A Prayer to Our Father

Hebrew Origins of the Lord's Prayer

by Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson

This book employs the Chicago Manual of Style rule that "pronouns referring to God or Jesus are not capitalized. (Note that they are lowercased in most English translations of the Bible.)" (15th edition, chapter 8, section 102). The only exceptions are biblical translations that use uppercase for pronouns, which have been reproduced exactly. Biblical passages and other ancient sources were translated by the authors unless otherwise indicated. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. DSShebrew-1.0 (Unicode DSS Font) by David Colo.

Cover design by Tova Safra.

Cover photo by Johan Schutte.

Concept-editing by Shifrah Devorah Witt.

ISBN 0-9762637-4-2

978-0-9762637-4-6

Copyright © 2010 by Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson, All Rights Reserved.

http://www.HilkiahPress.com/

http://APrayerToOurFather.com/

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

The Lord's Prayer

King James Version

Our Father in heaven, May your name be sanctified. May your kingdom be blessed. Your will shall be done in heaven and on earth. Give us our bread continually. Forgive us the debt of our sins as we forgive the debt of those who sin against us. Do not bring us into the hands of a test, and protect us from all evil. Amen.

The Lord's Prayer

Hebrew Matthew Version

We wish to thank the one who is

"the cause of all causes and the reason for all reasons"

for bringing us together to write this book.

hu ilat kol ha-ilot ve-sibat kol ha-sibot

Contents

Title Page

Introduction

The Journey to Common Ground

The Hebrew Gospel of Matthew

In Search of the Prayer

Cave of Our Father

Mount of the Beatitudes

Blessed Trees

Mount Tabor

Mount Arbel

Horns of Hattin

The Hebrew Meaning of the Avinu Prayer

Our Father in Heaven

May Your Name be Sanctified

May Your Kingdom be Blessed

Your Will Shall be Done in Heaven and on Earth

Give Us Our Bread Continually

Forgive Us the Debt of Our Sins

Do Not Bring Us Into the Hands of a Test

And Protect Us From All Evil

The Last Word

The Avinu Prayer

Hebrew Terms

Greek Terms

Footnotes

Introduction

Keith Johnson and Nehemia Gordon at Mt. Tabor, Israel

As the only prayer written by Jesus himself, over a billion Christians consider the Lord's Prayer the ultimate expression of their faith. This quintessential Christian prayer is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew in Greek and has been translated into over 1,400 languages. It was originally taught in Hebrew to the Jewish multitudes who came to hear Jesus preach on a Galilean mountainside. In English, the Lord's Prayer is sometimes called the "Disciple's Prayer," although, in most other languages, it is simply called the "Our Father" after its opening words.[1] In ancient Hebrew, it was known as the Avinu Prayer, based on the Hebrew word meaning "Our Father."[2]

According to the Gospel of Matthew, the multitudes that came to hear Jesus teach were captivated by his sermons. Jesus used simple terms that any ancient Jew could easily understand.[3] However, much was lost in translation when his message began to spread among the Greek-speaking non-Jews. At the end of the 1st century, a Christian writer named Papias reported that the Gospel of Matthew was written in Hebrew and "everyone translated it as he was able."[4] In the 16th century, the great Protestant reformer Martin Luther concluded that without a comprehensive knowledge of the Hebrew language, the full meaning of the New Testament would forever remain elusive.[5] The Avinu Prayer is no exception, and only by uncovering the prayer's Hebrew origins can we hope to understand it the way it was originally understood by the Jews of the Galilee some 2,000 years ago.

* * *

Many factors could have conspired to prevent us from ever writing this book. First and foremost, we could not be more different. One of us is a white Jew, while the other is an African American Christian. This is not just a difference of race but, more importantly, of culture and religion. One of us was raised in the bookish culture of dry Jewish intellectualism, while the other was nurtured in the Jesus-focused spirit-led world of an inner-city church.

In our desire to be guided by the word of God, we looked to the words of the prophet Amos, which are translated in the King James Version of the Bible:

Can two walk together, except they be agreed?[6]

We agonized over the question of whether a Jew and a Christian could walk together when not agreed on fundamental issues of faith. This inspired us to examine the words of Amos in the original Hebrew, and we discovered that what the prophet actually said was:

Can two walk together, without having met one another?[7]

We decided to take up the challenge of Amos and meet one another on common ground in order to walk together humbly before God. We did this by focusing on our common scriptural heritage, the Old Testament, while respecting our mutual differences. We found that these differences allowed for a unique collaboration that helped us better understand the ancient prophetic writings that each of us holds dear.

As the biblical Abraham went forth from the land of his forefathers on a journey guided only by his faith, we embarked on a study of the Avinu Prayer, not knowing where we would be led. We found that, beyond understanding the Hebrew meaning of a prayer taught by a Galilean Jew from Nazareth, we discovered a path of reconciliation that this ancient prayer invited us to walk. We invite you, the reader, to join us on this journey to explore the Hebrew origins of the Avinu Prayer, commonly known as the "Lord's Prayer."

The Journey to Common Ground

Authors' note: As co-authors we were challenged as to how to bring each of our voices to the page. We decided to write some sections of the book in first person singular, taking turns being the speaker in different chapters.

Our journey to common ground began when I left my home to study the Bible and Nehemia left his home to live it. We ended up meeting in the ancient city of Jerusalem with a shared passion for the Word of God.

My own spiritual journey began in high school when I became involved with a local inner-city church in my native Minneapolis. After receiving an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota and working in corporate America for a number of years, I decided it was time to give back to the community. I took a job as director of an inner-city youth ministry where it was my responsibility to teach young people the Bible. After three years I realized that what I could teach the youth was limited by my own biblical understanding. To be able to do more I would need further training, so I decided to move my wife and two small boys to Chicago where I enrolled in the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. At this evangelical seminary, I took many courses in the Bible and theology including New Testament Greek and Old Testament Hebrew.

During my first semester of language studies I immediately recognized Greek as a European language with many similarities to English. In contrast, Hebrew struck me as strange and unfamiliar with its Semitic structure and foreign concepts. Yet there was something captivating about the language spoken, written and read by the people of the Bible. I could not get over the fact that Abraham, Moses, David and the prophets communicated in Hebrew and not English. God could have selected any language in the universe to reveal his Word and yet he chose Hebrew. I found myself thinking: "Why would I not want to know this heavenly language?" After completing all of my language requirements, I continued my Hebrew studies with an independent reading course. Using reading tools under a professor's guidance, I was able to slowly make my way through the Torah - the Five Books of Moses - but I never gained a deep understanding of or proficiency in the Hebrew language.

After receiving my Master's Degree in Divinity, I put away my Hebrew reference tools and took a position as a pastor at the same inner-city church in Minneapolis where I began my journey of faith as a youth. Over a three-year process I was ordained as an Elder in the United Methodist Church. Occasionally I dug out my Hebrew reference tools to incorporate a word or concept into one of my sermons, but otherwise my unused Hebrew skills gradually waned over the years.

This all changed when I felt a calling to relearn the Hebrew language. When I opened up my old seminary books I realized I had forgotten nearly everything. Over the course of a year I took small but focused steps toward regaining the Hebrew knowledge I had acquired in seminary. Then one day I had a dream in which I saw a scroll flying over my head. When I woke up from the dream I heard a voice instructing me to be in Jerusalem on the biblical festival of Shavuot (Pentecost). I decided to answer this invitation and began exploring the logistics of traveling to Israel.

As the date of my pilgrimage to the Holy Land approached, I had a burning desire to obtain a Hebrew "Torah Scroll." The previous year I had seen a Torah Scroll for the first time and when I approached to touch it I was unexpectedly moved to tears. I was told by numerous sources that my chances of obtaining a scroll were slim. A Torah Scroll contains the Five Books of Moses from Genesis to Deuteronomy written out by an expert scribe on parchment. The process takes nearly a year and as a result costs tens of thousands of dollars. I was told that even if I could raise the funds, no Jewish scribe would ever sell such a sacred object to a Christian. Torah Scrolls are intended for use in Jewish synagogues and to sell one to a non-Jew would be considered a sacrilege. Many people told me to just accept the reality that I would never be able to get my own Torah Scroll.

I prayed for an answer and eventually heard about a man in Israel who was selling used Torah Scrolls. The parchment on these ancient scrolls had turned brown and the edges were worn, so they were no longer considered "Kosher" for use in the synagogue but still had value to collectors. I didn't know if I could afford one of these old Torah Scrolls but I was determined to get one.

As I prepared for my journey to Israel I decided against a standard organized tour. I had been to the Holy Land once before and was disappointed at being shuttled around on an air-conditioned bus from one tourist site to another with little time to appreciate the real Israel. This time I would stay at the house of a friend of a friend and find my own way around the country. My host lived within walking distance of the Old City of Jerusalem, which gave me the freedom to explore on my own.

When I arrived in Israel, I spent several days experiencing the sights, sounds and smells of Jerusalem, all the while keeping an eye out for a way to get my Torah Scroll. Although I had the phone number of the collector who was selling the old scrolls, I was hesitant to call without having someone to translate for me. On one of my excursions around Jerusalem, I befriended a Palestinian man named Zacchi who agreed to help. However, he wanted to first show me what was happening in the West Bank. Zacchi and I ended up going on a series of adventures that brought us to the war-torn Palestinian-ruled town of Bethlehem before finally arriving at the apartment of the Torah Scroll collector in the Jewish village of Maale Adumim.

The collector was away on business in Greece so Zacchi and I were greeted by his friend who had been instructed to show us the scrolls. The collector's friend, who happened to be a white South African, presented me with three beautiful Torah Scrolls. While I was examining the scrolls, the collector called from Greece. It turned out that he spoke fluent English and after a few niceties over the phone, he said to me: "Just take the Torah Scroll you want and when you get back to America give me a call so we can agree on a price." I handed the phone back to the South African man who nodded as the collector filled him in. I stood there in disbelief: an Israeli Jew was telling his white South African friend to give a holy object worth thousands of dollars to a Palestinian Arab and an African American whom he had never met without any money being exchanged. This turn of events seemed nothing short of a miracle.

Keith's Torah Scroll, containing the first five book of the Bible for both Jews and Christians.

