March 29, 2024

Have you ever wondered what words Jesus actually told us to say in what we call the Lord’s Prayer? I mean, Jesus didn’t speak English and contrary to popular belief, he didn’t speak Greek or Latin. So, in his own language, what did he tell us to say that special, yet brief prayer? While there are many popular theories about the language of our Messiah, no one really knows for sure.

On the other hand, the New Testament does offer us a few clues about the language that was spoken by the characters. For example, some say Yahushua spoke Aramaic; however, Luke 23;38 and John 19:20 describes the words put above the “cross” upon which the Messiah was crucified. It says they were was written in three languages, none of which were Aramaic.

And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 

This tells us that the languages predominately spoken in that region during Jesus’ time was Greek, Latin, and Hebrew!

So we have narrowed it down to three languages. Acts 21 is a good place to narrow down the language of Jesus, by identifying the language of the Jews of that era.  Paul is said to be multiangle, speaking both Greek and Hebrew. To the Gentiles who mistook him for an Egyptian, he spoke Greek (Acts 21:37-38). On the other hand, when Paul attempted to ease an uproar of the Hebrew people, he spoke Hebrew to them (Acts 21:40). This is clear evidence that the Hebrew’s of Paul’s era spoke Hebrew.  (Side note… It’s also evidence that the Hebrews of Jesus’ day resembled African Egyptians.)

Additional evidence can be found in Acts 22:16 where, after his death and resurrection, Yahushua speaks to Paul in the Hebrew language.

So, this prayer that we were instructed to pray would have originally been spoken in Hebrew and from an Hebraic perspective. Now, the interesting thing about Hebrew is that there are many ways to say the same thing… Although this is not unique to the Hebrew language… Rather, it holds true in all languages. For example, I might say, “She drove a white car.” While someone else may say, “The lady was in a light colored vehicle.” Are we saying two different things, or simply expressing the same idea two different ways?

A lot of examples like this can be found throughout the bible. Point is, this is my version of the Biblical Hebrew of the “Our Father” prayer. Certainly, there are many other ways it could have been expressed by the Messiah 2000 years ago.

אבנו בשמים קדש יהי שמך

Our Father in heaven, holy exists your name

היה מלכך בוא וחפצך יהי כל על ארץ כבשמים

Let your kingdom enter and your delight be complete on earth like in heaven

 נתננו היום יומנו לחם וסלחנו חטאנו כנסלח איש סלחיהם עלנו

Give us the day our day bread and forgive us our sins like we forgive man their sins upon us

ולא תנחהנו ברע ותנצלנו מרע

And not you will lead us in evil and you will deliver us from evil

כי לך יהי  כל מלכות כל אלהים וכל כבוד

Because to you exist all kingdoms, all powers, and all glory.

לעלם עד אמן

To ancient until (for all time) , Amen (surely, as to say “I agree with this”)

 

What are your thoughts about this prayer?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

%d bloggers like this: