Other
Our Father – Lord’s prayer
Marijan Vugdelija
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Split
Abstract
This article is a part of a wider research-project, and that
is an exegetic explanation of Our Father. In this first part we
are presenting some preliminary literary remarks that we find
to be important for the exegesis of the Lord’s Prayer. First of
all, we have tried to determine the position of Our Father in the
structure of the Sermon on the Mount. On the basis of a detailed
literary analysis we have come to a conclusion that Our Father
is, literary and substantially, in the centre of the Sermon on the
Mount, that it is the heart of it. In this way, on the account of its
structure and literary characteristics alone, the central meaning
is due to it. Then we have presented the structure of the Lord’s
Prayer. The analysis has shown that formally and substantially
it consists of two parts. At the very beginning there is the title in
which God is addressed with “ Our Father who art in heaven! “ In
the petitions of the first part man’s relation to God is conformed,
while the four petitions of the second part refer to human needs.
In this two-part quality of Our Father one can see an allusion
to the two stone-tablets of Decalogue. After a detailed analysis
of Luke and Mathew’s versions of Our Father, one can come to
a conclusion that Luke’s shorter version is more authentic than
Mathew’s longer version, but also that Mathew respected the text
of common tradition better. By means of these, a reinterpretation
of the pledge of Revelation is done.
In its material Our Father shows manifold touches with
Jewish prayer literature. In that literature there are numerous
parallels of the petitions of Our Father. Therefore, it is possible
that the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are even older than Jesus.
Consequently, one shouldn’t necessarily claim the absolute
authenticity and uniqueness of Jesus’ formulations in that field.
However, although every word of Our Father can be found earlier
in some Jewish prayers, it now acquires new meaning in the
light of Gospel. In that respect, this indicates that Our Father is
a new prayer. Anyway, disregarding how these and other prayer
texts can be related to the oldest form of Our Father, there is
no doubt that they are an evidence of Jesus’ and of his prayer’s
inveteracy in Judaism.
Keywords
Our Father; Lord’s Prayer; Sermon on the Mount; two versions of Our Father; synoptic comparison; authorship of Our Father; Our Father and Decalogue
Hrčak ID:
93036
URI
Publication date:
15.9.2004.
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