Trespasses or Debts?

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Greetings friends,

I was hoping someone could give me some insight as to what the proper word to use in The Lord’s Prayer is, “forgive us our trespasses” or “forgive us our debts”.

Thank you kindly
 
Either. When I say it, I say trespasses, but I’m not going to be angry if you say debts.
 
From Wiki:
Though Matthew 6:12 uses the term debts, the older English versions of the Lord’s Prayer uses the term trespasses, while ecumenical versions often use the term sins. The latter choice may be due to Luke 11:4, which uses the word sins, while the former may be due to Matthew 6:14 (immediately after the text of the prayer), where Jesus speaks of trespasses. As early as the third century, Origen of Alexandria used the word trespasses (παραπτώματα) in the prayer. Although the Latin form that was traditionally used in Western Europe has debita (debts), most English-speaking Christians (except Scottish Presbyterians and some others of the Reformed tradition) use trespasses. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Established Presbyterian Church of Scotland as well as the Congregational denomination follow the version found in Matthew 6 in the Authorized Version (known also as the King James Version), which in the prayer uses the words “debts” and “debtors”.
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Catholics rarely take an either/or approach, we usually take a both/and approach. What I mean is this:

Whereas many Protestants will say “you must choose to say either trespasses or debts, only one can be correct”,

Catholics will say “you can use both trespasses and debts, whichever you feel more comfortable with or whichever is used in the prayer you are saying”.
 
“Trasspasses” is thr ORIGINAL and better term:slight_smile:

God Bless you and Pray very much

Patrick
 
I use debts, sins, trespasses.

I use holy, hallowed,

I use thou, yours

I use art, is

Its the Prayer that counts, the communion with God the Father, in conversatiin with God the Father.

🌹💗
 
Well today we connote “trespass” with property infringement and “debts” with financial obligations. But as with much of what jesus said, we need to think more abstractly. What do both words have in common?
 
From the Haydock Commentary:

Ver. 12. Of all the petitions this alone is repeated twice. God puts our judgment in our own hands, that none might complain, being the author of his own sentence. He could have forgiven us our sins without this condition, but he consulted our good, in affording us opportunities of practising daily the virtues of piety and mildness. (St. Chrysostom, hom. xx.) — These debts signify not only mortal but venial sins, as St. Augustine often teaches. Therefore every man, be he ever so just, yet because he cannot live without venial sin, ought to say this prayer. (Cont. 2 epis. Pelag. lib. i. chap. 14.) — (lib. xxi. de civit. Dei. chap. xxvii.) (Bristow)
 
Episcopalians use “trespasses” because they traditionally in the land owning class, Presbyterians being involved in commerce use “debts” as it is more in tune with that vocation.

That’s what I was told, although I’m not sure how that sheds light on which one Catholics should use.
 
The debts, transgressions, trespasses, and offenses are one we commit against God.
It’s about sin.
 
The word “debts” is the more literal translation; the word “trespasses,” in the archaic understanding of the word that meant offenses or sins, is the more dynamic translation. The translation “trespasses” is justified by the context. (See Matthew 6:14)

It was Jesus himself who sometimes likened sins to debts. (See Matthew 18:21-35; Luke 7:40-50)
 
Honestly, I’ve never heard it said as debts until I got a CD of hymns that had the Our Father as a song. It seems that in these parts (I’m a Northeasterner) that we all say “trespasses.”
 
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