The Our Father

[PacoG]

When was it decided that the “official” version of the Our Father for use in liturgy and private prayer would be the Our Father in Matthew 6 and not the one in Luke 11?

Why is the Lucan version totally neglected?

 

[Joe_5859]

When was it decided that the “official” version of the Our Father for use in liturgy and private prayer would be the Our Father in Matthew 6 and not the one in Luke 11?

Why is the Lucan version totally neglected?

From the old Catholic Encyclopedia on the Lord’s Prayer:

“It seems probable, from the form in which the Our Father appears in the ‘Didache’, that the version in St. Matthew was that which the Church adopted from the beginning for liturgical purposes.”

The Didache is the important instruction from apostolic times. See what Chapter 8 says about the Lord’s Prayer:

Neither pray as the hypocrites; but as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, thus pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us today our daily (needful) bread, and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (or, evil); for Yours is the power and the glory for ever. Thrice in the day thus pray.

I don’t think the intent is to “neglect” Luke, but it is simply based on a very, very ancient liturgical precedence.

 

[Digitonomy]

From the old Catholic Encyclopedia on the Lord’s Prayer…

“It seems probable, from the form in which the Our Father appears in the ‘Didache’, that the version in St. Matthew was that which the Church adopted from the beginning for liturgical purposes.”
I don’t think the intent is to “neglect” Luke, but it is simply based on a very, very ancient liturgical precedence.

So the theory is that the use of Matthew’s version preceded the writing or at least the distribution of Luke’s gospel?

 

[Joe_5859]

So the theory is that the use of Matthew’s version preceded the writing or at least the distribution of Luke’s gospel?

I don’t really know. I’m not sure if it’s that or just a case of “we’ve always done it that way.”

I guess it would be an interesting thing to research more.

 

[GaryTaylor]

Hum, they been Praying the Our Father the same way as long as I can remember. Definatly be interesting to research though.

 

[SimonDodd]

I think Joe’s basically on the right lines. Given the timeline, the didache is unlikely to be based on Matthew; more likely, Matthew, Luke, and the didache are independent witnesses of oral tradition of the nascent Church. That makes it more likely that Luke truncated the text for his purposes than that Matthew augmented it for his. Or they may reflect different soliloquies given by Christ at different times. Either way, Matthew seems to be the closer text and has been given pride of place.

Hum, they been Praying the Our Father the same way as long as I can remember.

Wow, as long as you can remember? A few decades then?

They’ve been praying it this way for a longer than that.

 

[Joan_M]

When was it decided that the “official” version of the Our Father for use in liturgy and private prayer would be the Our Father in Matthew 6 and not the one in Luke 11?

Why is the Lucan version totally neglected?

A better question - why does it matter to you?

Curiosity is not a virtue. Be satisfied with what the Church has decided and pray the prayer as it is.

 

[CDNowak]

So the theory is that the use of Matthew’s version preceded the writing or at least the distribution of Luke’s gospel?

Quite possibly, despite the many modern theories about the order the Gospel were written, Patristics support only the order used in the Canon: Mt, Mk, Lk, Jn. Furthermore, Luke was a journalist (in the best sense of the word), interviewing witnesses to set out an ordered account of the life of Christ and the spread of Christianity (Acts). Matthew’s Gospel was probably one of Luke’s sources.

IIRC, there was an attempt to replace “daily” with “superstantial” in the liturgy, made by Abelard & Heloise, that was rejected by the visiting Bernard as an unnecessary innovation.

That being said, there is obviously nothing wrong in using Luke’s version in private prayer.

 

[PacoG]

A better question - why does it matter to you?

Curiosity is not a virtue. Be satisfied with what the Church has decided and pray the prayer as it is.

For the purposes of charity, I will not answer or respond to your attempt to censor my question. This is not a matter of the infalliblity where questioning is discouraged.

I do hope the moderator strikes your question.

Our Precious Lord gave us two versions of the same prayer. I was wondering how one became preferred or if there some instances where the Lucan version might be used.