A few nights later, my host arranged for me to meet a special tour guide named Nehemia Gordon at the Mount Zion Hotel. The purpose of the meeting was to plan the details of a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem the next morning, but by this time all I could think about was my Torah Scroll. Nehemia started talking about the various options for the tour but I was not really paying attention. Finally I interrupted Nehemia and asked him to listen to my story. I told Nehemia about my dream, about the voice telling me to come to Jerusalem on Shavuot, and about my adventures in getting the Torah Scroll. Nehemia sat there politely smiling but eventually admitted he had great doubts about my story. He could not believe for a minute that a Gentile had been able to obtain a real Torah Scroll. He informed me that it was likely I had been duped by some unscrupulous person who sold me a mock Torah Scroll, like the type carried by children on the Jewish festival of Simchat Torah. These faux Torah Scrolls are printed on paper rather than written out by hand on parchment and are only worth a few dollars. When I was done telling the story I said to Nehemia, "So will you come see the scroll and read it for me?" Nehemia reluctantly agreed but reiterated that he suspected the scroll was a fake. I laughed and said: "You'll see!"

When we arrived at the home of my host, I ran up the stairs from the basement garage, leaping two steps at a time. I rushed to the Torah Scroll lying on the large living room table and grabbed hold of the protruding rods around which the ancient parchment was wrapped while Nehemia slowly meandered up the stairs. When Nehemia finally reached the living room, I turned to him from behind the Torah Scroll panting and said: "Here it is!" Nehemia was certain he would be shown a fake scroll printed on paper, but as he approached he was surprised to see real parchment peeking out from beneath the velvet cover. He admired the beautiful designs on the ancient velvet wrap that covered the scroll and read the words of Isaiah embroidered in golden thread:

For the Torah shall go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.[8]

I had not even noticed these words on the cover of the Torah Scroll and when Nehemia read and translated them I was in awe. Standing in Jerusalem with my new Torah Scroll, I felt like I was living this prophecy.

As Nehemia removed the velvet cover he remarked that this was indeed a genuine Torah Scroll, and a very old one at that. I waited in anticipation as Nehemia began to read from the scroll.

"What does it mean?" I asked.

"It's the section on the feasts in Leviticus 23," Nehemia explained. I immediately picked up my Bible and turned to Leviticus 23 so I could follow along. As Nehemia read and translated, it dawned on me that the scroll had opened to the section on Shavuot. When Nehemia reached the end of the section, I let out a shout of excitement and jumped for joy, clenching my Bible in my hands. When I was done dancing with joy I turned to Nehemia, who had been startled by my vocal and physical expressions of enthusiasm, and said: "Do you realize the significance of this? I had a calling to come to Jerusalem on Shavuot and get a Torah Scroll which everyone told me was impossible. When I finally got the scroll it opened to the section on Shavuot!" Nehemia told me he was impressed but not sure what to make of the dream or the "calling." He had been raised in the intellectual tradition of Lithuanian Jewry, which placed great emphasis on scholastics and book learning but viewed dreams and miracles with skepticism.

"That's very interesting," Nehemia remarked rather dryly. I was surprised by Nehemia's reserved lack of emotion and asked, "Don't you realize the magnitude of what just happened?!" That night we experienced the meeting of two different cultures, of two very different approaches.

The next morning when we met for the tour of the Old City, I decided I would convince Nehemia to become my Hebrew teacher. I had been impressed at how he read and translated from the Torah Scroll with such ease and wanted to be able to do the same thing myself. The tour began early in the morning at the subterranean tunnels that run along the length of the Western Wall. For centuries Jews had been coming on pilgrimages to pray in front of a tiny patch of wall on the western side of the Temple Mount; as far as anyone knew this was the only surviving remnant of the Second Temple. After the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967, Israeli archaeologists carried out excavations which proved that the Western Wall actually continued underground for over 1,000 feet. As we walked through a series of tunnels along the newly exposed sections of the Western Wall, I admired the massive foundation stones which provided support for the Temple complex above.

It occurred to me that I needed to build my own biblical faith on such solid foundations that could survive the ravages of time. Before coming to Israel I had talked about my desire to own a Torah Scroll with my fellow Christians, and one concern that was expressed was: "What does the light of the New Testament have to do with darkness of the Old Testament?" As I walked through the subterranean tunnels, dwarfed by the massive foundation stones, I realized I could never hope to understand the "words in red" of the New Testament without the foundation of these words in the Old Testament.

After the tunnels along the Western Wall, we went to see many other ancient sites around old Jerusalem, including the "Broad Wall" mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah, and the "City of David" where Jerusalem started off as a small Jebusite town.[9] Throughout the day we talked about many scriptural issues; whenever Nehemia stopped to catch his breath or sat down to rest, I was waiting with a question about some scriptural verse. After each question Nehemia would pull out his Bible and read a biblical passage to me that contained the answer. I was surprised to see that Nehemia's Bible was worn out and missing part of the cover but what surprised me most was that it was entirely in Hebrew. I had seen many Bibles with Hebrew and English on opposite pages but as I peaked over Nehemia's shoulder there was no English to be found. Throughout my years at Christian seminary I had always thought of Hebrew primarily as a reference tool, and it surprised me that someone could actually read Scripture in the original language the way that most Americans read it in English. I finally understood what the Apostle Paul meant when he said:

What advantage then has the Jew? ...Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.[10]

It was not by accident that Jesus brought his message to the Jews who were deeply immersed in the "oracles of God." Some Christians may think the Old Testament, or as Jews prefer to call it the "Hebrew Bible," lost its relevance after the crucifixion.[11] However, the Book of Acts praises the Jews of Berea for basing their faith on it:

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.[12]

When Paul preached in the synagogue of Berea, the New Testament had yet to be written and the "Scriptures" that the Jews examined were none other than the Hebrew Bible. I realized that to fully understand the message of Jesus of Nazareth I had to be like the Bereans and make the Hebrew Bible my Scriptures. This was no longer just about reading a Torah Scroll as a symbolic act. I wanted my daily Bible devotions to be in the Bible's original language, and I was excited about the prospect of reading the actual words that God spoke to the prophets, rather than someone's translation of these words. I was determined to make the Hebrew Bible "my book," just as the English translation of the Bible had been for so many years.

Towards the end of the day I turned to Nehemia and asked him if he would teach me Hebrew. Nehemia responded that he was far too busy, not to mention the logistical nightmare of teaching someone so far away. But I did not give up and eventually Nehemia agreed to consider it if I could prove I was a serious and committed student. Nehemia had met many pilgrims in the past that felt overwhelmed by the emotional and spiritual experience of being in Jerusalem, and he suspected that my excitement would wear off shortly after returning home.

When I arrived back in America, my burning desire to read Scripture in the original language just intensified. After two months of calls and e-mails Nehemia finally agreed to create a rigorous curriculum that would give me a solid foundation in biblical Hebrew and help me gain a true proficiency in the language, rather than be limited to using it as a reference tool. Nehemia also proposed a weekly telephone conference in which we would read the Hebrew Bible together. He soon realized that this was not just a one-way relationship of teacher and student. As we read the Bible each week in Hebrew, Nehemia found that I brought a different viewpoint that challenged his preconceptions and forced him to delve deeper into the Hebrew language and the words of the prophets. Over time, our weekly telephone conferences transformed from a "class" into a joint study, in which we explored different facets of Scripture together. We realized that each of us brought a unique perspective to the Scriptures that made for a powerful synergy. A Jew and a Christian had arrived at common ground and were walking together by the light of God's holy Word.

The Hebrew Gospel of Matthew

The Avinu Prayer in a manuscript of Hebrew Matthew.

If someone had told me as a young man that one day I would be joining a Christian to study the Hebrew origins of a prayer taught by Jesus and recorded in the New Testament, I would not have believed him. I was raised in Chicago as the son of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi with a classical Jewish education. From an early age I studied the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud. Among my earliest memories are sitting on my father's knee, being taught that God revealed the traditions recorded in the Talmud to Moses on Mount Sinai. When I was old enough to study the Talmud for myself, I saw that it actually contained the opinions of the ancient Rabbis who debated one another on every conceivable subject. Statements so common in the Hebrew Bible such as "Thus says the LORD" and "The LORD spoke unto Moses saying" were nowhere to be found. To make matters worse, many of the interpretations in the Talmud seemed implausible to me.

One day I announced to my elementary school rabbi that the Talmud was nothing more than the traditions of men and therefore we ought to reject it when it contradicts the word of the living God. I rather naively assumed that I would be praised for this profound observation that had somehow eluded my ancestors for so many centuries. Instead my rabbi rebuked me for speaking blasphemy and warned me in a harsh tone, "Never say such a thing! That's what the Karaites say!" I was not familiar with "Karaites" so I looked the word up in an encyclopedia. I discovered that throughout history there had always been Jews who believed the Hebrew Bible to be the perfect Word of God but considered the rabbinical traditions to be nothing more than the non-binding interpretations of men. These Jews were known as "Karaites," which in Hebrew means "Scripturalists." I realized that I was a "Karaite," a Jewish Scripturalist, and decided to dedicate my life to understanding the Hebrew Bible.

My experience with the Talmud left me convinced of the importance of reading the Hebrew Bible in its original language. I had seen how easily the meaning of a scriptural verse could be altered through translation and came to the conclusion that every translation is someone else's interpretation. My problem was that growing up in the Diaspora left me disconnected from the language and culture of my Israelite ancestors. To overcome this, I spent years learning ancient Hebrew and reading about ancient Israel. During my high school years I used to slip out of class in order to spend my afternoons reading books about Hebrew linguistics and biblical archaeology at the Spertus College of Judaica in downtown Chicago. After high school I realized that if I wanted to truly live the Hebrew Bible I would need to move to Israel, where I could learn to speak Hebrew.

During my first months in Israel it took immense effort for me to formulate even the simplest sentence. Every Hebrew word that came out of my mouth had to be consciously translated from English. Then, after about six months, I had my first dream in Hebrew. When I woke up I realized that I understood the Hebrew dream without any English translation. Over the years I have honed my language skills, becoming fluent in speaking, reading, and writing the language of the prophets. To further develop my knowledge of the culture and language of ancient Israel, I enrolled in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where I earned a Bachelor's Degree in Biblical Studies and Archaeology and eventually a Master's Degree in Biblical Studies.

