Re: 3rd-person imperatives in the Lord's Prayer

From: Jack Kilmon (jpman@accesscomm.net)
Date: Fri Aug 15 1997 - 06:23:03 EDT


Jonathan Robie wrote:

> At 08:47 PM 8/13/97 -0500, Jeffrey Gibson wrote:
> >Carl,
> >
> >Just a quick response to your question on why the first three
> petitions
> >of the LP are formulated in 3rd person aorist imperatives. As BDF
> note
> >(sec. 337 n. 4) this is simply stardard Greek practice in prayers
> (and in
> >liturgies), particularly those with specific petitions. It does not
> >necessarily reflect any special feature of a presumed Aramiac
> >original, whatever that may have been.

    It would have been the Galilean dialect of Middle Aramaic,
somewhatcloser to Eastern than the Western of Judea.

> 4. I notice that Jesus uses the same form when he heals people or
> performs
> miracles, e.g. Matt 8:13 hWS EPISTEUSAS GENHQHTW SOI, see also Matt
> 9:29,

    "Jesus uses the same form?" Shouldn't that be the Matthean Scribe
uses the same form?

> Overall, at least for GENHQHTW, the meaning seems to be "let your will
> be
> done" or "may your will be done", but I wonder how significant it is
> that
> Jesus used this form to perform healings - is this a real command,
> with the
> authority of God backing it up? Should we interpret Matt 8:13 hWS
> EPISTEUSAS
> GENHQHTW SOI as a short prayer?

    Again "Jesus used this form." Are you suggesting that Jesus spoke
andtaught to the Jewish Am ha-Aretz in the Greek of the Matthean Scribe
as his primary language?

Luke starts the Lordâs Prayer simply with ãFatherä (Abba) and records a
very short version of five petitions while Matthew expands ãFatherä with
ãourä (Abbun) and ãwho is in Heaven.ä This follows the Matthean
tradition/redaction style of Jewish liturgy seen elsewhere throughout
the Gospel. The phrase ãThy will be doneä is only in Matthewâs version
and is used by the author to expand ãThy kingdom comeä by telling when
the kingdom will come (when Godâs will is done). The ãbreadä petition
more clearly reflects the differences in the two traditions. Where
Matthew says DOJ HMIN SHMERON in the Aorist ãGive us bread todayä (the
imminent coming), Luke uses the present imperative DIDOU HMIN TO KAQ
)HMERAN ãkeep giving us todayä (because itâs going to be a while).
ãBreadä in first century Palestine meant the same as it does today in
the Middle East, food. It was also an idiom for ãteaching.ä
 Matthewâs version asks God to ãforgive us our debtsä (OFEILHMATA) ãas
we forgive our debtorsä (OFEILETAIJ), using the debts/debtors metaphor
for sins/sinners, which was familiar to Jews. This idiom, however, is
an Aramaic one and not inherent to the Greek. In Aramaic it is <aram>
w$bowq ln xwbyn
)ykn) d)f xnn $bqn lxybyn (voshVOK lan hoBIN ahKENo dup leNIN shevKON
l'hoBIN) and it was the hobin/l'hobin idiom that the Matthean scribe
translated
to OFEILHMATA/OFEILETAIJ.

     Luke, writing for Gentiles who were not familiar with the Jewish
double meaning for debts replaces ãdebtsä with ãsinsä (AMARTIAJ) in the
first half and retain ãdebtorsä (OFEILONTI) in its participial form in
the second half.

    This substitution by Luke is significant for two reasons. First, it
tells us that Luke was competent in Aramaic since he understood the
ãHobin idiom.ä Second, it is a testimony by Luke that the Lordâs Prayer
was originally rendered in Jesusâ own Aramaic language.

Jack Kilmon
jpman@accesscomm.net



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