Lead Us Not Into Temptation

 

The words "Lead us Not Into Temptation" From the Lord's prayer, presents trouble for Pope Francis. He states that the translation makes it sound as if God is the one leading us into temptation. I've said this prayer since I was knee high to a tadpole and I never looked at it this way. However, here are a few excerpts from the story according to World Catholic Report

Pope Francis said that “lead us not into temptation” is a poorly translated line of the Our Father.

“This is not a good translation,” the Pope said in the video, published Dec. 6. “I am the one who falls, it’s not (God) who pushes me toward temptation to see how I fall. A father doesn’t do this, a father helps us to get up right away.”

He noted that this line was recently re-translated in the French version of the prayer to read “do not let me fall into temptation.”

The Latin version of the prayer, the authoritative version in the Catholic Church, reads “ne nos inducas in tentationem.”

The Pope said that the one who leads people into temptation “is Satan; that is the work of Satan.” He said that the essence of that line in the prayer is like telling God: “when Satan leads me into temptation, please, give me your hand. Give me your hand."

It further states...

"According to the French episcopal conference, the decision to make the change was accepted by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in June 2013.


The new translation, released Dec. 3 to mark the first day of Advent and the beginning of the new liturgical year, now reads “ne nous laisse pas entrer en tentation,” meaning, “do not let us fall into temptation,” versus the former “ne nous soumets pas à la tentation,” or “lead us not into temptation.”

I take issue with this. I get what he's trying to say, but I think he's wrong. We are going by our Church's Mother tongue which use to be Latin before Vatican II decided every church had their own tongue which was to be spoken in their own language and we no longer focused on the teaching of Latin.

The translations of the Lord's Prayer were translated from Greek (which was translated from Christ's language of Aramaic) to Latin. 
Some say the translation is faulty and the Greek translation (which is "And let us not be led into temptation" should be the replacement.

I respectfully disagree that it was a misleading translation. Great care was taken with The translation process. et ne nos inducas in tentationem (Lead us not into temptation) is a literal translation of the Greek version, given to us by St. Jerome. (click the name to learn more about this Saint)

To understand the translation, let us understand St. Jerome. He was highly intelligent, a historian, and a trilinguistic. He was a holy man and the father of the standard Latin translation of the bible that has held for 1600 years. He, in fact, is the patron saint of archeologists, bible scholars, librarians and translators. He studied himself under the renowned theologian, St. Gregory. St. Jerome could understand Greek, Hebrew and Latin. He could also read Aramaic, but could not speak it well. 

There were early translations from Greek to Latin, before St. Jerome, but they missed the mark. Since Latin was becoming far more widely spoken and understood than Greek, they needed a proper, and accurate translation, and that is when St. Jerome came into the picture. He also took it upon himself to translate the old Testament from Hebrew into Latin.

St Jerome is credited with RESTORING the New Testament to it's original Greek state in his Latin Translation from the Old Latin translations which were deemed inadequate. In fact, many have stated you can see the Greek influences in the Latin Vulgate.

So the actual translation is not misleading or faulty. The accepted Latin translation is as close as literal as the language can get. St. Jerome worked on the thought of, "not word for word, but sense for sense". This is now called the Dynamic equivalent. The DE is used when the readability of the translation is more important than the preservation of the original grammatical structure. Meaning, the words may not translate exactly grammatically, but the spirit is the same. So "Lead us not into temptation" is the same as "let us not be led into temptation".

I never grew up thinking God led me to sin. But I understood there'd be trials, tribulations and tests (which would include temptations from the evil one). We were taught to understand that we are praying for deliverance from those tribulations and tests.

We must also consider that languages evolve and temptation may have had a different meaning that it does now, or (more likely) may have had more than one meaning. Most Apologists believe that temptation meant "Test" or tribulation in this sense. Thus making it "please do not put us to the test, instead deliver us from evil."

Just like Adam and Eve, God sometimes puts our faith and obedience to the test, and the evil one takes advantage. So the translation in Greek (let us not be led) and Latin (Lead us not into) are both valid in this sense when you understand the meaning behind it.

A lot of people accuse this of being an English translation problem since many languages use a form of "Let us not be led." That is not true.

The 1600 year old Lord's Prayer in the St. Jerome Latin is the first known use of the phrase "Lead us not", and all Roman Catholic churches used it, all across the world.

That is until Vatican II when the masses began to be said in the tongue of whatever country. Even then, many used a translation of the Latin prayer in their own language until modern times. Like the French who only this month changed the words from "lead us not" to "let us not be led".