Since arriving in Israel, one of my favorite pastimes has been taking long walks through the country's beautiful hills and valleys. The Land of Israel is an integral part of God's covenant with the Jewish People and many Jews believe walking through the Land is a holy act that testifies to this eternal covenant. This belief is based on God's promise to Abraham in Genesis:

Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.[13]

God reiterated this promise in Deuteronomy, saying:

Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory.[14]

My devotional walks, combined with my study of archaeology and passion for the Scriptures, gave me an intimate knowledge of the Land of the Bible. This combination made me a natural guide and before long I found myself leading groups of pilgrims and visitors on tours of biblical sites. When Keith came to Israel looking for someone to give him a biblical tour of the Old City of Jerusalem, I was an obvious choice.

As I took Keith through the ruins of Jerusalem, I wanted to convey to him what it would have been like to walk the streets of this ancient city alongside the biblical prophets. For me, archaeology and history have never been about the simple memorization of facts and dates, but instead are about understanding the ancient sites and sources the way they were understood by the ancients themselves. Jerusalem is such a powerful place that, with the proper explanation, any visitor should be able to get a sense of what it would have been like to hear Jeremiah prophesy in the city gates or to listen to Jesus teach in the Temple courtyard. All it takes to experience this is to understand the biblical ruins and ancient sources in their proper historical and cultural context.

When Keith and I began to study Scripture together, we applied the same approach to the Bible that I had used as a guide of ancient Jerusalem. This was essentially the "Karaite," or Jewish Scripturalist, approach to the Bible known as peshat, a Hebrew word that translates as "plain meaning." The idea of "plain meaning" comes from the 31st chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, in which the Israelites were commanded to hold a public reading of the Torah once every seven years. In ancient times, only the rich could afford to own copies of the Torah, which had to be painstakingly written out by hand. Most ancient Israelites did not have the luxury of reading a chapter of Scripture every night before bedtime because the books necessary for this were not available. They could only hear the Mosaic revelation at the public readings once every seventh year. The "plain meaning" of Scripture is the meaning that would have been obvious to any ancient Israelite shepherd or farmer hearing the Torah read in one of these public readings. The commandment in Deuteronomy about the public readings concludes: "their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God."[15] This means the Torah was written in such a way that it could be understood by a child, hearing it read aloud for the first time. On the other hand, any interpretation of Scripture that would not have been obvious to a simple Israelite shepherd or farmer could not be what God intended. As Keith and I studied Scripture together, we searched for the historical and cultural context that would help us understand the ancient prophecies the way they were understood when first spoken thousands of years ago.

Shortly after first meeting Keith, I was warned by a very close friend that it was "dangerous" to study Scripture with a Christian. "The only thing Christians are interested in is your eternal soul," my friend cautioned. "Any interfaith dialogue is just a pretext to try and get you to believe in Jesus." I took these words to heart and asked Keith to agree to two basic ground rules in our ongoing study. The first rule was that neither of us would try to convince the other to change his faith. The second was that we would only discuss the Hebrew Bible. During our initial study, which went on for more than a year, we avoided any discussion of the New Testament or Jesus.

To this day we continue to observe the first rule and find that it creates an atmosphere of mutual respect in which we have both learned a great deal. Surprisingly it was I, not Keith, who suggested that we suspend the second rule and study the New Testament together. This happened as a result of a series of encounters I had which, in turn, led me on a journey of discovery into the Hebrew sources of the New Testament.

That series of encounters began when a friend called excitedly about a rather unusual gentleman he had met. He told me about an American tourist that had settled into a cave in the side of a deep gorge in the Judean Desert, not far from the town where he lived. When my friend asked the man why he was living in a cave, he answered with a long monologue about the end-times.[16] Most Christian readers will be familiar with the phrase "end-times," but my Jewish friend had never heard of it. Eventually, he realized that the man was talking about what Jews refer to as yemei ha-mashiach, the "Messianic Era." It turned out that this man believed the end-times, or Messianic Era, were to begin imminently. He thought his best chance of survival was to wait things out in the desert and then make his way to Jerusalem as soon as the smoke cleared. As my friend was telling me the story he admitted that the whole end-times thing seemed rather odd to him. However, he was impressed that, in addition to quoting the New Testament, this man also talked at length about "Old Testament" prophecies. He knew that I had dedicated my life to studying the Hebrew Bible and was convinced that this man and I would have lots to talk about.

I agreed to a short meeting at an outdoor Jerusalem caf'. When I arrived at the caf' I was confronted by a middle-aged man with a full beard dressed in a long white robe that looked like something from a Christmas nativity scene. I wanted to get this meeting over with as soon as possible! The man began by explaining that he believed Jesus to be the Messiah but then immediately went on to talk about prophecies in the Hebrew Bible. As he spoke, I was impressed by his eloquence and felt bad for having judged him based on his outward appearance. We started discussing various biblical passages and before I knew it our "short" meeting had lasted four hours. Over the coming weeks we met several more times and I developed a respect for his knowledge of biblical prophecy and love for the Jewish people.

As days and then weeks went by, world history did not come to an abrupt end as my new friend had anticipated, and eventually he moved out of his cave and into a hotel until finally returning to America. In the years that followed, he came on many visits to Israel and each time we would get together and speak for hours. On one of these visits, he called me up and asked me to meet with him to discuss a difficult passage he was struggling with in the Gospel of Matthew. At the time, I was working as an assistant to a professor at the Hebrew University who was in charge of the Dead Sea Scrolls and one of my responsibilities was to translate ancient Hebrew texts for the Dead Sea Scrolls Reader.[17] My new friend suggested that I could use the same linguistic skills to explain the difficult passage in Matthew that I used to translate the Dead Sea Scrolls, especially since both were written in the 1st century CE.[18] In addition to the Dead Sea Scrolls, I had studied other ancient Jewish sources from the same period, such as the Mishnah and the writing of Josephus Flavius. I told him I would be happy to examine the passage in the Gospel of Matthew just as I had examined these other ancient Jewish sources, as long as he understood that I was approaching it not as a "believer" but as a scholar of ancient texts. He said this was exactly what he was looking for and asked me to begin at once.

The exciting textual investigation that ensued is a story in its own right. In the end I examined the Gospel of Matthew in a number of ancient versions and translations. That investigation eventually led me to a Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew, preserved by the Jews down through the Middle Ages, which we will refer to throughout this book as "Hebrew Matthew."[19] In the verses I was investigating, the Greek version of Matthew appeared to either contradict itself or require a great deal of complicated explanation. In contrast, Hebrew Matthew presented a clear and coherent message.

As I continued to explore Hebrew Matthew after that initial investigation, I felt I needed to get a "Christian perspective." Throughout my academic studies I had observed secular scholars often misunderstand things in the Hebrew Bible that were obvious to anyone who read it as a sacred text. This convinced me of the importance of not studying Hebrew Matthew in a vacuum. It was in this context that I first approached Keith about studying Hebrew Matthew together.

Keith told me he was intrigued by the notion of a Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew. He knew that the Church Fathers, the writers of the early Christian centuries, had stated that the Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Hebrew. The earliest such report came from a 1st century Church Father known as Papias, who wrote:

Matthew composed his history in the Hebrew dialect, and everyone translated it as he was able.[20]

Papias was not the only one to mention that Matthew was written in Hebrew. For example, the 4th century Church Father Jerome wrote:

The first evangelist is Matthew, the publican, who was surnamed Levi. He published his Gospel in Judaea in the Hebrew language.[21]

Keith knew that the Hebrew origins of the Gospel of Matthew were also confirmed by the Greek version itself. At seminary he was taught that the Greek text of Matthew contained numerous Hebraisms, that is, Hebrew expressions that have been literally translated into Greek. These Hebraisms appear foreign and strange to Classical Greek experts accustomed to reading the works of Homer and Aristotle, but sound perfectly natural to Hebrew experts. Many New Testament scholars believe that the reason Matthew is full of Hebraisms is that it was either written in Hebrew or translated from Hebrew sources.

While this evidence suggested that the Gospel of Matthew was written in Hebrew, Keith wanted to know how this ancient Hebrew Gospel was preserved. I explained that after the time of the Church Fathers, Hebrew Matthew disappeared from the historical record for nearly 1,000 years before turning up again in 1380. In that year, a Jewish rabbi in Spain named Shem Tov Ibn Shaprut copied Hebrew Matthew as an appendix to his polemical work Even Bochan. At the time, many of the Jews living in Catholic countries were routinely forced to defend their faith in public debates with Catholic authorities. These debates were disastrous for the Jews, who could be forcibly converted to Catholicism if they lost or banished from their homes if they won. Shem Tov wanted the Jewish participants in these debates to be familiar with the New Testament, so he added a Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew to the end of his book.

For years this Hebrew version of Matthew was assumed to be nothing more than a translation from Latin or Greek. Then in 1987, an American scholar at Mercer University named George Howard proved that Hebrew Matthew was not a translation at all but an original Hebrew work.[22] The strongest evidence for this was an abundance of Hebrew "word puns."[23] A word pun is a play on words that uses two similar sounding Hebrew words in close proximity in order to create a beautiful texture to the Hebrew narrative. Word puns appear on every page of the Hebrew Bible but would be rare in a book translated into Hebrew from Latin or Greek. An example of a word pun in the Hebrew Bible is that the first man is called Adam because he was taken from the ground, which in Hebrew is called adamah. The Hebrew reader immediately realizes that the name Adam ,"man," is related to adamah, "ground," but in English the word pun is completely missed. Howard discovered that Hebrew Matthew contained a large number of word puns which suggest that it was written in Hebrew.[24]

An excellent example in the Gospel of Matthew of a Hebrew word pun is the vision that Joseph has when Mary was pregnant with Jesus. According to the Gospel of Matthew, an angel appears to Joseph and tells him what name to give the unborn child. In the English translation of the Greek, the angel is recorded as saying:

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.[25]

Both the English and Greek reader are left wondering what the name "Jesus" or Iesous has to do with the angel's statement that "he will save his people from their sins." But in Hebrew it is obvious. The words of the angel are recorded in Hebrew Matthew as follows:

And she shall give birth to a son and you shall call his name Yeshua for he will save (yoshia) my people from their iniquities.[26]

When the angel in the Gospel of Matthew says to Joseph, "he will save my people from their iniquities," this was a word pun connected to the name "Yeshua." Yeshua is the Hebrew name for "Jesus," as millions of moviegoers learned when they saw Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ. In that film, Jesus was busily putting the finishing touches on a table in his carpentry workshop when his mother called out to him: "Yeshua! Yeshua! Are you hungry?" This was the first time tens of millions of people around the world had ever heard Jesus' original Hebrew name: Yeshua. The three English words "he will save" from Joseph's vision are expressed by the single Hebrew word yoshia. This sounds very similar to the name Yeshua, and both words are derived from a common Hebrew root. In Hebrew, the yoshia-Yeshua word pun jumps out at the reader but in Greek it is completely lost, just as it is in English.

