From: 	 heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
Sent: 	 Tuesday, October 7, 1997 2:28 AM
To: 	 Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup
Subject: Lead us not into temptation?




From	 James Trimm 
To:      heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Lead us not into temptation?


Mt. 6:13a is one of the most puzzeling portions of the "Lord's
Prayer."  The line reads in the New KJV:

	And do not lead us into temptation,
	But deliver us from evil.

This portion of the Lord's Prayer closely parallels "The Morning Prayer"
(m.Ber. 9:1; b.Ber. 60b which reads in part:

	Give us this day and every day, grace, favour and mercy in your eyes;
	Lead us not into the power of sin or of temptation.

The mystery is this: why would God lead us into temptation anyway?  In 
fact James 1:13-14 reads:

	Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God
	cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone.  But
	each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and
	enticed.

Mt. 6:13 is actually a Hebrew idiom in which an active verb is used to
express not the doing of a thing, but permision to do it.  A good example
is in the Tenach in Jer. 4:10:

	Lord YHWH, surely you have greatly decieved this people,
(meaning that YHWH would allow the people to be decieved.)

Another example is in the Torah in Ex. 4:21:

	I [YHWH] will harden his heart, that he shall not let the 
people go."  (meaning YHWH would allow Pharaoh's heart to be 
hardened.)

Thus the passage in Mt. 6:13 is a Hebrew idiom better understood to
mean:

	Allow us not to be lead into temptation...

James Trimm

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