The Lord's Prayer
Phrase by phrase — the Old Testament roots under each petition, the Jewish prayers it spoke alongside, and Matthew's and Luke's forms honestly compared.
After this manner therefore pray ye.
Framework
Two gospels, two settings
Matthew gives the prayer inside the Sermon on the Mount, as a model against "vain repetitions" — "After this manner therefore pray ye" (Matt 6:7–9). Luke gives it on another occasion entirely: Jesus is praying, a disciple asks "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples," and the answer follows (Luke 11:1). Luke's form is shorter — and in the earliest Greek manuscripts, shorter still: it opens simply "Father," and lacks "Thy will be done," "but deliver us from evil," and the doxology (per the standard critical apparatus, NA28 — cite-only; the later manuscripts behind the KJV's Luke filled the prayer out to match Matthew). Whether Jesus taught the prayer twice in fuller and briefer forms, or one prayer reached the church in two transmitted forms, is presented below with both readings at full strength — the two texts themselves are set facing each other, whole.
Framework summary from the site's Lord's Prayer research brief (2026-07-22); scripture KJV (PD); manuscript data attributed, not adjudicated.
The synagogue's rhythm, made new
Fixed daily prayer was already the devout pattern long before the Sermon: Daniel "kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed" (Dan 6:10); the psalmist prays "evening, and morning, and at noon" (Ps 55:17). The synagogue's great prayers — the Kaddish, the Eighteen Benedictions — filled that rhythm, and the Lord's Prayer speaks their language: the Kaddish opens "Magnified and sanctified be his great name… may he establish his kingdom during your life and during your days" (Singer's Authorised Daily Prayer Book translation, 1890, PD) — name hallowed, kingdom asked for, exactly the prayer's first two petitions. The earliest church manual we possess, the Didache (ch. 8, PD), tells believers to pray the Lord's Prayer three times daily — the synagogue's rhythm kept, with new words.
The parallels are not an embarrassment; they are the point. Edersheim held that the prayer is unborrowed in its wholeness even where single phrases have synagogue parallels — the parallels prove it spoke the language of its hearers, not that it was stitched together from sources (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 1883, PD — paraphrased). And its brevity is itself teaching: Jesus prefaces it by warning against "much speaking" (Matt 6:7). Under every petition runs an Old Testament root — Ezekiel under "hallowed," Daniel under "kingdom," the manna under "daily bread," David's own doxology under the doxology. The annotated figure above and the ledger below walk them phrase by phrase.
Where the founder plants his flag
The founder's own commentary on the prayer — and on the site's persistence-in-prayer posture (Luke 18's importunate widow; sustained asking until breakthrough, per the doctrine synthesis) — will be planted here. Until then the page presents the texts, their roots, and the named positions, attributed and steelmanned.
Featured study
Sixty words in a praying world
The prayer was not given into silence. Devout Israel already prayed at fixed hours — Daniel “three times a day” (Dan 6:10), the psalmist “evening, and morning, and at noon” (Ps 55:17) — and the synagogue’s great prayers filled those hours. The Kaddish asks that God’s name be magnified and sanctified and his kingdom established — the very ground of the prayer’s first two petitions. The parallels are the point, not a problem: Edersheim held that the prayer is unborrowed in its wholeness even where single phrases have synagogue parallels — it spoke the language of its hearers (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 1883, PD, paraphrased).
And it is short on purpose. Jesus prefaces it by warning against “vain repetitions… much speaking” (Matt 6:7). Sixty-some words — and, as the ledger below walks out, all of Scripture standing behind them.
Matthew’s form facing Luke’sTwo gospels, honestly
Both texts whole, KJV. In the earliest Greek witnesses Luke’s form is shorter still — opening simply “Father,” without “Thy will be done,” “but deliver us from evil,” or the doxology (per the standard critical apparatus, NA28 — cite-only); later manuscripts filled Luke out to match Matthew. The difference is data; what it means is steelmanned in the drawer below.
Matthew
In the Sermon — a model
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Matthew 6:9–13, KJV — given against “vain repetitions” (6:7).
Luke
On request — “teach us to pray”
And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come…
Luke 11:1–2, KJV. The earliest witnesses read simply “Father” and carry the shorter form — five petitions, no doxology.
