The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #54952 Message #852694
Posted By: Don Firth
23-Dec-02 - 02:43 PM
Thread Name: The Lord's Prayer wording
Subject: RE: The Lord's Prayer wording
In some of the more stiff-lipped fundamentalist sects, mini-jihads have been fought over which word one is "supposed" to use, but basically, it's a matter of local option. No verwhelming "authority" on the matter.
Thus spaketh a retired pastor of my acquaintance:-- The word "trespasses" was lobbied for around the time of the King James translation because landowning aristocrats wanted to invoke Divine Authority against trespassers and poachers. The idea was to equate trespassing with sin. A bit self-defeating, actually, because after a night of heavy poaching, all the poacher needed to do was recite the Lord's Prayer and as far as his heavenly status was concerned, he was off the hook.