The fact that Hebrew Matthew was slightly different from the Greek version of the Gospel was no threat to Keith's faith. Every seminary-trained pastor knows that the original manuscripts written by the authors of the various New Testament books no longer exist, not even in Greek. The Greek manuscripts that have survived are copies of copies many generations removed from the originals. Of the 5,000 Greek manuscripts that have survived, no two are identical, and for centuries scholars have been painstakingly sifting through the differences, trying to determine the most original reading of each verse. New Testament scholars often consult early versions such as the Old Latin and the Syriac Aramaic to supplement information culled from Greek manuscripts, so studying a Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew was not all that revolutionary. What made Hebrew Matthew so special was the prospect that it was copied from the Hebrew original. This is not to say that every single word in the surviving manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew is exactly what was written by Matthew in the 1st century, but one can definitely sense, feel, and hear the original in this text.

About a year after Keith and I started studying together, he asked me if I would be willing to receive a visitor from America who was interested in learning Hebrew. When I asked him who this mysterious "visitor" was, he got all quiet and then after a brief pause blurted out: "Reggie White." I had never heard this name before, so I asked Keith who he was. Keith chuckled and then waited for me to say that I was joking. When he realized I was serious he explained that Reggie White was a retired American football player who took the Bible very seriously. I knew that Keith was involved with professional athletes in his ministry. He had served as a chaplain at the 1996 Olympics and for the Minnesota Vikings, and ran a ministry called C.A.U.S.E. - Christian Athletes United for Spiritual Empowerment. Since I never had much interest in sports, this did not mean anything to me. As the day of the visit approached, I mentioned to various friends and relatives that "some guy named Reggie White" was coming to Israel to meet with me. They responded with varying degrees of amazement, as if I had just said that I was meeting with the Pope or the President. Later I found out that Reggie was not just some run-of-the-mill American football player, but was to be inducted into the Football Hall of Fame.[27] He was also credited with helping the Green Bay Packers win the Super Bowl in 1997 and played in another Super Bowl in 1998.

When Reggie arrived in Israel I discovered that he was on a quest to learn Hebrew and was especially interested in Hebrew Matthew. He told me that when he retired from football he decided to dedicate the rest of his life to studying the Scriptures. He wanted to gain a complete mastery of the sources of his faith - the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament - and be able to read them in the original languages. For years he had suspected that some of the New Testament books were written in Hebrew. At the same time, he was a little apprehensive, and wanted to see the "originals" for himself.

The next day we drove to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to look at microfilms of Hebrew Matthew. Each microfilm contained a series of photographs that reproduced every page of a particular medieval manuscript. We looked at several microfilms of manuscripts of various Hebrew sources, including Hebrew Matthew. I told Reggie about the history of Hebrew Matthew and how it was copied by Shem Tov in 1380, and when we looked at one particular manuscript of Hebrew Matthew, Reggie asked me, "So is this the original manuscript written by Shem Tov?" My answer was, "Well, not exactly." I explained that we were actually looking at a copy of a copy of Shem Tov's original manuscript. Shem Tov himself had copied Hebrew Matthew from what must have been a very old Hebrew manuscript in his possession. Unfortunately, Shem Tov's source is now lost and all we have are copies of copies several times removed from the original.

Reggie White and Nehemia examining manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew on a microfilm reader.

Reggie sat there thinking for a few minutes, and then asked if Hebrew Matthew could be trusted when the manuscripts were from such a late period in comparison to the Greek that survived in "original" manuscripts. I explained that, actually, none of the 5,000 or so Greek manuscripts were "originals." The New Testament was written in the 1st century CE while the surviving Greek manuscripts ranged in date from the 2nd century all the way down to the 16th century. Most of the early Greek manuscripts were fragments containing only a small number of verses. The earliest complete Greek manuscript of the entire New Testament was the Codex Sinaiticus, which dated to the 4th century. While this ancient manuscript had great importance, scholars compared it to thousands of other manuscripts in order to try and reconstruct the original Greek text. Over two-thirds of the Greek manuscripts used by New Testament scholars dated from after the year 1100, which means they were separated from the date of authorship by more than 1,000 years.[28]

Reggie was obviously disturbed by what I'd just shared about the New Testament. I assured him that although the Greek version of the New Testament was not preserved in any "original" manuscripts, this did not mean it was unreliable, and it was common for ancient books to survive only in relatively late manuscripts. For example, the writings of the 1st century Jewish historian Josephus Flavius only survived in manuscripts from the 9th century and later. Nevertheless, scholars recognize the authenticity of the words preserved in the late manuscripts of Josephus and archaeologists have even used them as a guide for carrying out excavations in the Holy Land.[29] I concluded by pointing out that the linguistic evidence (such as the large number of word puns) that gave validity to Hebrew Matthew was not negated by the late date of the surviving manuscripts any more than the writings of Josephus or the Greek New Testament were negated by their reliance on manuscripts of a relatively late date.

I was impressed by Reggie's next question because it showed he had understood the technical part of what I had just said while also appreciating the big picture. "So what about the Old Testament?" Reggie asked. "Are there original Hebrew manuscripts of that?" This was something I knew quite a bit about. As a Master's student I had served as a researcher on the Hebrew University Bible Project, working with ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible.[30] I explained to Reggie that, as a matter of fact, the Hebrew Bible was preserved in very late manuscripts which were copies of copies removed from the originals by over 2,000 years. It was true that there were many fragments of the Hebrew Bible preserved among the Dead Sea Scrolls, but the single most important and accurate manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, the one that serves as the basis of most modern printed Bibles, is the Aleppo Codex. The Aleppo Codex was copied in Tiberius by a Karaite Jewish scribe named Aaron Ben-Asher in the year 924 CE. Reggie turned to me with a very serious look and said in his deep raspy voice, "Let's go see that one."

Getting in to see the Aleppo Codex was no small feat. Bible scholars consider this the single most important manuscript in existence. Because of the importance of the Aleppo Codex, it is given a prominent place alongside the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Shrine of the Book, a branch of the Israel Museum in the heart of Jerusalem. What most tourists don't realize is that the manuscript on display at the Shrine of the Book is a "reproduction."[31] The Aleppo Codex is quite simply considered too important to put on public display. Instead it is housed in a secure underground vault. It was actually one of my lifelong dreams to see the original Aleppo Codex, the one in the vault. When Reggie expressed his desire to see it, I realized I had been presented with a rare opportunity. I called up a top official at the Shrine of the Book and told him I was escorting a famous American football player named Reggie White who wanted to see the Aleppo Codex. He casually replied that this manuscript was on display to the public and we were welcome to come and see it. I told him that my guest would not be satisfied with the reproduction on display to the public and wanted to see the real one in the vault. There was silence on the other end of the line. He eventually replied with an annoyed tone in his voice that they did not allow anyone into the vault to see the Aleppo Codex, not even Ariel Sharon, who was the Prime Minister of Israel at the time. I was disappointed by his answer but I thanked him and hung up the phone.

A short time later I received a frantic telephone call from the director of the Israel Museum, the supervisor of the person I had previously spoken to. He told me that he would be honored to personally show Reggie White around the museum and even take him to the vault. Apparently he had a major donor who was an avid football fan and his only request was that Reggie be photographed in front of the plaque in the museum honoring his donor. My lifelong dream of seeing the Aleppo Codex was about to become a reality.

Reggie White and Nehemia looking at the Aleppo Codex in the vault.

That day Reggie and I saw microfilms of what were arguably some of the most important manuscripts of the New Testament. We also got into the vault to see the original Aleppo Codex, the single most important manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The vault also contained the original Isaiah scroll, the only complete manuscript of an entire biblical book from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which was also considered too important to put on public display. When the day was over Reggie remarked, "This was the best day of my life." This took me by surprise, so I asked him if he meant it literally. After all, he had won a Super Bowl. He turned to me and without hesitation said this day had been better than winning the Super Bowl because "it was an answer to prayer."

After Reggie returned to America, Keith and I resumed our study of Hebrew Matthew. There was one question, however, that still bothered him. Keith had been told that Aramaic replaced Hebrew when the Jews returned from Babylon, and therefore Yeshua must have spoken Aramaic, not Hebrew. If Yeshua and the Jews of his era spoke Aramaic, then why would Matthew write his Gospel in Hebrew? From the time I had spent interacting with Keith I knew he would not be satisfied with anything less than a detailed answer backed up by historical evidence. So I decided to give him a quick overview of the history of the Hebrew language.

I explained to Keith that until 1947 most historians assumed that Hebrew had disappeared as a spoken language during the Babylonian Exile which began in 586 BCE. Then the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in eleven caves in the Judean Desert, and they included many original works written in Hebrew. The language of the Dead Sea Scrolls proved once and for all that Hebrew survived the Babylonian exile. It was true that some Jews returned from Babylon speaking Aramaic, but Hebrew was still widely used in Second Temple times. When Alexander the Great conquered Israel in 332 BCE he brought with him the influence of the Greek language. By the time of Yeshua there were three distinct languages spoken by the Jews of Judea and the Galilee: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Many Jews were bilingual and some were trilingual.

