I had to smile when I read Lori’s post, “No Trespassing . . . Violators Will be Forgiven.” The community where I live is very Catholic. Whenever a group says the Lords Prayer, you sense some hesitation. “Forgive us. . .” and then the pause. Which will it be, debtors or trespasses? We Presbyterians say “debtors” while our Catholic neighbors go the trespasses route.
I’ve always wondered why my Catholic neighbors use one word and we Presbyterians use the other. I know it isn’t a Protestant Reformation issue because my Lutheran friends also say “trespasses.” So what’s the deal?
The Lord’s Prayer or, as Lori calls it, the Our Father is found in Matthew (6:9-13). Apparently in the original, and I say apparently because I have never read the original Greek, the word is opheiletes which is translated as debts. This doesn’t necessarily mean money but can also mean anyone who owes you because they have wronged you.
The word trespasses comes into play in verse 14 which includes the Greek paraptoma, which translates as trespasses. Those of us who read scripture and other early religious texts in English are always working from translations and that is something we cannot forget. As soon as we start to look at who translated what when, we see a volley back and forth between debtors and trespasses.
1395 Wycliff made the first English translation of the Bible. He used debtors.
1526 The Tyndale translation followed and he used trespasses.
1549 Book of Common Prayer still used trespasses.
1611 And with the King James Bible we are back to debtors.
Which word is better? On the surface, they mean slightly different things. Trespasses means, as Lori discussed, having crossed a line that may or not be clearly marked. Debtors implies that someone owes you and hasn’t settled the debt.
Initially, I would have said that last part of debtor’s meaning is vital. They haven’t settled the debt. Perhaps they haven’t acknowledged it. Perhaps they deny it. No matter. Christ himself told us to forgive them. Yes, we want them to come clean but there’s no point in waiting. We’ve got our marching orders.
But then I reread Lori’s post:
That’s what makes the surrounding part of the prayer so sweet: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Yes. It means that we are forgiven our trespasses, intentional and accidental. It also means that we forgive our trespassers — even those who don’t know they’ve trespassed, who didn’t see the line, who don’t realize they’ve stepped on metaphorical private land. You know, the ones who step on our hearts.
Not that different after all. And yet these word games can become all important in separating one set of believers from another. Why do we let that happen? Fortunately, God has already promised to forgive us our trespasses even as he commanded us to forgive our debtors.
–SueBE
18 comments
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October 29, 2012 at 8:24 pm
loristrawn
I always learn so much from you! Now you’ve got me thinking about the word “debt”…more meditation is needed!
October 30, 2012 at 10:18 pm
suebe
But so often it is your post that gets me thinking . . . we all three have a groove that way. Now, if only we would hear from Ruth!
June 26, 2017 at 10:46 am
Visionariekind
I like this as it is part of atonement and the undoing of something, A lot of good things in this article. Powerful
August 21, 2017 at 11:43 am
Mary Schade
When we are in debt to someone, we become owned by the debtor. Debt can be financial or favor. We cannot serve two masters. If we are in debt we naturally serve the debtor..thus taking power away from God. We worry over debt, thus taking away Faith and Trust in Christ.
October 30, 2017 at 3:11 am
Carol McMeans
What about the “who” or “which” at the beginning of the prayer. Who means people; which means things. So if it is “which”, what is the thing? I know who the “who” is.
November 15, 2017 at 3:03 am
suebe
Hi Carol,
Sorry for taking my time with this one. I wanted to consult with my minister since he reads Greek and I do not. “Which,” the word used in the King James translation, is a dated usage but would have been a formal usage at the time.
A more accurate translation, harkening back to the original Greek, would have been “who” which has been used since the Revised Standard translation.
Who, in the Greek, was slightly more famiiliar which is part of what was such a big deal about the prayer. This went along with calling God Father and praying directly to him vs through a priest.
Again, my apologies for the delay!
