Friday, December 15, 2017

On the Pope and temptation in the Lord's Prayer

MEREDITH WARREN: ‘Lead us not into temptation’: why Pope Francis is wrong about the Lord’s Prayer (The Conversation).
Pope Francis recently announced that he thinks the common English translation of the Lord’s Prayer is mistranslated. He is calling for a new version that doesn’t imply that God might lead people into temptation –that, he says, is the Devil’s job. But aside from changing hundreds of years of tradition in the English version of the prayer, is the Pope’s claim that the English misrepresents God an accurate one?

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I'm not going to comment on God or the theology of evil. But the traditional English translation of the Greek phrase is not a mistranslation. It is correct. Grammar is grammar and the text says what it says, even if it is theologically problematical.

I kept meaning to write a blog post on this story, but Dr. Warren has saved me the trouble. Go and read her essay.

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