So it is not an "English" problem... it is a lack of proper theological education problem.

Whichever the Pope chooses, I will continue to pray it as it's always been prayed, only I prefer to pray it in Latin. There used to be a time when every Catholic church in every country across the world spoke one language in Mass, Latin. Prayed as one unit, spoke with one voice. All around the world we prayed the same words, together.

Now we speak in thousands of different languages, some of whom do their own translations. It is no longer a single unified Church in Christ.

I don't feel we need a better translation, we need better teachers to explain these questions. We should also return to a unified, one Church way again, where we are all speaking the same language with the same translation and interpretations, in one voice.

I will always prefer the Traditional Latin Mass for this reason.

We need to stop dumbing down our religion and smartening up the Faithful. Instead of watering things down so people don't have to actually LEARN something, make them educate, make them get involved. TEACH them.

If Catholicism was being properly taught to our children, not only at Catholic schools or CCD, but at home... this wouldn't be an issue now.

When I taught CCD, the kids told me they weren't even going to church. The parents were using CCD as daycare. Other than that, they never went to church, never talked about God at home. The parents felt it was our responsibility to impart thousands of years of theology on kids 1x a week for a few months a year. Parents hold responsibility for their child's eternal soul and it's just not being done and now we have this. Changing prayers because the Pope can't answer the simple question as to "why it is this way". instead of teaching, change it... right? (sarcasm)

I again blame Vatican II for trying to water the religion down. When we lose our traditions, when we move to the modern, we put our own conveniences before God, and this is what you get. That's a blog for another time however.

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For more information on the Latin Bible and St Jerome:

Further Reading:

St Jerome and the Latin Bible

Et Ne Nos Inducas in Tentationem

St Jerome the Bible Translator

The Vulgate

Biography of St. Jerome

Christ's Birth - an Unplanned Pregnancy?

So whoever runs “Ask a Catholic Priest” on Facebook, is having a very hard time with people disagreeing with him. He is acting all persecuted and even claimed he's being called a heretic. (No one that I personally saw called him that.) Being wrong (or perceived wrong) doesn't make someone a heretic.

He posted a Meme of Christ's Manger bed, and the caption read: “An Unplanned Pregnancy Saved the World.”

Now it caused a few people to scratch their heads. No one disagreed with the pro-life sentiments other than, Our Lord's birth should not be equated with sexually active couples (whether married or living in sin... because in the Catholic faith, premarital sex is still a sin.) who have an “oops” and find themselves pregnant when they weren't planning on having children at that time (or ever). 

That is a false teaching to say our Lord is unplanned.

Our Lord, God the Son, was planned since Adam and Eve's banishment. God always knew he would send his Son to redeem what Adam and Eve had done. There would be a new Eve (Mary) and a new Adam (Jesus) who would be the shining examples of what he meant his creations to be. Loving, obedient, faithful, and Christ's sacrifice would offer us redemption and conquer death which was thrust upon us because of Adam and Eve's disobedience.

The priest (I assume it's a priest since it's called “Ask a Catholic Priest”) became indignant and stated he wasn't talking about God, who is all knowing. He was talking about Mary. That it was an unplanned pregnancy on her behalf.

Wrong again Padre. Far be it from me to argue Theology with a priest as I am no expert... but Mary planned on having Jesus. It was a split second decision but a planned one none-the-less.

Mary did not find herself “accidentally” pregnant with an unwanted or mistimed child. In fact, when St. Gabriel the Archangel appeared to her, she wasn't even pregnant yet. Right there is the key to whether this was planned, or unplanned. SHE WAS NOT PREGNANT YET.

She was surprised, for sure. “How can this be? I have not known a man.” (IE she was a virgin) and hearing the angel tell her she was to BECOME pregnant (not that she already was) was confusing. How could she become pregnant if she's never been with a man and would not be as she was not yet married. (She wasn't about to commit a sin.)

Gabriel explained (again, she's not yet pregnant) that with God, all things are possible, in fact... her cousin Elizabeth who was of advanced age and barren, is now with Child. He then explained that (if she said yes, cause Mary still had free will to reject this miracle from God) The Holy spirit would come to her, and that God would overshadow her. So he explained on how she would come to be with child.

Mary, STILL NOT YET PREGNANT, said, “I am a servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you have said.”

So the angel came to her, explained to her what God wanted of her, how it would be done, Mary agreed... THEN she became pregnant. The moment she had foreknowledge that she would become pregnant by saying “yes” to God's miracle... The pregnancy was PLANNED on every end. On God's end since time began... and now Mary's, who was awaiting the miracle to happen, willingly.

