The Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic?

From time to time, the Internet Shaman class, thinking they are more clever than they really are, will claim that there is an original Aramaic version of the Lord’s Prayer & then proceed to inform us that it agrees with their mystical translation/understanding of it.  

Here are some examples: 

There are several things wrong with their claims. 

First of all, there is no documented version of an Aramaic original, nor is there any documentation of an Aramaic version of Matthew, although Eusebius, quoting Papias wrote, “Matthew collected/composed the oracles [logia or sayings] in the Hebrew language/style; but each recorded them as he was able.” (Emphasis mine). 

Notice that Papias is said to have remarked that Matthew wrote the oracles in the Hebrew language.

• Not in Aramaic & 
• Not in “the common tongue”
• Not not in “the popular tongue”

The assertion that there is an “Aramaic original,” in addition to being an assertion for which there is no documentary evidence, depends on the assumption that because Yeshua & His Disciples/Apostles spoke in Aramaic, there is an original or, even though there is no documentary evidence for an Aramaic original, this is what it would look like &/or mean.   

Thirdly, Yeshua & His followers, disciples, & even His enemies lived, moved, & breathed in ancient Palestine —- not the Parthian Empire, not Egypt, not the Kushan Empire.  

Why would a model prayer whose meaning conduces to something one might expect from religion native to the Kushan Empire &/or a species of Gnosticism &/or something similar be something that would capture the hearts  & minds of Matthew’s receiving audience?   

His Gospel is very clearly monotheistic not monistic, & his orginal audience was primarily Jewish people during the age of late 2nd Temple Judaism.    The Jews of that era did everything they could to separate themselves from the religious cultures of the Roman Empire as well as points of view that contradicted theirs.   Some of the Jews of that era even sought to separate themselves from & even suppress &/or destroy the Way/Christianity.    They weren’t interested in syncretism,  & they most certainly would have interpreted the prayer’s opening form of address as a recognition of God (literal, personal, & one)— not oneness. 

Lastly, the model prayer presented in Chapter 6 of both Matthew & Luke is not intended to be rote prayer, nor is it intended to convey ideas like the existence & authority 

of an abstract Father-Mother,  a petition for creativity, bearing fruit in accordance with one’s own desire. 

The original authors aren’t recording a rote liturgical prayer that Yeshua taught them & others.   Rather, the text is a teaching module that summarizes Yeshua’s overall teaching.    

In addition, the prayer itself is written in the form of a suzerain covenant in which GOD Himself is our Creator—Redeemer & whose Law & Gospel takes the form of a covenant.   Instead of “Your kingdom come, your will be done. &tc” meaning something mystical & ethereal, the text is talking about God’s Law expressed in the Bible, especially the Penteteuch.  The prayer petitions for God to legislate & enforce His Law & Gospel & to keep us from invidiously entertaining our inward desires not reaching our creative potential in accordance with our desires.  

The Lord’s Prayer

9 “Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father, who is in heaven,
[a]Hallowed be Your name.

10 

[b]Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,

[c]On earth as it is in heaven.

11 

Give us this day [d]our daily bread.

12 

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from [e]evil.[f] 

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Footnotes

• Matthew 6:9 I.e., treated as sacred or holy
• Matthew 6:10 Or May Your...come
• Matthew 6:10 Lit as in heaven, also on earth
• Matthew 6:11 Or our bread for tomorrow
• Matthew 6:13 Or the evil one
• Matthew 6:13 Late mss add For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen