RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
London Polyglot Lord's Prayer
LORD: A term of address occurring in both the Old and the New Testament. In both A. V. and R. V. it occurs in three forms: " Lord," " Lord," and " lord," and represents both different words and different usages of the same word. (1) In the Old Testament " Lord " represents the divine name Yahweh or Yah (cf. I Kings viii. 39), translated in the Septuagint by kurios. It should be noted that in Gen. xv. 2, 8; Isa. xxv. 8, and other passages the collocation 'Adonai Yahweh occurs in the Hebrew, and in Ex. xxiii. 17, xxxiv. 23, 'Adon Yahweh, and in these cases Yahweh is rendered " God " to avoid the collocation " Lord Lord." (2) In the Old Testament " Lord " is employed to render 'Adonay (a plural of excellence) when referring to deity, especially in theophanies (cf. Gen. xviii. 3, xx. 4); also to render 'Adon in such passages as Ex. xxiii. 17 (Hebr. 'Adon Yahweh), and the Aramaic Mare, Dan. ii. 47, v. 23. In the New Testament the A. V. usually renders kurios by " Lord " when referring to God or Christ; also despotes in Luke ii. 29; Acts iv. 24; II Pet. ii. 1; Rev. vi. 10 (the R. V renders " Master " in the last two cases and in Jude 4 and puts the same word in the margin in the first two cases; in Jude 4 the A. V- translates " Lord God "). (3) In the Old Testament " lord " translates ten words which express various kinds of superiority of station or authority, including even the theophanic angel of Josh. v. 14. In the New Testament it translates kurios, megistan, and rabboni. Also see Jehovah; and Yahweh.
LORD OF HOSTS. See Sabaoth.
LORD'S DAY: A designation of the first day of the week first found in Rev. i. 10, te kuriakS hernera, Lat. Dominica dies. In the Didache, xiv. 1, kuriake first appears as a noun with this meaning.
LORD'S PRAYER.
I. The Time and Place of 4. The Fourth Peti-
Institution. II. The Contents.
1. The Invocation.
2. The First Petition.
3. The Second and Third
Petitions.
tion.
5. The Fifth Petition.
6. The Sixth Petition.
7. The Seventh Peti-
tion.
8. The Doxology.
I. The Time and Place of Institution: The text of the prayer is found in Matt. vi. 9-13 and in somewhat different form in Luke xi. 2-4. In Mark xi. 25 there is a reminiscence of Matt. vi. 9, 14, and 15. Compare these passages with Christ's teaching to the woman of Samaria; God is the Father and must be worshiped in spirit and in truth (John iv. 21). Matthew introduces the Lord's Prayer as supplementary to the Sermon on the Mount; Luke under altogether different circumstances, although he leaves time and place unspecified. It is immediately after the visit to Martha and Mary at Bethany (Luke x. 38-42) that the institution of the prayer is related and the Mount of Olives is traditionally pointed out as the place where this incident took place, although there is nothing in the text to warrant this idea. It was, however, the sight of Jesus himself in prayer that suggested to his disciples the request they made, " Lord, teach us to pray." His power and willingness to do this
seemed all the more probable because his forerunner the Baptist had taught his disciples how to pray. In a Syrian fragment in the Bodleian Library an early fabrication of the Baptist's prayer is still extant and runs, " God make us worthy of thy kingdom and the joy that is therein, and show us the baptism of thy Son." On comparing Matthew's account with that of Luke the impression is produced that the prayer was on some occasion given not only to the personal companions of Christ but to the general multitude, after the delivery of the Sermon on the Mount and the calling of the twelve apostles (Luke vi. 20-49), and that the institution took place on two separate occasions. But a closer examination warrants the belief that there is no real connection as far as time and place are concerned between the giving of the prayer and the delivery of the Sermon on the Mount. Closely related with the text of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew is the prayer found in the Didache (viii. 2), "Do not pray as the hypocrites do, but as the Lord commanded in his Gospel, so pray ye," and then follows St. Matthew's version, with the variant " for thine is the power and the glory for ever."
II. The Contents: Examination of this prayer leads to the conclusion that it is not a new prayer in the sense that it introduces anything out of harmony with the historic traditions of Jewish piety and devotion. Thus the Kaddish or Synagogue liturgy begins with the words, " Glorified and hallowed be his great name in the world which he has created, according to his will, and may his kingdom prevail, and his redemption spring up, and may he send his Messiah and redeem his people." In the same tenor runs the great Jewish prayer, the Shemoneh 'Esreh, or prayer of eighteen petitions, which the Jews offered thrice every day. Yet from the sense in which Christ's words in the Lord's Prayer must be interpreted this composition may be fairly looked upon as a new prayer. It illustrates in the fullest degree the meaning of the proverb " if two say the same thing it is not the same," for while the Lord's Prayer can be used to-day by every Jew who may know nothing and wish to know nothing of Christ, yet it can only be properly offered by those who pray in the name of Jesus, and who know what is meant by praying in the name of the Crucified.
1. The Invocation: In the words, "Our Father which art in heaven," is summarized the whole Gospel, although in certain senses they might be used by Jews or heathen. In the Homeric poems the Greek prayed to Father Zeus, father of men and gods, and the Jews, although with much profounder consciousness of religion, called upon Yahweh, acknowledged him as their father and claimed the relationship of children (Deut. xxxii. 6; Isa. lxiii. 16, lxiv. 8). Yet the word " our " was not meant to include the disciples in the same relation of sonship as that in which Jesus stood to the Father. Jesus made a distinction to this effect when he said "my father" and "your father" (Matt. vii. 21; cf. v. 16, vi. 8). Nevertheless their belief in their master as a God-sent Messiah, as the bringer of redemption and reconciliation with God, placed them in a position toward God as their Father which
Lord's Prayer