17 Apr 2024

The Lord's Prayer and the Holy Name

In Matthews 6:9 we read:

????????? ????? ??? 

 

Hagiasth?t? onoma sou

hallowed be name of You

They are simple Greek words but how should we translate them?   How to translate "Hagiasth?t?"? It is a form of the normal Greek word for "holy".  "Hallowed" is not a bad translation but it is an old-fashioned form of English.  "Reverenced" or "revered" would be better.  Perhaps "treated as Holy" would be best.  

And what is the name being referred to? God the father is normally referred to in the Greek NT as "theos".  But pagan gods are referred to in Greek as "theos" too.  So the prayer is not referring to that.  It is clearly referring to the distinctive name for the Hebrew god,  as used thousands of times in the OT: "Yahveh", or "Jehovah" in English.

So Jesus was explicitly telling his disciples to not to follow the priestly practice of substituting other words for "Yahveh". It seems a pity that Christians have chanted those words  so often while not heeding them.  Most Christians follow the  practice of the  Pharisees despite Christ telling his followers not to.  Rather amazing.

I am not here arguing for the rightness of the Jehovah's Witness denomination but they have clearly got one thing right.  They are one of the very few who obey the instructions  in the Lord's Prayer

JR