Why would God lead us into temptation?
The eighth in the series on the Jesus Prayer, otherwise known as the Lord’s Prayer. We’ve been analyzing the prayer by assuming three different interpretations of Jesus: political revolutionary, great moral teacher and the Son of God. Here we study why Jesus advised his followers to pray that God, their Father, not lead them into temptation. We find this a difficult teaching which may depend on proper translation.
Lead us not into temptation?
These are the most enigmatic and confusing words of this most famous prayer. We begin by looking at the Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, from the website Jesus Spoke Aramaic.
We see rather quickly a significant issue in translation. This literal translation of the Aramaic does not say lead us not into temptation. The translator says the words mean trial, or testing. But, in the expanded explanation the translator says that the Aramaic word can be translated either temptation or testing. He also says the Hebrew equivalent is the word for test.
Temptation or testing?
Does it make a big difference if we pray to not be tempted versus not be tested? What is temptation? Yes, it is a test of sorts. We tend to think of temptation in terms of physical pleasures that may be wrong or harmful to us. It is not wrong…