–SueBE
October 30, 2017 at 3:13 am
Carol McMeans
Won’t accept my question
October 30, 2017 at 3:14 am
Carol McMeans
Yes it did! LOL
December 1, 2017 at 8:54 pm
Debts/Trespasses in the Lord’s Prayer – and in the News | praypower4today
[…] Since the beginning of this humble blog, there has been one post that is always the most popular in Google searches. It was written by our SueBE a few years ago, yet every single week, it’s a topic that new visitors seek out. It’s called, “Which Word is Right in the Lord’s Prayer – Trespasses or Debts?” […]
June 7, 2018 at 11:06 am
Jo
I have read that Jesus used trespasser when he presented the prayer. Also Catholic’s do not say the last part; God is the kingdom etc
June 12, 2018 at 3:38 am
suebe
And we were taught that he said Debtors. In truth? He wasn’t speaking English so he said something else completely but that is why accurate translation is vital.
February 28, 2023 at 5:27 am
Jan Rose
I always pray trespasses as debtors just doesn’t sound right to me and the
meanings of the two words are quite different so I am glad to read that Jesus said trespasses.
February 28, 2023 at 5:21 am
Jan Rose
I always pray trespasses as debtors just doesn’t sound right to me and the mea ins of the two words are different so I am glad to read that Jesus said trespasses.
February 28, 2023 at 5:26 am
Jan Rose
I always pray trespasses as debtors just doesn’t sound right to me and the
meanings of the two words are quite different so I am glad to read that Jesus said trespasses.
August 6, 2018 at 3:00 pm
chris tengblad
I apply this discussion to the parable of the Good Samaritan..The thieves stripped and robbed him which Jesus called paraptoma (willful transgression) in Matthew 6:14. the priest and the Levite did nothing to aid the half dead victim which I see as an opheiletes or moral debt. Matthew 6:12.
March 24, 2020 at 8:14 am
Phillip Mutchell
The word is trespass in English. Tyndale was (as he usually is) right. Prayers should be honest and to say debts is to be dishonest because a debt in English (and even American I’ll hazard) refers principally to financial obligations which if they are to be summarily dismissed brings harm to a person’s own family and Paul insists that the person who doesn’t lay up for his own family is worse than an unbeliever.
Context being crucial understand that Jesus was adressing a generation whose very manner of life was to be destroyed in the crucible of destruction that was 70AD. This is essential if you wish to avoid confusion. Jesus’ words without that context make him the equivalent of a modern day suicide bomber : I’ve made my tape now I’m off to die. This he wasn’t; he was the Prophet who was the son and heir of God’s vienyard, and was warning a doomed Israel of their fate with only one means available to them for escape the axe at their roots – faith that listened and legged it. This also explains why the first converts sold their land – the inheritance of the law was no longer of relevance – so faith believed so faith acted; but for the Gentiles the extremity of Christ’s language must needs be tempered as those assemblies were not in the same situation as Israel/Jerusalem upon whom the judgement and wrath of God was determined for all the righteous blood shed by her. Hence Paul is truly the Apostle of the Uncircumcision and the spirit of his message is the spirit of Jesus which is a revolutionary equality with service and honour flowing from that excess of a loving heart to the praise of God’s glorious grace.
May 14, 2020 at 4:28 pm
suebe
Context is critical as is scholarship. And the language scholars who recently created the NRSV went back to the original Greek in composing their translation. They wrote debtors.
What Christ said was always layered. There was the surface meaning which included both how it would be heard by Jews and how it would be heard by Gentiles. Then there is how it is heard by us today.
That’s why scholarship is vital. We don’t live in Christ’s world nor do we live in Tyndales.
January 26, 2023 at 2:17 am
When I Don’t Know What to Pray | praypower4today
[…] version with debtors instead of trespasses. You can read about the why and wherefore of the two here. But I really like the idea of turning things over to God. Admittedly, I’m not extremely good […]