A fragment of the primitive Syriac text of Matthew 6vv5-13 in English translation

‘One of his disciples said to him, "Teach me to pray." ‘

‘And he said to him, "When you pray, do not be as those hypocrites who love that they will stand in the assemblies and pray in the markets to the eyes of the children of men, that they will be seen that they are righteous ones. I say to you that they have received their wages. You then, when that you pray, you enter indoors and pray alone to your Father in secret and the Father who sees secretly, he will repay you. And when you pray, do not speak idly as the hypocrites do, who think that by many speeches they will be heard. You shall not imitate them. Your Father knows before you ask him, what you will be requesting."

And he said again, "When praying, you pray like this:

Father, your name will be hallowed.

The kingdom will come and your will, it will be in the earth as that it is in heaven.

Give me my need.

Forgive me as I have forgiven and do not bring me into temptation, but deliver me from the impure ones." '

Notes on the translation

The word I have translated 'Impure ones' might also be translated 'Wicked ones' or 'Unjust ones'.

Commentary

Textually, the Lord's Prayer has a particularly interesting history because it was found in the gospel text and also in the liturgy used in church services from ancient times. It's use in public prayers has shaped it during transmission down the centuries. Originally, this prayer was offered by Yeshu`a (Jesus) as an example for our private prayers. However, with the expansion of Christianity and the development of a public liturgy, there arose a need to adapt the Lord's prayer for use in church. Hence, the Greek text of Matthew 6vv5-13 has the Lord teaching us to pray alone (vv5-8) followed by a Lord’s Prayer spoken in the first person plural, (vv9-13); ‘our Father’, ‘our daily bread’, forgive us’. Thus, the Greek form of the Lord's prayer in Matthew contradicts the context and the original point Yeshu`a was making. For it does seem that the point of his teaching on prayer was to instruct his disciples to pray alone and thus prevent them copying the Pharisees who were praying publicly in the streets.

Theologically, the original Syriac prayer has a marked apocalyptic character; The first three phrases are not petitions at all. Instead, they look forward to the coming of the kingdom of God. These phrases look forward to a time when the Father’s name will be hallowed and his will will be done here on earth, as it is already done in heaven. These apocalyptic statements in the prayer echo the character of other nearly contemporary apocalyptic and Messianic texts found at Qumran, by the Dead Sea. For example an Aramaic Apocalypse numbered 4Q246, [1]. Both our text and the Qumran Apocalypse 4Q246 envision the kingdom of God coming to earth to stay, rather than God's people living their afterlives somewhere in the sky. Thus, in this sense, our text is completely at home amongst the apocalyptic visions cherished by the Jewish people living in first century Palestine.

The finale of the prayer has a very interesting petition asking for deliverance from bad company. It implies a request for wisdom and the spiritual determination needed to overcome the influence of the crowd. This contrasts with the rather nebulous and less understandable request to deliver from evil found in the Greek, Latin and Syriac vulgate texts. As has already been stated, the crowd prayed in public for everyone to see their piety. Throughout our passage, it is this crowd in particular that Yeshu`a was speaking against.

[1] Published multiple times, but see Eisenman R. and Wise M. 'The Dead Sea Scrolls uncovered' Penguin 1993 page 68ff.