Confirmation that Hebrew was still a spoken language in the time of Yeshua came from another collection of ancient scrolls found in the Judean Desert known as the "Bar Kochba" Scrolls. In the year 132 CE a Jew named Simeon Bar Kochba led a revolt against the Romans and succeeded in driving them out of Judea. Bar Kochba was proclaimed Messiah by the leading rabbi of the time, Rabbi Akiva, and reigned as King of the Jews for three and a half years. Eventually, the Romans returned with new troops and quelled the revolt, killing Bar Kochba in the process. In 1953 archaeologists found scrolls from the time of the Bar Kochba revolt, including letters written by Bar Kochba himself to his commanders in the field. Many of these scrolls were written in Hebrew and contained a type of slang only found in a spoken language. This proved that Hebrew continued as a spoken language, alongside Aramaic and Greek, for at least 100 years after Yeshua.[32]

The Hebrew language took a major blow when the Romans put down the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE. The Roman strategy was to ethnically cleanse Judea of its Jewish villages, obliterating the heartland of spoken Hebrew. While the number of Hebrew speakers was drastically reduced by these Roman atrocities, pockets of Hebrew still survived. Evidence of this is found in the Talmud, the teachings of the ancient Rabbis, which tells of an incident that happened around the years 200 CE. By this time the mother tongue of most of the Rabbis was Aramaic or Greek. The Rabbis were still able to converse in Hebrew, but only in the way that priests at the Vatican speak Latin to one another, as an artificial scholarly language. As a result they did not know the meaning of many common Hebrew words used in the Bible. One day the Rabbis overheard a conversation of one of their maidservants who was a native Hebrew speaker. They realized that by eavesdropping on the conversations of this simple woman they could learn the meaning of many words that were otherwise unknown to them. For example, Isaiah prophesied over Babylon: "And I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction."[33] While the Rabbis could converse in scholarly Hebrew, they did not know the common Hebrew word for "broom" used by Isaiah until they overheard the maidservant telling one of her subordinates to take a broom and sweep the floor.[34]

Eventually Hebrew disappeared as a spoken language and was only brought back to life in the 19th century through the efforts of Eliezer Ben-Yehudah. During the centuries that Hebrew was dead as a spoken language, it was still studied by Jews throughout the world to read sacred texts. The Jewish believers in Yeshua, known as the "Nazarenes," used a Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew as late as the year 392, when the Church Father Jerome wrote:

Matthew, also called Levi, apostle and aforetimes publican, composed a gospel of Christ at first published in Judea in Hebrew... The Hebrew itself has been preserved until the present day in the library at Caesarea which Pamphilus so diligently gathered. I have also had the opportunity of having the volume described to me by the Nazarenes of Beroea, a city of Syria, who use it.[35]

After the time of Jerome, little is known about the fate of Hebrew Matthew until it reappeared in Spain in 1380 as an appendix to Shem Tov's Even Bochan. This may have been due to the Roman persecution of the Nazarenes. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Nazarenes were persecuted because they observed the seventh-day Sabbath. Their synagogues were closed, their books were burned, and they were forced underground.[36] Many Nazarenes escaped these persecutions by assimilating into the larger Jewish community. The last Christian-owned copy of Hebrew Matthew must have been brought over to the Jewish community by one of these persecuted Nazarenes.

Today the dark specter of fear and persecution that loomed over Hebrew Matthew in earlier centuries has passed from the world, and this ancient Hebrew text can finally be studied in a spirit of openness and understanding. As a New Testament book written in Hebrew by a Jew named Matthew Levi for a Jewish audience in Judea and preserved by medieval Jewish scribes, Hebrew Matthew has value for both Christians and Jews. For the Christian, Hebrew Matthew is a sacred treasure which provides a rare glimpse at the Hebrew teachings of the Christian Messiah. For the Jew, Hebrew Matthew is part of a rich cultural heritage, no less important than the Dead Sea Scrolls. Like Hebrew Matthew, the Dead Sea Scrolls were written 2,000 years ago by a group of Jews who challenged the Jewish religious establishment of the time.

The study of Hebrew Matthew is an exciting journey into the frontier of New Testament research. The process carried out by Greek scholars over the last few hundred years of analyzing and comparing manuscripts is only in its infancy when it comes to Hebrew Matthew. Professor George Howard, who rediscovered Hebrew Matthew, wrote in 1987 that he only intended his printed edition to "serve as a working text... until a more complete evaluation of the Shem-Tob Hebrew Matthew is available." Howard based his preliminary edition on nine manuscripts but predicted that there would be an "accumulation of more manuscripts" that would provide a better picture of the textual history.[37] Howard's prediction has come true, and today 28 manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew are known to exist. Some of these manuscripts were discovered while researching this book but most have been known to the scholarly world for over a decade. Despite this, little progress has been made in the study of Hebrew Matthew since 1987.

As Keith and I plumbed the depths of this rich textual tradition, we became excited about doing an in-depth study of a single passage, the way the entire Hebrew Gospel needs to eventually be studied. After long discussions and deliberations we decided to focus on the "Lord's Prayer," or as it was originally known, the "Avinu (Our Father) Prayer." Despite our differences of faith and practice, the most important thing Jews and Christians have in common is our worship of the same God we both call "our Father."[38] Thus, the natural choice for our joint study was the prayer that Yeshua of Nazareth taught the Jewish multitudes to offer to the one true God: "Our Father in heaven."

Our first step was to methodically examine the prayer in all the available manuscripts. Next we systematically compared every word of the Hebrew prayer with its Greek counterpart. Finally we investigated the nuances of every single word based on the Hebrew Bible and ancient Jewish sources from the period. All of this was done while considering the words within their historical, cultural, and linguistic context. At first we did this as a private study for our own personal edification, but then we realized that what we had discovered was too valuable not to share with our Jewish and Christian brothers and sisters. We decided to present the results of this process of study in an accessible manner while also inviting the reader to explore the details provided in the notes. It is our hope that this book will inspire both Jew and Christian to explore a common heritage preserved in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. We also hope this book will serve as an invitation for those of all faiths to embrace the blessing of the Hebrew language which was spoken by all mankind before the Tower of Babel. The prophet Zephaniah foretells a time when the Hebrew language shall once again unite the entire human race so "that they all may call on the name of the LORD, to serve Him with one accord."[39]

In Search of the Prayer

As we began our study of the Avinu Prayer, we had no plans to ever leave the confines of our hometowns. Between nearby research libraries and our own arsenal of books and resources, we thought we had everything we needed to do a thorough exploration of the Hebrew origins of the prayer. Using modern technologies we were able to easily communicate with one another on a daily basis. But eventually, we realized that the type of intensive investigation we were attempting to carry out required a face-to-face study. It was decided that Nehemia would fly to the United States to join me for a period of rigorous inquiry.

When Nehemia arrived at my home in Charlotte, North Carolina, we cleared the large dining room table, set up our three computers, and laid out our stacks of books. We quickly developed a set routine of waking up early and studying late into the night. Long hours hunched over books and laptops took its toll on our bodies, so I made sure we set aside time every day to get proper exercise at a local gym. One day after a particularly intense workout we sat in the gym's jacuzzi, resting our muscles and talking. Nehemia began to tell me about his devotional walks through the Land of Israel and how he would often receive unexpected insight by studying a biblical passage on the actual site where it took place. As he explained these things, it dawned on me that what we needed to do to make our study complete was go to the very spot where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer. My mind began to race as I thought of what it would be like to go back to Israel. The more we discussed the idea, the more feasible it sounded. By the end of Nehemia's visit to Charlotte the decision was made: I would join Nehemia in Israel so we could go together to the place where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer.

At first we thought it would be a no-brainer to find the location where the prayer was first taught 2,000 years ago. In the Gospel of Matthew, the Avinu Prayer appears as part of the "Sermon on the Mount," a series of teachings that Yeshua preached to the Jewish multitude. The Sermon on the Mount opens with a series of blessings known as the "Beatitudes". We thought that all we had to do was go to the Church of the Beatitudes in the Lower Galilee and we would be at the place where Yeshua first taught the Avinu Prayer.

As the time of the trip grew near, we began to research the history of the Church of the Beatitudes. We were certain it would be a simple matter to confirm that this was indeed the site, known since ancient times, where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer as part of the Sermon on the Mount. Instead, we found that the Church of the Beatitudes was only one of six possible sites identified by different sources and traditions as the place where Yeshua taught the prayer. The problem, we realized, was that the New Testament was ambiguous about the location, describing it only as "the mountain."[40] But the name of the mountain was not given and there are multiple traditions about where this took place. We decided to go to all six locations to see which best fit the Gospel accounts. Our search for the "place of the prayer" had begun.

The Tomb of Herod's Son

Every year millions of pilgrims come to Israel to walk in the footsteps of the prophets. The challenge for the pilgrim is to distinguish between authentic biblical sites and traditional tourist spots which have no real connection to biblical events. This was something I knew well from a previous visit to Israel. I had been shocked years earlier when taken to two different spots in Jerusalem, both of which claimed to be the authentic location of the crucifixion. What I did not know at the time was that Jews have a similar challenge in their attempt to find important Old Testament sites. One such site is the Tomb of Rachel, which is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and now generally believed to be located one mile outside of ancient Bethlehem. In many ways, Rachel's tomb represented our search for the place of the prayer. Tens of thousands of Jews come every year to visit this site from all over the world, but historically speaking it has nothing to do with the matriarch Rachel. In fact, the so-called Tomb of Rachel contains the remains of King Herod's evil son Archelaus, who reigned as king of Judea from 4 BCE to 6 CE.[41] The misidentification of this tomb began with a well-known verse in the Book of Genesis:

So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel's tomb.[42]

While this verse says that Rachel was buried on the road to Bethlehem, it does not say how far from Bethlehem. On the other hand, the Book of Samuel locates Rachel's tomb on the northern border of the tribal territory of Benjamin, about 10 miles from Bethlehem.[43] The early Jewish pilgrims who came looking for the Tomb of Rachel were familiar with the verse in Genesis but not with the verse in Samuel. As a result, they looked for Rachel's tomb on the outskirts of Bethlehem where they found the tomb of a person named "Archelaus." This name can sound very much like "Rachel" considering that Hebrew names are often given the "-us" ending in Greek: Joseph becomes Josephus and Rachel can become Rachelus.[44] This is probably how the monumental tomb of Herod's son Archelaus on the road to Bethlehem was mistaken for the tomb of the beloved matriarch Rachel mentioned in the Book of Genesis. The "Tomb of Rachel" is a clear example of the traditional identification of a biblical site being proven wrong by scriptural evidence. The thought of devout Jews praying in the presence of the tomb of King Archelaus reminded us how important it was to be discerning in our search for the place that Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer. We would need to carefully sift through centuries of oral traditions, examine the evidence from the Gospels, and explore the physical, topographical, and geographical characteristics of each of the six possible locations that have been suggested over the centuries as being the place of the prayer.

