The nuances of temptation distract and derail
Do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one
Further study will help us go deeper into the Our Father prayer, a pure, rich, and divine treasure for Christians. Catholic theologians organize the Our Father into seven petitions, following the opening phrase — Our Father — which recognizes us in the presence of God as the Father of all. That’s the proper position to take in all prayer. “Our Father.” He is our protector and our intimate guide.
Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
Isaiah 55:10-11
Matthew 6:7-15
A huge part of the Our Father prayer is the protection of our souls from evil. Our bodies will be crushed and ultimately destroyed. But our souls, our spiritual natures, will remain forever.1 Jesus structures this prayer of petitions for our salvation. But this prayer is not for us alone, as if we were singular planets in the universe. No. We are members, relational beings, tied to a world of both animate and inanimate beings. And God wants to protect us.
We find our membership in the Body of Christ, gathered by the Holy Spirit into the Holy Catholic Church, and bound up — if we are willing — into the Communion of Saints at the behest of the Father. We call upon the Father in this Our Father prayer, but it is given to us by the Son, and prayed at the prodding of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The entire purpose and urgency for creation is embodied in this one, short prayer.
There are two general controversies in the wording of the prayer, both at its finishing phrases. First, there is a historical translation debate (well, not really a debate) over “temptation” and “final test.” Second, is a doxology added on — “For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen.”
The “sort of” debate addresses the traditional, “and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” with which we are all familiar. However, this prayer in Matthew ends in many translations with, “and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.” Hear that one more time: “and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.” That is an entirely authentic ending to the Our Father, by the way. It’s not a mistake in scripture translation nor a confusion about what Jesus taught.
In essence, there are two endings.
This is an apologist’s delight. God allows such things to happen, cementing the details to reveal slight differences in his intent. He does this to further study, but also to draw us into the contrasts of what seems like a multi-headed truth, but is really two (or many more) perspectives on the same theme. Roll these over in your head. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” plus “and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.”
The two phrases sound at first blush like the same thing, but “final test” is a rather disconcerting phraseology from “into temptation.” Also, “evil one,” or Satan, is quite specific from the fiery, general category of “evil.”
“Final test” in Jesus’ day could refer to the end times, and may just as well refer to saving us from our slow descent into partnership with evil.
I like the scholars’ and apologists' teaching on Matthew’s Chapter [6:13] “final test” wording, especially the folks who worked on the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). These heady folks refer us to John Chapter 17:15, and 2 Thessalonians 3:3. The gist of these two scriptural references balances two dictums about God. “The Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.” His faithfulness is where we must place our trust. God’s faithfulness follows us through the broken world, strengthening and guarding us. Which means, we remain in a broken world.
In John 17:15-17, the apostle John captures a dialogue, a prayer from Jesus to the Father. “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.”
The more traditional words of the ending Our Father petition — “and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” — might miss the more pointed trajectory of Jesus’ emphasis on living with temptation by relying upon God’s protection of our souls. That is, we may interpret God as leading us into temptation, and we plead with him to change his mind. Rather, God allows us to be tempted, certainly, but his warnings, if we are in synch with the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ teachings, and the Father’s love, will win out.
One theologian describes the understanding of temptation that the Our Father intends. Peter, following Jesus as he was carried off by the Roman soldiers, is an example of our intimate relationship with God as we encounter evil. Rather than stand outside with the rest of the disciples, away from prying eyes, Peter entered the gate, sat with the guards, and put himself in danger. He went to “see.” Jesus had already warned the disciples, specifically after Judas had betrayed him. “Do you think that I cannot call upon my Father and he will not provide me at this moment with more than twelve legions of angels?”
Peter was confronted by the guards’ friends and succumbed to fear, denying Jesus three times. He had no business being there, but did not listen. Still, Peter was restored.
You might be familiar with the phrase, “fools rush in.” That was Peter. (That is us.) The full proverb, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” is from Alexander Pope’s 1711 work An Essay on Criticism. We do not need to go where God warns us not to go. Of course, when we are “taken” where we do not want to go, he will give us the courage and words. Peter was warned that he would betray Jesus, that he would fall prey to a temptation, a hubris of his rank and power, and that he would misunderstand what Jesus was doing.
“As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.” There is an important distinction between our curiosity and impulses, and being sent into the world by Jesus. Peter acted on his impulses. Temptation is often seen too simply, as a clear choice between good and bad. Au contraire.
Further study will help us go deeper into the Our Father prayer, a pure, rich, and divine treasure for Christians. Catholic theologians organize the Our Father into seven petitions, following the opening phrase — Our Father — which recognizes us in the presence of God as the Father of all. That’s the proper position to take in all prayer. “Our Father.”
The Catholic Catechism aligns the prayer and the seven petitions into two major sections. “The first series of petitions carries us toward him, for his own sake: thy name, thy kingdom, thy will!” See the repeated pronouns — thy, thy, and thy. The second set of 4 petitions focuses on us, us, us, and us. “In none of the three petitions do we mention ourselves …” (Part 4, Article 3). In the last four, we are the focus.
The first three:
Hallowed be Thy name — We give God praise to strengthen our faith.
Thy kingdom come — We have hope, shown in our desire for God’s reign in the world.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven — We accept God’s divine will over our will.
The second series of petitions (4-7) offers up our expectations with four intercessory verbs: “give us … forgive us … lead us not … deliver us …”
Give us this day our daily bread
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us
Lead us not into temptation
Deliver us from evil.
The catechism tells us, “the fourth and fifth petitions concern our life as such — to be fed and to be healed of sin; the last two concern our battle for the victory of life — that battle of prayer.”
The Catechism then summarizes all the petitions, saying, “By the three first petitions, we are strengthened in faith, filled with hope, and set aflame by charity.” Our pleas admit we are creatures and sinners. In the last four, Jesus instructs to petition for “us.” We are not alone, but as the Catechism submits, “bound by the world and history, which we offer to the boundless love of God.”
To see these petitions, and their deep wells of meaning and supplication, the repetitive nature of prayer makes sense. We instill not just the words into our minds and hearts, but we also ingest them. God works them into our spiritual marrow, tying us to him like cars on a train or creatures no longer needing a leash.
One last issue left to the Our Father is the doxology “For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen.” These words are not in the original text of Matthew. Several non-Catholic translations tack the words at the end, but most identify them as “amplified” and “extended” phraseology. Their reasons are sound.
For centuries, and even millennia, doxologies, or exalting the glory of God, have been used at the conclusion of prayers. It was very common in Jesus’ time. The Didache, likely the first catechism, dating to the 1st Century, hinted at this very doxology. In the 5th and 6th Centuries, St. Jerome and Gregory the Great both included a doxology at the end of the Our Father.
The English version, our current doxology, dates to 1525, when King Henry VIII of England was still a Catholic. It’s falsely framed as a compromise between Catholics and Protestants, though a part of that politically was surely in the minds of both religious expressions. You’ll find the addition of the doxology improperly used for two reasons: as a cudgel and a peace pipe.
Instead, the added doxology reveals the Church's prerogative and should not be a political or misguided liturgical tool. We pray as a Church, rightly incorporating the ancient Jewish faith and adopting the wisdom of the saints into our spiritual language.
In a lovely way, the doxology used by the Protestant and Evangelical communities reflects the broad nature of the larger Church and the savvy willingness of our Catholic scholars and stewards of the faith to recognize the Holy Spirit's influence.
Our resurrected bodies will be restored, of course. Catholic Answers explains: The resurrection of the body is an essential Christian doctrine, as the apostle Paul declares: “But if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty [too] is our preaching; empty, too, your faith.” (1 Cor. 15:13–18).