Here is a bit of sleuthing regarding the Lord’s Prayer.
Have you ever noticed when praying the Lord’s Prayer aloud that everybody does good until you get to the line “forgive us our…”?
At that point in the prayer cacophony breaks out as some people say “debts” and others say “trespasses.”
The other day I got curious about that and went in search of the translations that render this differently. I started with the New International Version:
NIV:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors…
Okay, so the NIV has “debts.” So I went on to look at other translations. And guess what? There is almost universal agreement among the major translations, all having “debts” like the NIV:
ESV, ASV, NASV, KJV, NRSV, NJ:
our debts…our debtors.
To be sure, some more modern, dynamic and contemporary translations have “sins” or “wrongs.” But none of these, along with the more established translations, have “trespasses.”
So that left me scratching my head. Where in the world did “trespasses” come from?
Given that I use the Book of Common Prayer I knew it had “trespasses.” So my hunch was that “forgive us our trespasses” came from the Book of Common Prayer rather than from the bible translations. I’m using the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. But just to make sure I went back to the 1549 edition, the very first Book of Common Prayer. And sure enough, “forgive us our trespasses” is there:
Book of Common Prayer (1549): OURE father, whiche arte in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kyngdom come. Thy wyll be done in earth as it is in heaven. Geve us this daye oure dayly bread. And forgeve us oure trespasses, as we forgeve them that trespasse agaynst us. And leade us not into temptacion. But deliver us from evell. Amen.
But that raises another question. Where did the 1549 Book of Common Prayer come up with this translation? Recall, the Authorized (King James) Version didn’t appear until 1611.
After some sleuthing I learned that the 1549 edition of the Book of Common Prayer used the Tyndale Bible (1526). And checking the Tyndale Bible I think we find the origin of “forgive us our trespasses”:
Tyndale Bible (1526):
And forgeve vs oure treaspases eve as we forgeve oure trespacers.
In short, from the KJV onward the translation of Matthew 6:12 has gone with “debts.” But the 1526 Tyndale Bible had it as “trespasses.” This translation was used in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer and is preserved in the Book of Common Prayer to the present day.
It’s a Tyndale vs. King James thing.
And thus the cacophony in our churches.