do not bring us to a test," or "do not bring us to trial."

6) While the later (Matthew III in my terminology) Hebrew version said "deliver us from evil," the earlier Hebrew version (Matthew IIb, corresponding to the Shem-Tob text) had "keep us from all evil." I prefer the latter, because it is proactive rather than reactive, and it says all evil.

Returning to the Hebrew text at the top of the page (the Shem-Tob version of the Avinu), its pronunciation is approximately:

awveenoo yeetkadesh sh'mehchaw

v'yeetbawrech malchoot'chaw ratson'chaw yeehyeh awsooy

bashawmayeem oovawawrets

v'teeten lachmaynoo t'meedeet

oom'chol lawnoo chatawtaynoo

kaasher anachnoo mochaleem

lachoteem lawnoo

v'al t'veeyaynoo leey'dey neesawyon v'shawmraynoo

meekol rah awmayn

One thing that will be noticed right away is that this version does not say "sh'bashawmayeem (in the heavens)." Neither did Luke's terser version at Lk. 11:2-4.

(to be continued, perhaps)

The image above is from a page of my notebooks, the page on which I added vowel pointing to the unpointed Shem-Tob text of the Avinu.

Donald Traxler's Poetry