Why "forgive those who trespass against us" instead of "forgive our debtors"

[abcdefg]

Lord’s Prayer in Vulgate DRB KJV GLB CUV all read “as we forgive our debtors” where did this “liberal” “as we forgive those who traspass against us” come?

 

[JimG]

I don’t know. But the “forgive us our debts” translation would probably make mortgage bankers and credit card companies nervous.

 

[abcdefg]

JimG:

I don’t know. But the “forgive us our debts” translation would probably make mortgage bankers and credit card companies nervous.

 

[Todd_Easton]

In the article on the Lord’s Prayer in the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia it says, in part:With regard to the English text now in use among Catholics, we may note that this is derived not from the Rheims Testament but from a version imposed upon England in the reign of Henry VIII, and employed in the 1549 and 1552 editions of the “Book of Common Prayer”. From this our present Catholic text differs only in two very slight particulars: “Which art” has been modernized into “who art”, and “in earth” into “on earth”. The version itself, which accords pretty closely with the translation in Tyndale’s New Testament, no doubt owed its general acceptance to an ordinance of 1541 according to which “his Grace perceiving now the great diversity of the translations (of the Pater noster etc.) hath willed them all to be taken up, and instead of them hath caused an uniform translation of the said Pater noster, Ave, Creed, etc. to be set forth, willing all his loving subjects to learn and use the same and straitly commanding all parsons, vicars and curates to read and teach the same to their parishioners”. As a result the version in question became universally familiar to the nation, and though the Rheims Testament, in 1581, and King James’s translators, in 1611, provided somewhat different renderings of Matthew 6:9-13, the older form was retained for their prayers both by Protestants and Catholics alike.

Tyndale’s Lord’s Prayer was:
O our father, which art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Let thy kingdom come. Thy will be fulfilled, as well in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, even as we forgive them which trespass us. Lead us not in to temptation: but deliver us from evil, (For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory for ever.) Amen.

 

[copland]

The Gospel of Matthew was orinially written in Aramaic according to the early church fathers, and I trust that Matthew’s gospel was. And the ancient Aramaic versions that exist such as the Peshitta has “offences/trespasses.” There are some sceptics that are very critical about the ancient Aramaic versions of the NT due to the fact that they support Catholic claims such as Peter being the “rock.”

As I checked out how early Greek Fathers read and interpreted the opheilamata and they unanimously understood the context to mean trespasses, as any sane exegete would. I would imagine, only by speculation, that the “Our Father” was established in the form of a liturgical prayer and modified by the Church into what we use in liturgy. Much like the 10 Commandments “Remember the Lord’s Day and keep it holy,” verses what is in Scripture that say’s “Observe the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.” Though my speculation may be off, I’m not the Pope!