Bill Mounce

For an Informed Love of God

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Sunday, March 10, 2013

“And don’t let us yield to temptation” (Mt 6:13)

One of the greatest exegetical conundrums for me is this final phrase in the Lord’s Prayer. My assumption is that when asked how to pray, Jesus would have given an answer that was understandable. But then again, I am not Jesus.

As we all know, Jesus starts by orienting us to God, his immanence and transcendence. “Our Father in heaven.”

We then confess his supremacy in all things: his holiness, kingly rule, divine will. And we conclude by admitting our dependence on him for all things: sustenance, forgiveness, and protection from sin and Satan (assuming τοῦ πονηροῦ is substantival).

But what does it mean to “lead us not into temptation” (καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν)? We all know that God does not tempt us (James 1:13-14), and we know that testing can be good for us (James 1:2) — the two interpretive positions on πειρασμόν. So what does this phrase mean, and why would Jesus conclude his model prayer with something so difficult to understand?

Most of the translation follow the same basic thrust as the NIV. The NRSV has a slight difference: “And do not bring us to the time of trial,” referring presumably to keeping us from the final eschatological evil (so also NEB).

But the one that really caught my eye was the NLT: “And don’t let us yield to temptation.” I was ecstatic to read this; although I don’t study from the NLT, I do read it to see what the translators believe the verses mean. This makes perfect sense! Fantastic. One less exegetical conundrum.

But one problem. εἰσφέρω doesn’t mean “yield.” Now, I want to be very careful here. Translators always have reasons for what they do; there are no random translations that I have ever seen. BDAG gives two basic meanings to εἰσφέρω. “1. to bring into an area, (bring in. 2. to cause someone to enter into a certain event or condition, bring in.” So how can it mean “yield”?

I would guess that the NLT translators view the verse as a plea for God to keep us from trials and testing that would prove too difficult for us to endure, and hence lead to our yielding to sin. This is the very thing God has already promised (1 Cor 10:13). But if this is what Jesus meant, I wish he had said it. Of course, so did the Twelve wish that Jesus would stop talking in parables, metaphors, and riddles, but rather speak plainly. But if there is anything Mark 4 teaches us, it is that Jesus expects us to commit ourselves to him and his way of thinking if we are to understand what he is saying.

The question is whether this is the purpose of a translation or commentary?

I just watched a fascinating video recommended by a scholar I respect. It was fascinating because I never tire of hearing liberal scholars assert with such confidence what they are so confident of, regardless of how little “evidence” there really is. In this video one “scholar” was convinced that John the Baptist was much more important a religious leader tan was Jesus. Jesus was merely one of John’s disciples, Jesus proclaimed John’s message, and the church devalued John in order to elevate Jesus, putting words in John’s mouth like, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

But the most surprising statement was that when Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, there is a good chance (so says the scholar) that Jesus repeated the prayer that John had taught him. So perhaps if I have frustrations with this final phrase in the Lord’s Prayer, I should take it up with John the Baptist when I see him next.

Comments

Robertson has this: "Here we have a “Permissive imperative” as grammarians term it. The idea is then: “Do not allow us to be led into temptation.” " Would you be kind enough to expound on the concept of "permissive imperative", and how it does or doesn't fit here? (And maybe also on why this site has both a CAPTCHA and a separate word verification requirement? Just curious. Maybe it's for extra-problematic spammers!)

I am not familiar with the phrase so I will have to check it out. Did not know about the double issue; will fix it. Thanks. --Bill

I have tended recently to see τοῦ πονηροῦ as substantival but referring not to Satan but to the eschaton, that is to say I would translate the two phrases as "Do not lead us into the (final) time of trial but deliver us from (in?) the evil day." This would reflect the immanence that Jesus seems to have felt about the end, not to mention the early church. One other question I have about translations of the prayer is why do almost all translations lose the parallelism of the early clauses? This is not needed, as it can be preserved. Thus, instead of: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done..." why not use something like "Our Father in heaven, your name be sanctified, your kingdom come, your will be done..."?

I would guess it is more to do with tradition than anything else. The Greek is blissfully clear. --Bill

Great article....sure makes me think, "here is another verse that I just assumed I understood!" :) With that said, I have always seen this part of Jesus' prayer similar to his words to his disciples in Luke 22:40 (μὴ εἰσελθεῖν εἰς πειρασμόν), "Pray that you might not enter into temptation." However, I have to be honest, it still does not totally help me to know what Jesus fully meant. It would seem safe to say that this petition is building up to the next one, (lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, or from the evil one). If we see those two petitions connected to one another, then maybe the request to not lead us into temptation is in fact a prayer to keep us from failing in the midst of severe testing...but like you said, why didn't Jesus say it that way? The hard part as well is to determine from the text, is this normal testing (i.e. everyday life) or is this something beyond that, and in fact eschatological? Do you see any support in the text for either?

Is it possible that perhaps "temptation" could be translated more along the lines of "adversity", in the sense of a "trying situation"? This understanding may fit better with "αλλα ρυσαι ημας απο του πονηρου." Food for thought...