Pope Francis recently suggested that longstanding translations of the Lord’s Prayer might be retranslated to reflect the fact that God would not Himself tempt us—that is the Devil’s work—and that we should ask of God to “let us not fall into temptation” rather than the current phrase in English, which reads “Lead us not into temptation.” The current English translation does indeed seem to imply that it is God who leads us into temptation, and the Pope’s remarks are intended to be a better translation of the original as well as to reflect a sounder theological doctrine. Critics were quick to respond, with some people saying that this is the Lord’s prayer and not the Pope’s prayer, and that it comes directly out of the book of Matthew. However, we do well to remember that Jesus did not recite His prayer in English, and our English version is indeed a translation, that should be open to retranslation in light of current scholarship. Our English version is a translation from the Latin Vulgate, which was a translation from ancient Greek, which was itself a translation of the original Aramaic spoken by Jesus. Something is always lost in translation, and when we’ve re-translated something three or four times it is sure to lose much. It has been suggested by one scholar that a more literal translation of the phrase in question would be “Do not allow us to enter wrongful thinking or testing.” While this doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue smoothly, it might be a better way to think about God’s role in our life.– Christopher Simon “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.”
