The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer that evokes many different associations for me: familiar since childhood, deeply ingrained in my memory, murmured as a formula, recited in both sad and joyful moments, translated into hundreds of languages, and known to many non-religious people as the Christian prayer.
Like a precious pearl, the Lord’s Prayer is the carefully preserved core of the Sermon on the Mount (which was a particular concern of the foundation’s founder, Jürgen Frielinghaus). The Lord’s Prayer forms the centre of the passage Matthew 6:1–18, and this in turn is the middle of the three main sections of the Sermon on the Mount.
Scholars generally assume that the Lord’s Prayer dates back to the historical Jesus and was originally formulated in Aramaic – that is, in the language of the people rather than that of liturgy and theology. This prayer breathes the spirit in which Jesus lived. In it, he expressed his message. And this was, of course, shaped by his Jewish faith.
The Lord’s Prayer begins with three ‘You’ petitions (Mt 6:9–10) addressed directly to God. They aim for God to bring about his holiness, his reign and the fulfilment of his will. However, this also requires human cooperation. This is followed by three ‘we’ petitions (Mt 6:11–13), which concern the existential needs of humanity. The Lord’s Prayer is thus characterised by two themes that define the Sermon on the Mount as a whole: the connection between love of God (relationship with God) and love of neighbour (living together in community).
Jesus does not teach a new, unfamiliar way of praying. The Lord’s Prayer is firmly rooted in the Old Testament worldview and shows parallels with Jewish prayer traditions. A precursor to the Lord’s Prayer is the eloquent and passionate ‘You are our Father’ prayer in Isaiah 63:15–64:11. Similar themes recur here: the address to the Father, God’s dwelling place in heaven, the sanctification and the name of God, the petitions for the coming of God’s kingdom, for the forgiveness of sins, redemption and deliverance from distress. The Lord’s Prayer also shares parallels in content with the Eighteen Benedictions and the (Aramaic-language) Kaddish prayer. The Amidah takes its name from the 18 praises of God of which it is composed, and was presumably already the central prayer in Judaism at the time of Jesus. The Kaddish is named after the Aramaic word for ‘holy’, as it begins with a plea for the sanctification of the divine name. It has its place in synagogue services and is also recited by the relatives of the deceased. Because of this use by mourners, deep-rooted emotions are still associated with this prayer even in non-religious circles today. An aspect that the Kaddish perhaps shares with the Lord’s Prayer?
It is reported that the Jewish professor Jacob J. Petuchowski (1925–1991) liked to set his students the following task during his rabbinical seminary in Cincinnati: when discussing the central Jewish prayers, he would present his students with a Hebrew version of the Lord’s Prayer and ask, ‘Do you pray this in the synagogue?’ Almost always, everyone agreed unanimously. A brief story that shows just how deeply rooted the Lord’s Prayer is in Jewish prayer motifs and serves as a bridge to contemporary Judaism.
Bettina Wellmann