And the lectures? Let me put it this way. In the outline handouts for the lectures included in the registration packets with the detailed schedule, the first outline has this as line 6: "Three Petitions Focused on God (1 & 3 in 3rd person aorist imperative passive)" Before you pester your local English teacher, let me comfort you by telling you that there is no aorist imperative passive in the English language. But there is such a form in Greek.
Needless to say, I'm having fun. The lectures are not entirely in Greek, but Thurston's close readings of the Lord's Prayer (mostly the version from Matthew 6) are rooted in a careful reading of the original Greek language -- and its probable Aramaic antecedents -- as well as our cherished English version of the prayer. Which is exactly how it should be, but some lecturers try to gloss over such things, worried that people's eyes will glaze over when such linguistic study is described.
Thurston needn't worry about that though. Her lectures have been engaging, full of humor and her own personality, mixing fun, serious reflection, nudges against cherished misconceptions, and the breadth of her study.
Like many, she notes the two halves of the prayer, the first focused squarely on God and the second on human needs. She has spent a lot of time carefully considering the meaning of several key words, such as "Father" (the Abba of Aramaic) and "daily" (an odd compound Greek word that only appears in extant literature once -- except for subsequent quotations of this verse in Matthew).
Thurston consistently argues for the inclusiveness of the final three human petitions in the prayer, suggesting that the focus on base human needs means that this model prayer by Jesus is supposed to be prayed on behalf of everyone. This would mean that the Lord's Prayer becomes a prayer of sustenance for all people, forgiveness for all people, and security for all people. This has interesting implications for us, including a very tough question: do we really want these things that we're praying for? Try praying the Lord's Prayer and asking for your daily bread while you're shopping for a $20,000 car or a $100,000 house (or a $100,000 education, for that matter). It's a little scary to think about, and maybe even scarier in reality, as Thurston said several times during her lectures.
As for me, I was most drawn into her brief discussion of the Greek structure of the second half of the Lord's Prayer. (Scroll to next paragraph if you do not want to read any more about Greek.) It was only a part of her description, but it grabbed my attention (and will likely keep my attention for a while whenever I pray this prayer). I had not realized that there is a pretty strong structure in the Greek (which, as a language with little punctuation, structures mostly with conjunctions). There is a kai...kai...kai me...alla structure to the petitions, which implies a structure of important... more important... most important. If this is the case, the climactic piece of the Lord's Prayer, as written in Greek, is its final phrase (in the oldest forms): "BUT save us from the evil (one)." I know that I've always considered it a lesser phrase in the prayer, compared to "thy kingdom come, thy will be done." In the Greek, though, the opposite is true. Aside from the opening (vocative) address to God, it is the climactic piece of the prayer.
What do we do with such evidence that counters the cherished form of the prayer we carry around with us in our head and recite whenever called upon to do so? Is it even important, given that all of the prayer is based on scriptural, meaning that each phrase in the Lord's Prayer has significance for us? I think it might, though I'm unsure what or how right now. All I know is that I stared at the Greek (on my phone -- technology is a wonderful thing) off and on throughout the lecture, carefully looking at that structure (and carefully considering other options -- Greek phrasing with conjunctions is a complicated thing), and then seeing that it's undeniably there. And I sat for a long time after the lecture, trying to imagine what that means. I don't have any good answers yet, but I'll keep mulling it over.
The final lecture considered ways that we could better utilize the Lord's Prayer in preaching and in our personal prayer lives. Some of these suggestions may even find their way into our faith life in the coming months, which would be a good thing. As these lectures proved -- at least to me -- there is always more we can learn, even about things we already know deeply, like the teaching of the Lord's Prayer.
No comments:
Post a Comment