The "Tomb of Rachel" near Bethlehem.

Cave of Our Father

The Avinu Prayer in multiple languages in the courtyard of the Pater Noster Church.

The first stop on our search for the place where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer was the Mount of Olives, a short walk from ancient Jerusalem. In the Hebrew Bible, the Mount of Olives plays an important role in the events that will usher in the final age, and in the New Testament it is the location where Yeshua spent his last nights before being arrested by the Romans.[45] According to one ancient Christian tradition, it is also the location where Yeshua taught his disciples the Avinu Prayer. One version of this tradition relates that Yeshua hid in a cave, teaching his disciples the prayer while the Romans searched for him.[46]

When Keith and I headed to the Mount of Olives, we knew about this ancient Christian tradition but had no idea that the location of this legendary cave was still known. These days the main attraction on the Mount of Olives is the lookout next to the Seven Arches Hotel from which one can peer directly into the Temple Mount enclosure on the opposite side of the Kidron Valley. On our way to the lookout, we passed a church I had visited years earlier as a tourist before immigrating to Israel. I remarked to Keith that this church was called the Pater Noster, Latin for "Our Father," and it was wholly dedicated to the Avinu Prayer. I then wondered out loud if this church had anything to do with the tradition that Yeshua taught the prayer somewhere on this mountain. We decided to stop at the church and have a look around.

When we walked through the stone entrance of the Pater Noster Church we found ourselves standing in a large courtyard. The walls of the courtyard were covered with colorful plaques, each containing the Avinu Prayer in a different language. Not far from the entrance we found a plaque with the Avinu Prayer in the Native American language of Cherokee and then another in the African language of Swahili. When Keith saw this he turned to me with a wrinkled brow and said, "You mean to tell me this place was not on our scheduled itinerary?!"

As we explored the compound we read various signs explaining the prayer and the history of the church. We learned that the current church opened in 1874 and was built on the site of an earlier church established in the 4th century. The focus of the original church was a cave called the "Grotto of Pater Noster" meaning the "Cave of Our Father." After a few minutes, we found ourselves standing in this ancient grotto, the very spot on the Mount of Olives where, according to one ancient Christian tradition, Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer to his disciples. Most scholars dismiss this tradition, primarily because the Gospel of Matthew says that Yeshua returned to his home in Capernaum after teaching the multitudes the prayer. This suggests that Yeshua first taught the prayer somewhere in the Lower Galilee, which is a walk of several days away from the Mount of Olives. Yet there seemed no reason to us to doubt the basic veracity of the tradition that Yeshua hid out in a dark cave on the Mount of Olives, praying with his disciples while Roman patrols scoured the countryside looking for him.

One tradition about this cave was recorded in the year 1102 by an Englishman named Saewulf who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem shortly after it fell to the Crusaders. On the Mount of Olives, Saewulf was shown "the spot where... [Yeshua] wrote the Lord's Prayer in Hebrew, with his own fingers, on marble."[47] Saewulf attributed this tradition to the local Aramaic-speaking Christians whose ancestors had lived in Jerusalem for generations prior to the arrival of the Crusaders. It is significant that these Aramaic-speaking Christians preserved an age-old tradition that the original language of the Avinu Prayer was none other than Hebrew.[48]

The "Our Father" cave on the Mount of Olives, where Yeshua may have prayed with the disciples.

We discovered that the walls of the Pater Noster Church were covered with the Avinu Prayer in 152 languages and the website associated with the church had the prayer in over 1,400 languages.[49] While the universal message of the church was apparent, special attention was given to the Hebrew. Most languages only had one plaque per language, but the prayer was represented by three separate Hebrew plaques, each apparently an independent translation from Latin or Greek. An especially large plaque at the entrance of the church-compound further testified to the importance of the Hebrew language. Most of the plaques in the Pater Noster Church were made from colorful Armenian-style ceramic tiles, but the large plaque at the entrance was cut in solid stone with the prayer written in the ancient Hebrew script used at the time of Yeshua. The message expressed by this large stone plaque was that Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer in Hebrew and this is what it would have looked like in his day, in his script, and in his language.[50] It seemed to us that this confirmed our own use of a Hebrew version of the Avinu Prayer as it testified to the importance of the prayer in the original Hebrew. No one denies that the three Hebrew versions of the prayer on display at the Pater Noster Church were translated from Latin or Greek, yet even these translations have value because they give us an idea of what the prayer might have sounded like in the original Hebrew as taught by Yeshua. This underscored for us the importance of the Hebrew version of the prayer preserved by Shem Tov, since there is a strong likelihood that it was based on the original Hebrew Gospel without any intervening translation.

Mount of the Beatitudes

The Church of the Beatitudes.

While Yeshua may have prayed the Avinu Prayer with his disciples on the Mount of Olives, he first taught it 70 miles to the north in the Lower Galilee. The dominant geographical feature in this region is the Sea of Galilee, which is actually a small fresh-water lake fed by the upper Jordan River and the melting snows of Mount Hermon. Although Yeshua was raised 20 miles away in Nazareth, as an adult he "left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea."[51] In Yeshua's day, Capernaum was a small town on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The Hebrew name of this town - Kefar Nachum - means "Village of Comfort," and the Gospels refer to it as Yeshua's "own town."[52] As mentioned above, the Avinu Prayer appears in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the Sermon on the Mount. We realized that Capernaum was of central importance for locating the place of the prayer because both Matthew and Luke agree that after Yeshua finished teaching the Sermon on the Mount he walked home to Capernaum. Admittedly, these Gospels do not say how far Yeshua walked, but it stands to reason that the place of the prayer could not have been too far away from Yeshua's home.

The ancient synagogue of Capernaum.

The location of Capernaum was never lost and the town survived well into the Middle Ages, until it was finally abandoned and renamed Tel Hum, meaning the "Ruin of [Na]hum." In the 20th century, archaeologists excavated these ruins and found the remains of the synagogue where Yeshua used to teach on the Sabbath and the house of Peter where Yeshua used to stay.[53] There are many mountains in the region around Capernaum and any one of these could be the place where Yeshua first taught the Avinu Prayer. However, over the centuries five of these mountains have been singled out as likely candidates by various Christian sources.

The logical place to start our search was the Church of the Beatitudes, which is only one mile from Capernaum. Before we can move on to the Church of the Beatitudes, we need to clarify the relationship between three terms to which we will repeatedly make reference in the following chapters. These three terms are: the Avinu Prayer, the Sermon on the Mount, and the Beatitudes. The Sermon on the Mount consists of a series of ethical teachings that Yeshua delivered in the Lower Galilee. It is called the Sermon on the Mount because Yeshua stood on a rocky outcropping on the side of a mountain and preached it to the Jewish multitudes gathered below. The Sermon on the Mount covers chapters 5 through 7 of the Gospel of Matthew, totaling 111 verses. The Beatitudes is the Latin name for the seven opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verses 3 through 10. The Avinu Prayer, commonly known as the Lord's Prayer, is also part of the Sermon on the Mount and appears in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, verses 9 through 13. Because the Avinu Prayer is part of the Sermon on the Mount, our search for the place that Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer was also a search for the place that he preached the Sermon on the Mount and spoke the Beatitudes.

When we first conceived the idea of going to the place that Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer, we thought of the Church of the Beatitudes. Thousands of Christian pilgrims visit this shrine every year and are told in no uncertain terms that this is the site where Yeshua taught the Sermon on the Mount. The Church of the Beatitudes was built in 1938 by the Franciscans with a large donation from the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. The sides of this octagon-shaped building are a cryptic reference to the eight initial statements of the Sermon on the Mount, which are also written in Latin on stained-glass windows just beneath the inside of the dome. Eight mosaics surround the central altar of the church, each containing one word in Latin expressing various principles taught in Yeshua's sermon such as charity, fortitude, and prudence. The entrance of the building has large display cases containing the vestments worn at the church by every pope to visit Israel since 1964. These papal visits to the Church of the Beatitudes are enough confirmation for most pilgrims that this is the authentic site where Yeshua taught the Sermon on the Mount. But before the church was built, this location was not widely accepted as the place that Yeshua first taught the Avinu Prayer.

The people who built the Church of the Beatitudes believed this was the place where Yeshua taught the Sermon on the Mount - and thus the Avinu Prayer - because of an ancient tradition recorded by a nun named Egeria who visited the area in 383 CE.[54] Egeria traveled all around the Holy Land and wrote about her travels in a journal. Unfortunately, the only surviving manuscript of this journal is missing the pages that refer to the place that Yeshua taught the prayer. However, a 7th century monk named Valerius wrote a summary of Egeria's travels and he mentions that she climbed a series of mountains:

There was the dread eminence of Tabor... an equally vast mountain called Hermon... and a third [mountain] called Eremus, very lofty, on which he taught the disciples the Beatitudes.[55]

While the New Testament does not name the mountain on which Yeshua taught his sermon, according to Valerius, Egeria identified it as Mount Eremus. Presumably this is what Egeria was told by her local Christian guides whose knowledge was based on an oral tradition preserved through the generations. This fourth-hand information would be invaluable today if there really were such a place as Mount Eremus, but no mountain is known by this name. The name Eremus probably comes from the verse in Luke that says that Yeshua escaped the crowds by going to a "deserted place," in Greek eremon topon.[56] Mount Eremus would thus be the "deserted mountain" where Yeshua went to escape the multitudes. Luke later describes how Yeshua taught the Sermon on the Mount on his way down from this deserted mountain.[57] Valerius's reference to Mount Eremus really does not help us identify where Yeshua taught the Sermon on the Mount because most mountains in the region could be described as "deserted."

