The Lord's Prayer Mt 6:9-13

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Verity Kethro
Posts: 1
Joined: October 12th, 2018, 10:14 am

The Lord's Prayer Mt 6:9-13

Post by Verity Kethro »

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Hello Friends,
Apologies if this is a duplicate thread. Please put me right:

I would like to know what influences the common decision of translators to render this passage in the plural we/us rather than the singular I/me? I'm no linguist - a simple Holy-Spirit filled physics teacher. I did a quick reckie using Bible Hub and it looked like either was plausible, in fact, perhaps the singular slightly more so?

I would appreciate your wisdom.
Verity
Barry Hofstetter
Posts: 2159
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:48 pm

Re: The Lord's Prayer Mt 6:9-13

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

The text:


9 Οὕτως οὖν προσεύχεσθε ὑμεῖς
Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς
ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου
10  ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου
γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σουa,
ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς
11  τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον
12  καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν,
ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν
13  καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν,
ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.

I am not sure what you are seeing on Bible hub, but each of the pronouns above (marked in bold) is plural. There is no valid reason to render them as singulars. Any such "translation" would simply be wrong.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
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