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Deliver us from (the) evil..........one?

Posted: March 16th, 2016, 10:12 pm
by Matt Lahey
Hi all,

Was just having a think about Matthew 6:13 and how πονηρου is being translated. I've always recited the Lord's prayer ending it with deliver us from the evil one.

What I do know is that πονηρου can be translated as adjective in the Genitive Masculine Singular or as a Genitive Neuter Singular and depending on what gender is being used, that will dictate whether πονηρου is translated as the "evil one" or, simply put, "evil".

So, how do we come to a conclusion on which to use and what techniques are involved at arriving to that conclusion? Or does it really boil down to context?

Cheers!

Matt

Re: Deliver us from (the) evil..........one?

Posted: March 18th, 2016, 8:57 am
by jgibson000
You might want to have a look my discussion of this petition in my book The Disciples' Prayer: The Prayer that Jesus Taught in Its Historical Context. (Fortress, 2015) There is reason to believe that the petition is for divine aid to be kept from doing evil.

Jeffrey

Re: Deliver us from (the) evil..........one?

Posted: March 18th, 2016, 2:22 pm
by RandallButh
Two items are necessary here.

First, the ambiguity of Greek πονηροῦ was not an ambiguity when literally back translated into Hebrew. In Hebrew 'the evil' הרע was never a reference to the Devil, though it was obviously so used in Greek, as Matthew 13 makes clear. However, it one assumes that the very Hebraic wording of Matthew's version of the Lord's prayer reflects fairly wooden translation, then 'the evil' means just that: "evil", as a generic abstraction.

Second: Jeffrey's point is well taken. The previous clause "lead us not into temptation" probably has the general meaning "do not let us succumb to temptation," probably from a literal Hebrew "lead us not into-the-hands-of temptation" אל תביאנו לידי נסיון. With that background, the next clause, 'deliver us from evil', would include delivering from evil's influence in our lives and from doing evil. (See Proverbs 2.12 for the multi-directional (bi-directional transitivity): doing evil and being influenced by evil.) However, evil can also include calamity and צרה 'trouble.'
Parallelism in this prayer can be expected and is highlighted in the opening 'may your Name be sanctified, may your Rule come, may your will be done'. All three clauses affirm the petitioner's desire for God to rule their actions and their life, although the three expressions use quite different imagery.