This, then, is how you should pray; ‘Our Father in heaven’ Matthew 6:9 niv
I love language, I particularly love the written word. I wish I was better at understanding other languages, but I love the creativity of language. There is a beauty to it.
English often gets a bad wrap because it doesn’t have the same nuances that other languages have, English interpretation seems to be quite matter of fact and misses out the depths of the meaning certain words have in other languages.
An example of this is the word God in Genesis 1 verse 1 in the original Hebrew is Elohim, which is a plural word, so the English translation for God technically should read’ In the beginning Invisible God, Son of God and the Holy Spirit created the heavens and the earth’. I’m not saying the biblical scholars did anything wrong they’re much more educated than I will ever be. It is more likely that at the time of the Old English translations that everyone accepted the Triune personhood of God.
The positive aspect of our English language in respect of biblical understanding is that we need to work at it. No matter what language we use, when it comes to biblical understanding, we need to be willing to engage our brains and not expect to know but be willing to learn.
Whatever language the bible is translated into God’s word is still his word, it is still the only word we need to know to come to Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
I think the English language reflects the matter of fact outlook our English society conducts itself; we can be quite black and white in our thinking; we seem to demand a ‘our way is the right way’ mentality and I think that’s why we love a queue. Just go to Disneyland Paris and notice how your English expectation overcomes you to shout at everyone to get in the queue. I often find myself having a hot flash of anger as I fume inside that the queue is no longer a single line!
So, as we consider the Lord’s prayer, I thought I would use the old English wording, as there seems to be a beauty in how it flows, there seems to be an ‘art’ to it (excuse the pun), it seems to stir up our imagination to dare hope to dare dream that this is true.
So why did Jesus tell his disciples when they pray, they should start with this opening line?
I would ask you to consider that Jesus wasn’t modelling the perfect wording of how every prayer they pray must include these words. I would like to suggest to you that Jesus was using the words of the Lord’s prayer to teach them about their attitude as they pray, to teach them about the truths that were to be the foundation of their faith.
Our Father, who art in heaven translated Our Father, in heaven. Pater noster, qui es in caelis (Latin), Notre Père, qui es aux cieux (French), Πάτερ ἡμῶν (Greek). Praise God for the translators.
What can we learn from this opening line? That this prayer as I said last week is the prayer of a believer, a prayer someone who knows God as Father. Can anyone really know God as Father, the Creator, the one above, the one away from us, the one in a different place than us, the one who is totally different to us. Can we have any means to personally and relationally know him as Father?
I don’t know what your view of God is. Maybe he feels like some Santa Claus figure in the sky who keeps checking if you’re naughty or nice and once a year grants your wishes. Or maybe he feels like a monster in the sky who likes to play games with your life just like the Romans and Greeks believed in their myths and legends.
Well, the bible tells us that, the God of all creation, the eternal God, the God with no beginning and no end, the invisible God, the Greeks called him the ‘unknown’ God, has revealed himself to us so that we can know him and call him Father. How?
In the book of John chapter 14 verse 6 Jesus tells us that ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me’. In today’s society we have decided there is no absolute truth!
Jesus says there is, and that absolute truth is Him. As society makes its own way in the world and rejects Jesus by demanding their right to be right, they’re missing out on the most amazing, life giving, transforming relationship we could ever wish to have……..
To know God as Father, Jesus as the Son (Saviour of the Word) and receive the Holy Spirit, as our helper, as our teacher. What more could anyone want?
Living His Word 