Bible Study - The Ending of the Lord's Prayer

The original writings of the parts of the New Testament had to be copied by hand and sent on to other places so that more people could hear and read the Word of God. See how Paul writes in Colossians 4:16: “When this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans, and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.” Over time, many copies were being circulated. Those who made the copies tried to do their best, but mistakes were sometimes made, and not all copies, even of the same material, are exactly the same.

Today there are thousands of copies available, along with various early translations into other languages and comments made by early church fathers, quoting passages, etc. Some scholars have specialized in putting together what they think are the best copies from which our English translations are made. Our pastors are trained to read Greek and can look at what the scholars have come up with, with variant readings also indicated. The good news is that most all of the variants are very minor (for example, the spelling of names of towns), and they do not affect the doctrines and teachings of Scripture.

At the end of the Lord’s Prayer, what scholars now think are the earliest and best manuscripts of Matthew, stop at the words “but deliver us from evil.” They then go on to more of the words of Jesus about forgiveness in Matthew 6:14-15. These manuscripts and writings come from the Western side of Christianity as it spread - from Rome and Alexandria in Egypt and North Africa - where the Roman Catholic Church was dominant over time. The Roman Catholic churches do not include the extra words but stop at “but deliver us from evil” when they pray the Lord’s Prayer.

Another group of manuscripts and writings was found more often in places farther to the East and in what became known as the Orthodox churches. Those manuscripts often included part or all of what many Protestants include at the end of the Lord’s Prayer: “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” There is an example of this in a very early manuscript, The Didache, from the 100’s AD, which included worship materials. Many scholars now think that it became an early tradition to add these words at the end of the Lord’s Prayer as a kind of doxology, words of praise to our great Lord and God.

In fact, if you look at 1 Chronicles 29:10-11, you will find these very words as part of a blessing in praise of God spoken by King David when there was a great offering received for the future building of the temple in Jerusalem. “Therefore, David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth in Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as Head above all.” All the words we say are included in this Biblical doxology.

Today, in our Lutheran tradition, sometimes when an important event has happened, like the calling of a pastor or teacher, we choose to sing together the Common Doxology - “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow,” Hymn # 805, from our current hymnal. Some scholars think that adding the doxology based on parts of 1 Chronicles 29 became so common in parts of the early church that these words began to be included in manuscripts of the Scriptures as an ending to the Lord’s Prayer as time went on. We don’t know if all this “scholarship” is accurate, but what is said is clearly accurate and Biblical teaching: “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.”

When the King James Bible was translated in 1611, it was based largely on the manuscripts that included the doxology. That had a great influence on how the Lord’s Prayer was said, with the doxology, for several centuries. In the 19th and 20th centuries, new translations were made based on what scholars now thought to be the earliest and best manuscripts and left out the doxology.

Ultimately, though there is some uncertainty about all this, we are certainly using Biblical words and language in how we pray the Lord’s Prayer as Lutherans, along with many others, and it is not worth arguing with Roman Catholics if they choose to pray without the “For Thine is the kingdom….” As I mention below, one of their official catechisms gives support to the content and intent of the doxology words.

A few final thoughts. Remember that Martin Luther grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and chose not to argue with its form of the Lord’s Prayer. If you want to see how that is handled in the latest version of Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation (c) 2017, CPH, look at page 22, where Luther has an “Amen,” but not the rest of the conclusion. See also page 236, where we have the note: “The ending, ‘For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever,’ is not in the oldest manuscripts of the Bible. These words were included early in Church history as a response of praise at the conclusion of the prayer.” See also the Conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer and its explanation on pages 279-280, with other related Scripture references in support of the content of the Conclusion.

Luther’s Small Catechism is also included in the Book of Concord, writings by Luther and others that we believe are faithful to Scripture and what it teaches. There, too, we read the comment by the editor (c) 2005 CPH, page 448: “These words are not necessarily part of the original text of the Lord’s prayer and may have been inserted into later copies of the Gospel (perhaps in the second century). Nevertheless, they are fine and appropriate words.” Another translation of the Book of Concord, the Tappert Edition, (c) 1959, Fortress Press, p. 348 footnote, indicates that “The Nuremberg edition of 1558, and many later editions, inserted ‘For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever,’ before ‘Amen.’”

Very interestingly, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (c) 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. - Libreria Editrice Vaticana, includes on page 687, Article 4, The Final Doxology, an affirmation that the doxology “For the kingdom, the power and the glory are Yours, now and forever” along with the “Amen” are faithful to what the Scriptures say in other places and quotes from the first part of the Lord’s Prayer and mentions Revelation 1:6, 4:11, 5:13 and 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 and the early church father, Cyril of Jerusalem. There is also a warning that Satan tries to take these titles for himself in Luke 4:4-5.