The following comes from:
Angela Crowell, “Lead Us Not Into
Temptation,” in Recent Book of Mormon Developments: Articles from The
Zarahemla Record (Independence, Miss.: Zarahemla Research Foundation, 1984),
63. The article, as it is a then-RLDS publication, follows the RLDS (now COC) chapter/versification
system for the Book of Mormon. For an LDS treatment of this issue, see Kevin
L. Barney, Joseph Smith and Matthew 6:13
“Lead Us Not Into Temptation”
By Angela Crowell
Many readers have wondered why
the Lord’s prayer is worded in the Book of Mormon and Inspired Version of the
Bible. In III Nephi 5:105 the verse reads “lead us not into temptation”,
and in Matthew 6:14 the verse reads “suffer us not to be led into
temptation.”
Various authors in the church
have sought to explain this apparent contradiction. Some have suggested that
the scribe erred in writing from memory and thus gave us the wording in the
King James Version. [1] However, even though Joseph Smith revised the Book of
Mormon manuscript in 1837, he did not change the wording to agree with the
Inspired Version of the Bible. [2] perhaps the Seer did not consider this
difference to be a mistake.
In E. W. Bullinger’s book, Figures
of Speech Used in the Bible: Explained and Illustrated, [3] the author gives
reference to this New Testament scripture. Bullinger is a scholar of high
standing. Since the original date of publication in 1898, this classic work has
been considered by many scholars to be the foremost authority on the subject;
and it is still in print. According to Bullinger, while the language of the New
Testament is Greek, the men who recorded it were Hebrews: the words are Greek,
the thoughts and idioms are Hebrew. The New Testament abounds with Hebraisms;
i.e., expressions conveying Hebrew usages and thoughts in Greek words. This has
a significant bearing on the interpretation and understanding of many passages
in the New Testament. Bullinger stresses the importance of the idiomatic
expression of words and phrases (the exact reproduction, not of the words, but
of the thought and meaning of the phrase). Unless the translation is idiomatic,
serious mistakes can be made; if a translation is absolutely literal, many errors
will also appear. [4]
In his chapter on idioms and idiomatic
usages of verbs, the author presents several rules and examples of active verbs
including the following: “Active verbs were used by the Hebrews to express, not
the doing of the thing, but the permission of the thing which the agent is said
to do.” Two examples form the Old Testament are Exodus 4:21 and Jeremiah 4:10.
In Exodus 4:21 we read in the King James Version: “I will harden his heart
(i.e., I will permit or suffer his heart to be hardened), that he shall not let
the people go.” In Jeremiah 4:10: “Lord God surely thou hast greatly deceived
this people”: i.e., “Thou hast suffered this people to be greatly deceived by
the false prophets, this people to be greatly deceived, by the false prophets
saying: Ye shall have peace, etc.” [4]
The most important example of
this idiomatic usage in the New Testament is Matthew 6:`13 (14 I.V.). Bullinger
interprets the passage this way: “Lead us not (i.e., suffer us not to be led)
into temptation.” [5] Numerous Bible commentaries support Bullinger’s statement
on this scripture. J. R. Dummelow explains in his book, One Volume Bible Commentary:
“God does not Himself tempt (James 1:13) but He allows us to be tempted, and what
God permits is often spoken of in scripture as His act.” [6]
Adam Clark’s Commentary on the
Bible agrees: “Bring us not in, or lead us not into. This is a mere
Hebraism. God is said to do a thing which He only permits or suffers to be
done.” [7] In Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament the author gives the
same interpretation. “This phrase, then must be used in the sense of permitting.
Do not suffer us or permit us, to be tempted to sin. In this it is implied that
God has such control over us and the tempter, as to save us from it if we call
on him.” [8] Finally, in William Hendriksen’s New Testament Commentary,
Expositions of the Gospel according to Matthew, the author comments: “Though
it is true that God himself never tempts man to sin (James 1:13), it is also
true that there is good reason to ask him not even to permit us voluntarily to
run into temptation.” [9]
Bullinger’s interpretation of the
idiomatic use of the verb in this scripture—supported by other scholars in the
field—thus offers the most plausable explanation concerning the difference in
wording between the two books of scripture. “Lead us not into temptation” is a
Hebrew idiom strictly translated in the Book of Mormon. “Suffer us not to be led
into temptation” is correctly interpreted into English in the Inspired Version
of the Bible. Obviously Joseph was a
Seer in the truest sense of the word.
In summary, both are correct: the
wording in the Inspired Version is (in a sense) an explanation of the Hebrew
idiom which clarifies the meaning for us. The wording in the Book of Mormon is
the Hebrew idiom itself. We take comfort in the words: “I, Nephi . . . make a
record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews
and the language of the Egyptians.” (1 Nephi 1:1)
Footnotes:
1. Question Time, Vol. 2,
Herald House, Independence, Mo., 1967, p. 66
2. Ibid.
3. E. W. Bullinger, Figures of
Speech used in the Bible: Explained and Illustrated, Messrs. Eyre and
Spottiswoode, London, 1898, pp. 819-20.
4. Ibid, p. 823.
5. Bullinger, p. 824.
6. J. R. Dummelow, (ed.), The
One Volume Bible Commentary, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1936, p. 647.
7. Adam Clark, Commentary on
the Bible, abridged by Ralph Earle, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1979,
p. 778.
8. Barnes’ Notes on the New
Testament, edited by Ingram Cobbin, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids,
1980, p. 30.
9. William Hendriksen, New Testament
Commentary, Exposition of the Gospel according to Matthew, Baker Hook
House, Grand Rapids, 1973, p. 337.