If she was willingly awaiting the Holy Spirit to come to her, and God to overshadow her, awaiting the moment she would become with child, how was it unplanned at this point?

Again, this is nothing like two sexually promiscuous teenagers who accidentally become pregnant. She was told it was what God wanted, the angel laid out how it would happen, she agreed to it, THEN became pregnant fully knowing it was about to happen and willingly accepting and desiring it.

Well, this didn't sit well with the priest who told me to “look up the definition of unplanned”. And that “free will is a matter of faith and has nothing to do with the unexpected pregnancy.”

Uh... Free will is TRUTH, not faith. Even atheists understand we are free to make our own choices and live with the consequences. And since Mary was also imbued with free will, she had the chance to back out before she ever became pregnant. The fact that she agreed to it before the pregnancy happened, shows that using her free will, she planned on following through with God's request of her. Kind of how a husband and wife decide it's time to have a child... only a little faster.

And I did one better than simply looking up the definition of “unplanned” since a single word's meaning can change depending on its use.

I looked up the definition of “Unplanned Pregnancy.” According to most sources including the CDC:

“An unplanned pregnancy is an unintended pregnancy that is reported to have been either unwanted (that is, the pregnancy occurred when no children, or no more children, were desired) or mistimed (that is, the pregnancy occurred earlier than desired).”

So lets walk through that definition.

Was Christ an unintended pregnancy? No. His birth was predestined since the beginning of time, and since St. Gabriel explained in detail to Mary what would happen, she intended to have it be done to her as it was said. So Christ was an intended pregnancy.

Was Christ unwanted? No. When Mary agreed to be mother to the Word Incarnate, she wanted that child and already loved him before he was even concieved in her womb. Just knowing was enough for her to want him and expect him.

Was Christ mistimed? No. It was exactly as God had perfectly planned. He hand chose Mary before her birth... she is the immaculate conception, meaning she was born free of Original Sin so that she would be a clean and sinless vessel for the Son of God to be born. And yet, Mary still had that choice, and she was ready to accept Jesus as her child. The timing was exactly as it needed to be.

So Mary's pregnancy and Christ's birth does not fit into the definition of an unplanned pregnancy by any stretch of the imagination.

And again... while I don't disagree with the pro-life sentiments, it is a false teaching to place our Lord and Savior on the same level as a scared teenager who finds herself unwantingly pregnant through her own promiscuity (as most teenage pregnancies happen). An unplanned pregancy is a couple, whether through promiscuity outside of the sacred bonds of marriage, or even within a marriage, actively avoid trying to have a child while still fulfilling their sexual desires, then have a whoops.

That is NOT Christ's conception or birth!

I have suddenly found that my posting privileges on that site are gone.

I'm not a theological expert by any means... But it would seem like common sense that Christ was planned, was wanted by Mary the moment she said 'yes' before she was even pregnant with him, and that he came at the intended time as he will one day return on a cloud of Glory from Heaven, at the intended time.

As I stated before I got kicked off the page: “Vatican II: Spreading nonsensical theology since the 60s.”

That said, there is nothing more precious than a life, and even an unexpected pregnancy can be a blessing. Whether it's a blessing on the family, a blessing on an adoptive family who can not have children of their own, a blessing on a community (the child could grow up to be a charitable business owner) or a blessing on the world, (The child could grow up to be the person who cures cancer, who ends hunger, or who is set to be the next St. Francis, St. Therese, St. Padre Pio...)

The life of a child is precious and should never be unwanted, even if unplanned. If you find yourself in a situation where you are pregnant and can not care for a child... please, still consider life, consider adoption. There are many Catholic services available to help you through either the adoption process, or the transition for if you choose to keep your child. Adoption changed the life of my cousin who couldn't have children of her own. It also changed the life of a child my mom's cousin adopted and raised as her own.

A friend of mine had an unplanned pregnancy, she was left by the man she trusted who fathered the child, but she raised that child and sacrificed much for that child, and now he's a man who is returning the favor to her. There was so much love that she never expected when she was in her panicked state of mind.

So, this argument about the meme aside, remember that life is precious. So precious, Jesus came to us as a little innocent infant who grew into something unimaginably great. So great, his sacrifice and ressurection has saved us from death, has brought us redemption, and a way into heaven for an eternal life of peace and love. Obviously, There will only ever be one Savior, but every child born has the potential to be something wonderful, just waiting to do good in the world in Christ's name. It just takes faith, hope, love, and sacrifice. 

God Bless

Happy Advent.