An Atheistic Bible Study Of The Gospels – The Lord’s Prayer

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Often known by its opening words as - The Pater Noster (Our Father). This is one of the best known and frequently recited, performed Bible passages, used in countless church services from an ordinary Catholic Sunday mass, or Church Of England service, to weddings, Christenings and funerals. It illustrates thousands of school assemblies. Soldiers have whispered the prayer to themselves to take their minds off possible impending death under enemy fire on battlefields, and many Christians incorporate it into their daily prayers. It is the most memorized and recited part of the Bible (other than the word Amen on its own. The Prayer actually exists in several variations, and arises in two separate versions and contexts even in the New Testament. The best-known version comes in Matthew, presented by Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus advises the multitude of listeners that prayer is a private communion between themselves and God, and not to be used loudly as a public display of emotive and hypocritical piety. He recites the ten lines prayer as an example (ironically presenting it publicly to show what should be said privately, and in effect, praying to himself). The emphasis of the prayer is then explained by Jesus as a request that God forgives the people who hurt us, as our own hurts against others will not be forgiven unless we learn to forgive too. In Luke’s Gospel, the Lord’s Prayer is not given to a public multitude, but to a group of the Apostles at the request of one of them (un-named). They seem to interrupt Jesus’s own prayers (again to himself???) to ask this, when it could easily have waited a little longer. In Matthew, the Apostles all attended the Sermon On The Mount, but in Luke at least some of them appear to be hearing the prayer for the first time. Jesus recites just seven lines of the prayer in Luke, not ten. He puts the emphasis on sharing and responding to people’s needs. He cites the example of a friend who disturbs your sleep requesting bread to offer to a friend of theirs for a journey, and how you would help out in such a situation. Here, Jesus is promising that sincere needs expressed in prayer will be respected by God at any time. That countless prayers since have proved useless in reaching God, shows such promises to be groundless. Mark & John do not include the Prayer at all. The Book of Common Prayer has the gall to add extra lines, in effect rewriting Jesus. Most Christians reciting the prayer use Matthew’s version with the additional lines For thine is the kingdom / And the power, and the glory / Forever and ever./ Amen. Let’s analyse the prayer line by line. Matthew’s version. "Our Father in heaven, / hallowed be your name. / Your kingdom come, Luke’s version is similar in the opening lines - "Father, / hallowed be your name. /Your kingdom come.” Luke omits the reference to Heaven, making his God more personal and closer in proximity than Matthew’s remote observer. “Hallowed,” means revered, sacred and to be uttered in respect by mortals. It gains God’s affection by telling him how great the prayer maker thinks he is. Matthew’s “ your will be done, / on earth as it is in heaven,” is omitted entirely by Luke. Matthew acknowledges that God is in charge and that anything, including any reply to the prayer is entirely at God’s mercy. Luke just has Jesus pray on, asking God for bread & forgiveness. “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts,/ As we also have forgiven our debtors.” Luke replaces debt with ‘sin’. Debts will mean debts before God, rather than financial arrears with friends and creditors of course, as Jesus is talking of sins that need to be repented. Both prayer versions carry the line “And lead us not into temptation”, But only Matthew ends with an additional “but deliver us from evil." “Hallowed be thy name,” is recognition of the humility of a weak, mortal, fragile being calling on an all-powerful deity for forgiveness and favours. It is the right way to open a begging letter to a millionaire in the hope of some of his wealth to help in our own wretched lives, knowing he has every right and all power to ignore us. “Thy Kingdom Come,” the most troubling line today, is a call for the Apocalypse to come now – a complete change of World with hope of being one of the people to benefit by it rather than one of the people cast into the Bottomless Pit fires Of Hell to make way for it. Countless generations have prayed for a sighting of the Kingdom to no avail showing how useless prayer really is. “Daily Bread” refers to basic daily necessities, food, clothing, and shelter. It is a call, and thank you, for ongoing existence & sustenance – or a desperate plea for bread for those facing desperate famine, starvation, etc. “Lead us not into temptation” is a troubling line, implying that God, rather than Satan tests humans with temptations of the flesh and doubts about God’s existence. It incorporates fear of God into the prayer and an element of mistrust towards him. What if he does tempt us with a lusty image of a potential extra-marital affair? Surely as an all-knowing deity God would know if we would be tempted or not without actually testing us? And what if he tries to tempt us but fails? Is it that he was imperfect or were we too smart for him? The line has humans admit to frailties of spirit and beg God not to test us knowing we might fail the tests set upon us. “But deliver us from evil.” A call on God to save us from being victims, of other people’s crimes and sins or of Satan’s evil, if not from the evil we might conduct in giving in to the temptations God seduces us with when not recognizing our wishes that he leaves us alone. "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen” The closing lines, known as a Doxology, are a later Catholic addition, unused in the Gospels or by Jesus in any quotation. It reads like a rap added annoyingly to a cover version of a pop song. Doxologies were a common Catholic literary devise for revising psalms and hymns. Here their Lord’s own words don’t suffice so they put words into his mouth (as the Gospel authors also undoubtedly did). The line simply acknowledges God as being the boss, the giver of all and the one deserving of the prayer giver’s attention. The prayer is as a whole very general and unspecific. It calls for helping us to get through the day without hurting anyone or suffering harm, and recognizing God as responsible for nice things in life. The Pater Noster is meaningless if recited by an atheist. "Our Father in heaven, / (no belief in God or Heaven). Hallowed be your name. (No it’s not) / Your kingdom come, (not very likely), etc, “Thy will be done,” It is never clear just what God wills, as he’s such a contrary kind of chap. “Forgive us our trespasses.” It’s the folk we trespass against who should decide whether we deserve or merit forgiveness or not. “As we forgive those who trespass against us.” Our choice, that, not God’s. “And lead us not into temptation.” Depends on the temptation. Not being tempted to commit murder is fine, but being tempted by lust towards a consenting adult sexual partner is fine by me. Pre-marital sex? Yes please. “And deliver us from evil.” Our own morals, the police. And laws of the land take care of that side of things, thanks very much. Arthur Chappell