Take a moment to reflect on what you’ve experienced at Hebrew Lord’s Prayer Experience and share your thoughts below.
Take a moment to reflect on what you’ve experienced at Hebrew Lord’s Prayer Experience and share your thoughts below.
I see from the website that an ancient Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew inspired Yosef Kottler to write the Lord’s Prayer in Hebrew. That is very interesting. The flyer about the “The Lord’s Prayer Experience”, however, says “Hebrew – the tongue Jesus used to teach the prayer to his disciples as reported by Matthew.” I really doubt it. jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic. Hebrew in Jesus’ time was the language for reading the scriptures, but most people did not speak it or understand it. It was like Latin and the Vulgate version of the Bible today, or like Sanskrit and Hindu scriptures – languages used in religious observances, but not for vernacular speech.
Thank you for reaching out to me and for sharing your thoughts and questions about the Hebrew Origins of the Lord’s Prayer.
Since I started this project 3 years ago, I have been found many references to a Hebrew Gospel of Mathew referred to in several texts detailing the history and evolution of the early Christian Church in Judea.
Based on a variety of sources, I have come to a similar conclusion that Jesus and his disciples most likely spoke Jewish Aramaic. However, as the Lord’s Prayer was considered an “official” prayer, it is also likely that the Prayer was spoken in Hebrew, and equally important as far as the Lord’s Prayer Experience is concerned, written in Hebrew, which was the language used for official prayers. I have therefore chosen to use Hebrew for the lyrics we sing with the Lord’s Prayer Experience, although for the Codex, the Song of Praise, we sing it in Aramaic.
There are several books I have found that go into great detail on this subject that I think you may find informative, and upon which after reading I am basing my conclusions:
1) A Prayer to Our Father: Hebrew Origins of the Lord’s Prayer, by Nehimia Gordon and Keith Johnson
2) ) Hebrew Gospel of Mathew, by George Howard
3) Biblical and Near Eastern Studies: Essays in Honor of William Sanford LaSor, edited by Gary A. Tuttle.
4) Brother Jesus, The Nazarene through Jewish Eyes, by Schalom Ben-Chorin
Here are a couple of quick excepts to whet your appetite for this subject:
From the chapter, “Hebrew Translations of the Lord’s Prayer”, from Biblical and Near Eastern Studies: Essays in Honor of William Sanford LaSor:
“Mostly Christians look to a Hebrew Version of the Lord’s Prayer I order to have access to the most likely form in which it was originally composed by Jesus for his disciples. That it was in fact composed in Hebrew is not unlikely since prayers at that time were normally said in Hebrew and an official prayer (and that is what the Lord’s Prayer was expressly intended to be) could hardly have been in any other language. Apart from that consideration we are now in a position where serious arguments can be put forward to support the hypothesis that the whole primitive text of Matthew was not Aramaic, but really was what over thirty patristic texts (the earliest of which is Papias c. A.D. 120) assert it to have been, namely Hebrew.”
And from the chapter, Teach us to Pray”, from Brother Jesus, The Nazarene through Jewish Eyes, by Schalom Ben-Chorin:
“The prayer that Jesus teaches his disciples (Matt. 6:9-13) begins with the invocation “Our Father in Heaven.” If we translate this invocation back into Hebrew–and we may assume that Jesus taught his disciples to pray in Hebrew, even though they spoke Aramaic among themselves, since at the time of Jesus, at least in the land of Israel, prayers were still spoken predominantly in Hebrew.”
Schalom Ben-Chorin is one of the most highly respected modern Jewish Biblical Scholars who has written more than 30 books on Jewish historical and cultural themes. So, I tend to trust his opinion on this matter.
Spirited, – passionate – cutting through to the heart. I am intrigued, especially about the Hebrew translation of Matthew. Would love to share this with my choir director and worship team members.
Hello,
I attended “Prayers Beyond Boundaries” last night in Acton, and I had to share how very moved I was by the experience. I’ve said the Lord’s Prayer thousands of times in my life, sometimes thinking about the words, sometimes just mumbling them without thought, but this experience brought the words to shining life for me in a way they haven’t for a very long time. (I especially appreciated the fact that you mentioned “Our Mother” as well as “Our Father.”) At the end, when you took each of the opening lines for each section and put them together as the prayer in its entirety, it took my breath away. My heart was full, tears came to my eyes. In short, I was moved and inspired and fed by this experience. Thank you so very much.