Egeria's journal was also used as the basis for a book on the holy sites written by a 12th century Italian monk named Peter the Deacon. After describing Capernaum, Peter the Deacon writes:

Near [Capernaum] on a mountain is the cave to which the Saviour climbed and spoke the Beatitudes.[58]

Although Peter the Deacon did not mention Egeria by name, scholars believe that he based himself on the account of her travels because the only surviving manuscript of her journal was deposited in the monastery of Monte Casino where Peter was the head librarian. Peter's statement that Yeshua taught the Sermon on the Mount "near [Capernaum]" is the strongest evidence for identifying the modern-day Church of the Beatitudes as the place of the prayer. Of course, "near" is a somewhat relative term. A few sentences later, Peter writes that Mount Gilboa is "not far away" from the synagogue of Chorazin.[59] In fact, Gilboa is about 30 miles from Chorazin, which in Israel is a substantial distance. In some parts of the country a journey of 30 miles covers three distinct climatic zones, each with its own weather patterns, animal-life, and plant-life. The problem is that Peter the Deacon never set foot in the Holy Land and had no idea how far one site really was from another. If he could call a 30-mile distance "not far away" then perhaps when he said "near" he meant 10 or 15 miles. In this case, there are dozens of mountains "near" Capernaum that could be the place where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer. While there is clearly a tradition which can be traced back to Egeria in the 4th century, this tradition only tells us that Yeshua taught his sermon somewhere in the area around the Sea of Galilee, within perhaps 15 miles of Capernaum.

There is a second piece of evidence that supposedly supports the location of the modern-day Church of the Beatitudes as the place where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer. The Gospel of Luke reports that after Yeshua finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount "he entered Capernaum."[60] The Church of the Beatitudes is only one mile from Capernaum, which would have been close enough for Yeshua to quickly enter the town after teaching the multitudes. However, Luke does not say how long it took Yeshua to reach Capernaum and in Matthew's account it sounds as if it took a significant amount of time. According to Matthew, Yeshua had an encounter with a leper after preaching the sermon but before entering Capernaum. Yeshua told the leper to keep what transpired between them a secret. This means that at some point on his way back to Capernaum, Yeshua escaped the multitudes that had been hounding him for days and was alone in the countryside with the leper. There is no way to know how many hours Yeshua trekked alone along the deserted roads of the Lower Galilee before "he entered Capernaum." But as we explored the Church of the Beatitudes and its surroundings, we realized that the one-mile stroll down to Capernaum would not have given Yeshua enough time to evade the crowds and be alone with the leper.

The primary reason the Franciscans built the Church of the Beatitudes where they did was its close proximity to Capernaum. While we cannot rule out this location, it does not seem to be consistent with the evidence from Matthew that Yeshua evaded the multitudes before meeting the leper on his way home. The real place where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer must be somewhere in the Lower Galilee, within walking distance from Capernaum but far enough to have given Yeshua time to distance himself from the pursuing multitudes.

Blessed Trees

One of the "Blessed Trees".

One of the more creative theories about where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer was published in 1963 by a German scholar named Clemens Kopp.[61] Kopp studied the oral traditions of the Bedouin Arabs who lived in the hills overlooking the western shore of the Sea of Galilee and discovered that they referred to one particular barren hillside as the "Blessed Trees." Until recent times the Bedouins used to cut down every tree in sight for firewood, but the two ancient trees on this particular hillside were spared from the Bedouin axe.[62] Kopp hypothesized that the name "Blessed Trees" preserved a lost Christian tradition about the location where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer. According to Kopp, the name "Blessed Trees" referred to the Beatitudes or blessings that Yeshua taught at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount.[63]

Our search for the Blessed Trees began with a visit to the maps section of a research library in Jerusalem. We explained to the librarian what we were looking for and she took us to a long desk with wide drawers that contained many maps from different periods. She removed a large laminated map from the top drawer and explained that it was the most detailed map of modern Israel available without a security clearance. She stretched out the map on the table and left us to look for the Blessed Trees. In Arabic the Blessed Trees are called Shejerat el-Mubarakat,so this is the name we looked for on the map. Kopp had explained that Shejerat el-Mubarakat was located on a hill on the east side of a deep gorge called Wadi el-Jamus. We spent about 20 minutes pouring over every inch of the map but could locate neither the hill nor the gorge.

We went back to the librarian and asked her why these names would be absent from the most detailed map of modern Israel. She explained that the names were probably no longer in use because of the political upheavals that took place during Israel's War of Independence. Shortly after the State of Israel was founded on May 14, 1948, hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled the country never to return. The young Jewish nation was invaded by five Arab armies bent on killing every last Jew in the land. Fearing the Jews would massacre their people, just as they planned on massacring the Jews, the Arab leaders ordered the Arab population of Israel to temporarily relocate to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt where they would be safe until the end of the war.[64] History did not turn out as the Arab leaders planned and the tiny Israeli Defense Force defeated the five Arab armies. After the war, Iraq, Egypt, and other Arab nations expelled hundreds of thousands of Jews that had lived in those countries since the time of the Babylonian Exile. These Jewish refugees came to the State of Israel and settled in the towns and villages that were abandoned by the Arabs. As a result, many Arab place names were replaced with Jewish place names. The librarian explained that if we hoped to find these traditional Arab names we would have to look at a map that pre-dates the founding of the State of Israel. She said that our best bet was to look on the map of the "Palestine Exploration Fund," published in London in 1880. She went back over to the wide drawers and pulled out a brittle old map. Within a few minutes of scanning the 1880 map we found Wadi el-Jamusand then the Blessed Trees.[65] Comparing it with the modern detailed map, we discovered that Wadi el-Jamus was now named Nachal Kinerot, but there was no modern name anywhere near the site where the Blessed Trees had once stood.

When we got to the Galilee we set out to find the hill of the Blessed Trees. Following the old map was more complicated than we had anticipated. Apparently, it was created using rather rudimentary surveying equipment and as a result contained many errors. Some geographical features represented on the map did not exist on the ground and features we encountered were missing from the map. We drove around for about an hour until we were convinced we would never find the Blessed Trees. We had read that one of the "sacred" trees had been cut down in 1913 so what we were really looking for was a single ancient tree somewhere on an otherwise empty hillside.[66] If the 1880 map were off even slightly we would never find the site.

Just as we were about to give up we turned the corner on a country road and saw a large marble edifice. The massive marble building did not appear on any map, not even the very detailed modern map we had purchased after our visit to the library. We were curious to know what this structure was so we parked our rental car and went inside. Nehemia turned to the woman sitting at the reception desk and asked her in Hebrew, "What is the significance of this place?" The woman responded with a blank stare. I then tried the same question in English and the woman smiled and said, "Would you like a tour?" In truth, we were just looking for a one-sentence answer but it was so hot that day and the large beautiful building was generously air-conditioned so we replied, "Yes, we'd love one."

A young man in his early twenties was called over and the secretary said something to him in Italian. The man introduced himself to us as Hugo from Paraguay and he explained that he was in Israel as part of his training to become a Catholic priest. Hugo had already spent several years in a theological seminary back in Paraguay and was now rounding out his religious education at the Catholic theological institute into which we had just wandered. This brand new institute, known as the Galilee House, was founded after Pope John Paul II visited the site in March 2000, and it had yet to be added to even the most detailed Israeli maps.

Hugo gave us a tour of the Galilee House, showing us the study hall, the church, and finally the chapel. The building was covered with liberal amounts of silver and marble and one room even had a gold-plated ceiling. As the tour was winding down, Hugo took us to a balcony with a beautiful vista of the Sea of Galilee. We noticed that at the center of the large balcony there was a pillar emblazoned with Hebrew writing. As we scanned the pillar, we realized we were looking at the opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount in Hebrew. When we asked why the Sermon on the Mount was written in Hebrew on the pillar, Hugo's response took us by surprise: "Because Jesus taught it in Hebrew." We had arrived at this conclusion on our own from studying the testimony of the Church Fathers and the Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew, but here was a Catholic priest-in-training saying the same thing. When Hugo saw the shocked look on our faces he smiled and explained that Yeshua spoke three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin. According to Hugo, Yeshua's mother tongue was Aramaic but he also spoke Hebrew. Hugo added that Yeshua only spoke Latin because he had to deal with the Roman administration which ruled Israel in those days. As Hugo explained these things, he kept saying, "we believe," and, "we are of the opinion." When we asked him if the things he had just told us were the official doctrine of the Catholic Church or of his priestly order, he explained that this was just his own opinion and the understanding he had come to through his studies. When he said, "we believe," he meant that many of his friends and colleagues shared the same understanding, even though it is not official doctrine, nor do all Catholics agree on this point.

As Hugo was talking, Nehemia's eye wandered and he caught a glimpse of a long flight of stairs leading down several stories from the balcony to the back of the Galilee House. At the bottom of the stairs he saw a gargantuan tree framed by a lush green lawn. Anywhere else in the world and this might not have meant anything, but in Israel the only thing less common than lush green lawns are large trees. Nehemia immediately knew what he was looking at, but just to be sure he interrupted Hugo and asked if the tree had any significance. Hugo explained that the Franciscans' decision to buy the land on which Galilee House was built was based on an oral tradition among the local Arabs that this ancient tree marked the site where Yeshua preached the Sermon on the Mount. Without realizing it, we had inadvertently stumbled upon the hill of the Blessed Trees, which was now covered by the Galilee House. Hugo said that if we wanted we could walk down the stairs and look at the tree, but he had to get back to his studies.

We parted ways with Hugo and walked down the long flight of stairs to the ancient tree. When we reached the tree Nehemia immediately recognized it as the type found on hilltops all over Israel, often situated next to the tombs of Muslim saints. The Arabs used to worship these trees, which they believed were inhabited by spirits. Local superstition prevented these "sacred" trees from being harvested for firewood, and as they swelled in size over the centuries the reputation of their holiness only grew. The adoration of sacred trees did not originate with the Arabs, who only arrived in Israel in the year 636 CE. The Hebrew Bible tells us that the ancient Israelites used to build forbidden altars "on top of every hill and under every leafy tree."[67] The Arab invaders readily accepted the holiness of these leafy trees and in recognition of their Israelite origins called the tree-spirits believed to dwell within them "the daughters of Jacob."[68] While the nobility of this ancient terebinth impressed us, we realized the name Blessed Trees probably had more to do with local superstition than any authentic tradition related to Yeshua's teaching of the Avinu Prayer on this hillside.

Mount Tabor

Mount Tabor.

