I just finished reading a new book this past week called, A Prayer To Our Father. It’s an intriguing book with an equaling intriguing premise. The goal of the authors (who make an unlikely pair: an African American pastor and a Jewish Bible Scholar) is to trace the origins of the Lord’s prayer, called the avinu prayer throughout (which just means Our Father).
The first half of the book traces the origins of the Lord’s prayer — specifically where it was given. It’s divided up into sections which detail the 6 probable locations, including their thoughts on which was the actual site. I won’t spoil their conclusion for you though; you’ll have to read it to discover their preferred site (and having not visited any of them, I like their reasoning and would tend to concur). It’s all speculation though because no one actually knows the precise location for the sermon on the mount — just general location derived from the Gospels and oral traditions passed down through the centuries.
The latter half of the book goes line by line through the Lord’s prayer and looks at its original Hebrew origins. Most of their thoughts seemed similar to what I’ve already been taught, but their where a few that stood out. Chief among those is the line “May Your kingdom be blessed” (from the original Hebrew Matthew) instead of “May Your kingdom come” (from the trnaslated Greek). This original rendering implies that God’s kingdom is already here to be blessed by us. And by blessed, that means our conscious submission to His authority and will. The other big “take away” for me is the comparison of test vs temptation, in that the original rendering of the Lord’s prayer has at its core more of a prayer for freedom from tests (such as what Job went through) rather than subtle temptations that we tend to face day to day. The former seems to encompass the latter and then so much more.
Anyways, it was a pretty good book, overall. I do have a few small qualms though. For one, it seemed a bit short. Particularly the latter half felt like it could have been fleshed out more. Some of the sections, honestly, felt kind of glossed over. I also wasn’t drawn into the book and story as much as I hoped to be. I think part of it is in that the authors frequently trade off and it took a bit to get used to that dynamic and part of it is that I just prefer a different writing style. In all though, as I said, it was pretty good. I’d give it 3 of 5 stars and definitely recommend checking it out if you are looking for something specifically about the Lord’s Prayer or if time allows you to.