Pope Francis recently stated that he believes the Roman Catholic Church needs a better translation of the phrase “lead us not into temptation” in the “Lord’s Prayer,” also called the “Our Father.”
The Holy Father is concerned the prayer in Italian and English asks God to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Pope Francis said in an interview with an Italian TV network that the prayer “is not a good translation” because it is not God who tempts.
“But really God helps those who are “provoked into Satan’s temptation,” the Pope said.
Earlier this week, French Catholic Bishops adopted a new translation for their “Our Father” prayer, changing the phrasing from “Do not submit to temptation” to “Do not let us enter into temptation.” In September, Pope Francis changed the Code of Canon Law to allow nations; Bishops’ Conferences to make the celebration of the Liturgy more understandable to the people they serve. France’s recent change to the Lord’s Prayer is a result of decentralizing how liturgical prayers are approved.
Of course, the Pope’s remarks undoubtedly will spark much controversy among the more conservative ranks of Catholic scholars, Clerics and laity.
The real issue behind the Pope’s remarks is the manner in which the Sacred texts of the Scriptures have been translated and interpreted down through the ages.
And so, I thought it might be beneficial to present a brief overview of the major versions of the Scriptures which are important both historically and for the fact of their continuing use within the Catholic community.
It is a fascinating, but complex and often confusing history of translations of texts from one generation of believers to the next. It is a history which betrays any notion that the Bible comes to us as a complete and unaltered document chiseled in stone by the Divine Hand.
The earliest copies of the Old Testament were written without vowels or accents, as written Hebrew did not represent vowels until the Middle Ages. To preserve traditional spoken readings, starting in the 5th Century A.D., a group of Jewish scribes known as the Masoretes carefully selected, copied, and annotated biblical scrolls, adding vowels and accents to the ancient Hebrew consonants in the process.
Though the Masoretic scribes added these vowels to the ancient text long after it had been written, they were likely preserving traditional vocalizations that dated to much earlier times. The Masoretes produced several different systems of vocalization (writing in vowels) between 500 and 700 A.D.
Until the last few decades, most biblical scholars believed that the Masoretic biblical texts were, with some exceptions, the best witnesses to the most ancient Hebrew text of the Old Testament.
Recent discoveries from the Dead Sea Scrolls, however, suggest that there were several different versions of many biblical books. Some of these versions differed only slightly from each other, but some versions were very different. After the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Romans in 70 A.D., Jewish groups dispersed across the ancient world, preserving these versions of the Hebrew Scriptures in their communities. One of these groups preserved the texts that would later become the Masoretic Text. Others are preserved in versions such as the Septuagint, the earliest Greek translation.
In the 10th Century A.D., the ben Asher scribal family of Tiberias produced a manuscript of the Hebrew Bible that Maimonides, a famous Jewish scholar, declared to be the best known version of the sacred text.
Soon after, the Tiberian Masoretic text and its particular version of vowels and annotations became the standard, authoritative text of the Hebrew Bible for rabbinic Judaism. The most important Masoretic medieval manuscripts are the Aleppo Codex, which dates to the 10th century C.E., and the Leningrad Codex, which dates to 1009 A.D.
The Masoretic Text is the version held as authoritative and used liturgically in most synagogues today. The Catholic Church since the time of Jerome (4th Century A.D.) and most Protestant Christian churches use this version as their source text for modern translations.
Now when it comes to translations of the Biblical texts, we note that the earliest translation of the Hebrew Bible is the Old Greek (OG), the translation made in Alexandria, Egypt, for the use of the Greek-speaking Jewish community there.
At first, just the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) was translated, in the Third Century B.C. The rest of the Old Testament books were translated later. The whole Hebrew Bible was likely translated into ancient Greek by the middle of the 2nd Century B.C.
Scholars think that many Old Greek translators worked from early Hebrew versions of biblical books that were quite different from the Masoretic Text. As a result, some biblical books, such as Daniel, Jeremiah, and Job, are longer or shorter in the Old Greek version of the Bible than they are in the Masoretic Text.
In fact, it is clear that there was not an official project to translate the Sacred texts into ancient Greek. Instead, many different Greek-speaking Jews in various times and places simply translated their favorite books into ancient Greek. Some of these books were later chosen to be included in the Bible, and some were not. It was only many centuries later that people began to choose the best of these Greek translations and to copy them all together as if they were one book.
So, it can be said that the Bible was translated in its entirety before there even was a Bible!
Eventually, early Christians adopted the Old Greek translation as their preferred version of the Old Testament. Christians then added bits and pieces to what had already been added by Jewish editors and translators, and the resulting text used in early Christian liturgy (and still used by Eastern Orthodox Churches) is called the Septuagint.
Christians then translated the Greek version into many other languages, such as Latin (the Old Latin version, completed by the 3rd Century AD), African languages such as Coptic (3rd Century A.D.), Asian languages such as Armenian (5th Century A.D.), and Arabic (9th Century A.D.).
Because the Jews in Palestine spoke mostly Aramaic by the time the Old Testament books were coming into their final forms, translations were required even while the finishing touches were being put on the texts. For example, some parts of the Aramaic translation of the Torah, called Targum Onqelos, probably go back as far as 100 B.C. Others, such as Targum Psalms, date from as late as 600 A.D. These Aramaic translations are usually called targums, the Aramaic word for “translation.” Some targums are more literal, and others are more expansive and creative. Some Old Testament books have a number of different targums made from them, whereas for others we can only find one.
The Syriac language was spoken by Jews in northern Syria; they translated their Bible into Syriac at various points in the second century C.E. Several translators worked on this project, so the quality and style of translation varies. The Peshitta (which means “simple,” that is, a plain translation without textual comments) was prepared for the use of Jews. Later, Syriac-speaking Christians adopted the Peshitta and added a Syriac version of the New Testament, although the far-Eastern Christian churches seemed not to include several New Testament letters or the Book of Revelation.
In the 2nd Century A.D., a Christian named Tatian decided to harmonize all four canonical Greek Gospels and, at the same time, translate them into Syriac. Because the four Gospels seem to exhibit some discrepancies, Tatian rewrote them so that they would not conflict. Although Tatian’s harmonization was very popular in the East until the 5th Century A.D., other early Christian interpreters such as Irenaeus urged Christians to maintain all four (separate) canonical Gospels. The tradition of four separate Gospels continues in almost all Christian churches to this day.
By the end of the first and the beginning of the 2nd Century A.D., various Gospels, narratives, letters, and apocalyptic writings, all written in a broadly used dialect of Greek named koine, or “common,” were being used by various Christian communities.
Selection among these sacred texts, and from the Old Testament, for public reading in Christian worship probably began the process of canonization of Christian writings. When disputes broke out about beliefs or traditions, the canonical status of the various Christian writings became a touchstone in the debates.
Official lists of books in or out of the Canon only began to appear in the 4th Century A.D., as a result of particular theological disputes, usually about the divinity of Jesus or the Trinity. However, Christian Canon lists remained fluid through the 7th Century. During this time, books such as the Shepherd of Hermas or the forged Epistle to the Laodiceans could be found in certain Christian Bibles.
Overall, by the end of the 4th Century, there was general agreement about which books should have scriptural status. Although early Christians wrote quite a few letters and books, only a few became widely accepted.
For a work to be considered sacred in the 4th Century and beyond, it seems that it had to claim apostolic authority: the work had to be written or authorized by one of the earliest Christian leaders, especially Paul and the twelve apostles. Apostolic authority required that the books be consistent with the teachings about Jesus and the Trinity that were found in other accepted books and that were current in 4th Century Christianity. As a result, books such as the Gospel of Peter and the Gospel of Thomas were rejected from most Christian canon lists. Some of the writings deemed non-canonical were lost and only rediscovered in the 19th and 20th centuries.
So you can see that the history of the Bible is quite complex.
Given the number of mutations that occurred over the course of the centuries, it is reasonable to ask how we can be sure that our present translations of the Bible really contain and communicate Divine Revelation in a trustworthy fashion.
What Catholics (and most Christian denominations) believe is that the Holy Spirit is the ultimate source of Divine Revelation and the Guarantor that the Scriptures as we know them accurately communicate the Divine Mind and Will to God’s Holy People, the Church.
Pope Francis has highlighted that the words “and lead us not into temptation” contained in the Lord’s prayer do not suggest that Almighty God induces human beings to be tempted to sin, but rather is a plea that the Lord Himself assist us as we resist the wiles of Satan and his deceit.
Of course, the Holy Father is correct.
It seems, however, that even the Pope’s words and intent can get lost in translation.
In any case, let us rejoice in the Prayer upon which untold generations have called upon Our Heavenly Father for His continued Providence, Forgiveness and Charity.
By the way, lest anyone think I carry this encyclopedic awareness of the history of the Scriptures in my mind on a daily basis, nothing could be further from the truth.
Actually, in preparing this article, I found myself doing research I hadn't engaged in since my seminary days at the Gregorian University, so many years ago.
Happily, I have a much better appreciation for Biblical scholarship now than I did when I had to memorize so much of the history of the Scriptures to pass exams in the course of my advancement to Priestly Ordination.
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