The Pope and 7 Other Translators

Pope Francis in a tv interview recently suggested a particular translation of what we know as Matthew 6:13a. For what’s in The Lord’s Prayer, for this Greek in the New Testament,

καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν

he likes this Italian:

non lasciarci entrare in tentazione.

Here’s how Ann Nyland puts the Greek into English:

And do not put us through an ordeal.

Here’s how Richmond Lattimore puts it:

And do not bring us into temptation.

Here’s N. T. Wright‘s translation:

Don’t bring us into the great trial.

Here’s how Willis Barnstone seems to follow the KJV:

Do not lead us into temptation.

Here’s how the Translation Panel for the Jesus Seminar makes it for the Scholar’s Version:

And please don’t subject us to test after test.

Here’s what J. B. Phillips does with the Greek in his Modern English:

Keep us clear of temptation.

And here’s Clarence Jordan‘s Cotton Patch Version:

And from confusion keep us clear

I wanted to offer these renderings that are not in the main stream of Christian Bible translation publishing houses because of this blog post:

“Human Agency and the Lord’s Prayer”

The blog post author starts with this:

Caveat: I am neither a theologian nor a specialist in Biblical Greek (my specialty is Homeric Greek). 

And yet the author also gets, by the post title, the issue for the Pope. Is the issue of human agency engaged by the Greek prayer (ostensibly a Hebraic Hellene written transposition/translation of spoken Hebrew Aramaic). With all the news in the USA of public American men being accused by women of sexual improprieties, the question of being led into temptation, or not, is timely for a Pope, a Papa, who is speaking on behalf of God as a Father.