Every petition has an addressPhrase by phrase
| The petition (KJV) | Its Old Testament root (KJV) |
|---|---|
Our Father which art in heaven Matt 6:9 | Doubtless thou art our father… thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer. (Isaiah 63:16) Beside Deut 32:6 and Ps 103:13; the synagogue litany addresses God as “Our Father, our King” (Avinu Malkenu). |
Hallowed be thy name Matt 6:9 | I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen… (Ezekiel 36:23) Beside Isa 29:23 — “they shall sanctify my name.” The Kaddish opens on the same note: “Magnified and sanctified be his great name.” |
Thy kingdom come Matt 6:10 | …the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed… (Daniel 2:44) Beside Obad 21 — “and the kingdom shall be the LORD's.” The petition holds already and not-yet together (atlas kingdom-thread lens). |
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven Matt 6:10 | Bless the LORD, ye his angels… that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. (Psalm 103:20–21) Heaven already does his will; the prayer asks earth to match it (cf. Ps 135:6). |
Give us this day our daily bread Matt 6:11 | …I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall… gather a certain rate every day. (Exodus 16:4) Manna could not be hoarded — bread for the day, asked daily. Beside Prov 30:8: “feed me with food convenient for me.” |
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors Matt 6:12 | At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release… every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it. (Deuteronomy 15:1–2) Sin as debt is an Aramaic idiom (ḥôbā covers both) — Matthew says “debts,” Luke “sins.” Jesus's own comment follows at once (6:14–15). |
And lead us not into temptation Matt 6:13 | …the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness… to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart. (Deuteronomy 8:2) Beside Ps 141:4 — “incline not my heart to any evil thing.” The James 1:13 tension is handled in the contested door below. |
But deliver us from evil Matt 6:13 | The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. (Psalm 121:7) Greek tou ponērou is ambiguous: “from evil” (KJV) or “from the evil one” — both renderings are honest. |
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory Matt 6:13 | Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty… (1 Chronicles 29:11) David's own doxology before Solomon's anointing — the language behind the prayer's closing line (a manuscript question; see below). |
The prayer’s mystery wordOne word, measured
“Daily” renders a Greek word found nowhere else in Greek literature: epiousios. It occurs only in the Lord’s Prayer itself (Matt 6:11 and Luke 11:3) and in the Didache’s citation of the prayer — so rare that Origen said no Greek writer used it, and its exact sense (“for the day,” “needful,” “for the morrow”) is still debated. The rarity itself is the story: the church has always prayed a word it cannot fully parse — and the manna it echoes was likewise named with a question: man hu, “What is it?” (Exod 16:15).
Word data per the atlas rare-words lens (verse_words, verified; the Origen datum recorded there). Strong’s G1967.
Contested
◈The doxology, the two forms, and the temptation petitioncontested · manuscript + interpretation, none adjudicated
Is the doxology original to Matthew?
“For thine is the kingdom…” is absent from the earliest Greek witnesses and most early commentaries, and present in the majority Byzantine tradition behind the KJV (per the standard critical apparatus — cite-only). The Didache’s text of the prayer (ch. 8, PD) already carries a two-part doxology (“the power and the glory”) in the first or second century — so the case FOR reads it as apostolic-era usage the earliest copies happen to omit; the case AGAINST reads it as early liturgical expansion, David’s words (1 Chr 29:11) supplied by praying churches. The KJV text is shown whole on this page either way; the data sits beside it.
One prayer or two teachings?
(a) Two occasions: Jesus taught the prayer more than once, in fuller and briefer forms — Matthew in the Sermon, Luke later on request; itinerant teachers repeat themselves (the traditional harmonization). (b) One prayer, two transmitted forms: Matthew’s liturgically fuller, Luke’s leaner (the critical reading). Both carried at strength; neither adjudicated.
“Lead us not into temptation” and James 1:13
James writes that God “cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.” The classic resolution distinguishes testing God permits (Deut 8:2; Gen 22:1) from evil God intends — the petition asks to be spared the trial, as Jesus in Gethsemane told the disciples to pray the same thing (Matt 26:41). A close Jewish parallel stands in the Talmud’s daily prayer, “bring me not… into the power of temptation” (Berakhot 60b). The resolution is interpretation and is labeled as such, not asserted in the page’s voice.
Scripture’s own receiptsWhy these links
“Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory” (Matt 6:13)
Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. (1 Chronicles 29:11)
David, before all the congregation, at the offering for the temple — the doxology's home ground.
“Three times a day” — the rhythm the prayer entered
…he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. (Daniel 6:10)
Beside Ps 55:17 (“evening, and morning, and at noon”). The Didache (ch. 8, PD) tells believers to pray the Lord's Prayer three times daily — the old rhythm kept, with new words.
Pray it where it was given
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