After visiting the site of the Blessed Trees, we continued our search for the place that Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer. Our next stop was Mount Tabor, the traditional Christian site of the "transfiguration." The first person to identify Mount Tabor as the place where Yeshua taught the Sermon on the Mount was the 4th century Church Father Jerome, who wrote in his Commentary on Matthew:

Some of the less educated brethren think that he taught the Beatitudes, and the other things which follow, on the Mount of Olives, but this is by no means the case, for... a place in Galilee is indicated, which we think is either Tabor or some other high mountain.[69]

To understand why Jerome thought that Yeshua taught the Sermon on the Mount on Mount Tabor we must look at Jerome's personal history. He was born around the year 340 CE at Stridon, in the Roman province of Dalmatia, and spent much of his life in what is today Italy. In this part of the world he would have seen the massive peaks of the Italian Alps, many of which exceed an altitude of 10,000 feet. When Jerome explored the Galilee looking for the nameless "mountain" on which Yeshua taught the Sermon on the Mount he must have scoffed at places like Mount Nachum, the hill on which the modern Church of the Beatitudes is built, which at its highest point is a mere 499 feet above the Sea of Galilee.[70] Mount Tabor, on the other hand, was the closest thing to what Jerome thought of as a "real" mountain. With an altitude of 1,844 feet, Tabor looms tall at the northeastern edge of the Jezreel Valley and can be seen for miles around. It is only surpassed among the mountains of the Lower Galilee by Mount Kamon, which has an altitude of 1,975 feet. As far as Jerome was concerned, the Gospels' generic reference to "the mountain" could only have meant something like the Alps, which in the Galilee must be "Tabor or some other high mountain." If the Gospels had been written in Italy, Jerome would no doubt have been correct, but in the Land of Israel the term "mountain" can refer to any large hill.

The one word that best describes Mount Tabor is "majestic." In fact, one of Jeremiah's prophecies compares the exalted majesty of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar to "Tabor among the mountains."[71] Yet its majesty is the very thing that makes Tabor unlikely as the spot where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer. What stood out from our journey to Mount Tabor was the steepness of the ascent up the narrow winding road. There was a stream of minibuses speeding down this treacherous road on their way back from shuttling pilgrims to the Church of the Transfiguration at the peak, and at many points we feared for our lives. The view from Tabor was breathtaking but it seemed inconceivable to us that the Jewish multitudes would have climbed up this high mountain to hear Yeshua preach. Another problem with Mount Tabor is its distance from Capernaum, where the Gospels say Yeshua headed when he was done teaching his sermon. Capernaum is over 20 miles away and requires traveling through difficult hilly terrain, and it would have been more than a day's journey on foot. In our opinion, out of the five sites in the Galilee, Mount Tabor was the least likely candidate as the place that Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer.

Mount Arbel

Mount Arbel.

The next site we visited in our search for the place that Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer was Mount Arbel. Mount Arbel easily takes the prize as the most stunning place we saw in our travels through the Galilee. When Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Land of Israel in 1799 his troops scoured the countryside looking for New Testament sites and identified Mount Arbel as the location of the Sermon on the Mount.[72] Some time in the distant past, Mount Arbel was split in two by a violent earthquake and now its two halves are separated by a deep gorge. When we saw this split mountain it reminded us of the prophet Zechariah's description of what will happen to the Mount of Olives in the end-times:

On that day... the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.[73]

While Zechariah was clearly speaking about a future event on the Mount of Olives, his description perfectly illustrates an event that took place on Mount Arbel long ago. As we explored the mountain we were awe-struck by the vertical cliffs that drop straight down over 500 feet before merging with a steep slope. The base of the Arbel cliffs contains a series of caves where the Jews hid from the Syrian Greeks during the Maccabean wars.[74] In 1187 the Ayyubid ruler Saladin used these same caves as his headquarters when trapping the Crusader army a few miles away at the Horns of Hattin.[75]

While we were impressed by Mount Arbel's physical beauty, we wondered how practical it would have been for the Jewish multitudes to gather on this rocky mountaintop to hear Yeshua preach. We decided not to dismiss this possibility without first testing it through some investigation. We had heard about a marked path down the mountain that is regularly hiked by Israeli school children on class outings and we decided the best way to test the Mount Arbel theory was to go down this path ourselves.[76] The trail was classified as "for experienced hikers only," but as we followed the red-painted trail markings down the gentle slope we found that it wasn't that difficult. Then we came to a flight of stairs cut into the solid rock which led to a sheer cliff. Our first thought was that we had made a wrong turn, but we then saw the red-painted trail markings again a short distance down the mountainside. We quickly realized that just off to the side and embedded in the cliff there were steel pegs connected by plastic-coated steel cables. Evidently, we were meant to climb down, holding on for dear life to nothing more than these pegs and cables. Keith was excited about the challenge but I am afraid of heights and was certain this was some sort of a cruel joke. In the end I mustered up the courage and carefully climbed down the steep cliff. About an hour later when we reached the bottom of the mountain, we realized there was no way throngs of Jewish men and women from the villages around Capernaum climbed up Mount Arbel's steep cliffs with their children in tow to hear Yeshua preach his sermon. While Mount Arbel was undeniably a beautiful place in the right location, the topography of the mountain made it rather unlikely that it was the place where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer.

Horns of Hattin

The Horns of Hattin.

The last site we explored was the Horns of Hattin, the remains of a dormant volcano about five miles north-west of Tiberius. The "horns" consist of two hills separated by a bowl-shaped crater formed when the volcano exploded in time immemorial. The two hills and the crater were originally covered by a large fortified city that was laid waste during the Assyrian invasion of Tiglath-pileser III in 732 BCE. The city was never rebuilt and in Yeshua's day the horns were a pair of deserted hilltops.[77]

The Horns of Hattin is best-known today as the site where the Crusader army was defeated by the Muslims in a decisive battle on July 4, 1187. The Crusaders had invaded Israel in 1099, establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem that survived for 88 years. Then, the entire Crusader army was wiped out in a single afternoon. The Crusaders had been advancing on Tiberius under the leadership of Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, when they were surrounded at the Horns of Hattin by the forces of the Ayyubid ruler Saladin. Guy's knights tried desperately to reach the springs at the base of the Hattin volcano but were trapped on top of the horns in the summer heat without water and easily defeated by Saladin's forces.

Before the Church of the Beatitudes was built in 1938, most Christians considered the Horns of Hattin to be the place where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer as part of the Sermon on the Mount. A traveler who visited the Horns of Hattin in 1905 referred to it matter-of-factly as the "mountain or hill... known to the pilgrims as the Mount of the Beatitudes."[78] Even the Catholic Encyclopedia, published in 1913, identifies the Horns of Hattin as the traditional Christian site of the Sermon on the Mount.[79] For generations, Christian pilgrims used to walk to the Horns of Hattin from Tiberius and on the way they visited the "Christ stone," where according to Greek Orthodox tradition Yeshua sat when he fed the multitudes.[80]

The location of the Horns of Hattin fits perfectly with the Gospel descriptions and is consistent with the tradition of Egeria, who visited the area in the 4th century. In the time of Yeshua the main road from Nazareth to Capernaum ran along the base of the Hattin volcano, about three-quarters of a mile from the horns.[81] Matthew Levi had his customs office on this very road which was frequented by caravans making their way north to Damascus.[82] Walking along the road from Hattin, Yeshua could have easily reached Capernaum within four hours or so. But the Horns of Hattin are also far enough away to have given Yeshua the opportunity to escape the multitudes. As the main road descends towards the Sea of Galilee it passes through a deep gorge called Wadi Hamam (meaning "Dove Creek"). In many places the trail through this gorge is only wide enough for two people to pass, and this would have been a perfect place for Yeshua to lose the hordes of devotees who were pursuing him. Perhaps as he exited Wadi Hamam and came out onto the coastal plain he met the leper alone on the road.[83] From this spot, Yeshua had an easy walk on the flat road that runs along the western shore of the Sea of Galilee before "he entered Capernaum."[84]

The road to Capernaum at the entrance of Wadi Hamam ("Dove Creek").

The topography of the Horns of Hattin also fits perfectly with the accounts in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. These two accounts of Yeshua's sermon seem to have some discrepancies between them, but when taken together they provide important topographical data that could only have come from eyewitnesses. Matthew's account begins:

Great multitudes followed Him from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan. And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them.[85]

From this passage it sounds as if Yeshua only taught his disciples on the mountaintop where he went to escape the multitudes. However, the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew makes it clear that the multitudes also heard what Yeshua taught:

And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.[86]

The picture painted by Matthew is of Yeshua preaching from the mountaintop to the multitudes below. The problem with this is that no human voice could carry that far. At some point Yeshua must have come down with his disciples from the mountaintop to teach the multitudes. The missing details are provided in Luke's account of the sermon, which begins:

Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself... And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him...[87]

Both Matthew and Luke agree that Yeshua sought solitude on a mountaintop. From Matthew it sounds as if the disciples accompanied him the entire time, but Luke makes it clear that they only joined him on the mountaintop in the morning, after he had spent a night alone in prayer. Then, coming down from the mountaintop Yeshua preached his Sermon on the Mount to the multitudes at a "level place". When we take the evidence from Matthew and Luke together, the combined picture is of Yeshua preaching to the multitudes on a level place somewhere on the side of the mountain on his way down from the peak.

Another clarification needed is the definition of a mountain in this context. The word "mountain" - Hebrew har and Greek oros - may be somewhat out of place when we consider the towering peaks of the Rockies or Himalayas. The highest peak in the Lower Galilee is less than 2,000 feet above sea level, but in Israel this is considered a mountain. It might be more accurate in English to speak about a hilltop and a hillside instead of a mountaintop and a mountainside. Matthew and Luke describe Yeshua taking refuge from the multitudes on the hilltop where he spent the night in prayer before calling his disciples to join him in the morning. Yeshua and his disciples then walked down from the hilltop until they found a flat area on the side of the hill. It was on this hillside that Yeshua delivered his famous Sermon on the Mount to the multitudes.

As we explored the Horns of Hattin we became increasingly convinced that this site fit the Gospel accounts perfectly. The front cover of this book shows the Horns of Hattin looming tall above the Sea of Galilee, dominating the horizon from as far away as Capernaum, thus deserving to be called "the mountain." Most of this height consists of a gradual slope, but the last 70 feet up to the summit of the southern "horn" are a steep ascent that could have kept the multitudes at bay.[88] On top of the southern horn there is a large, flat plateau where Yeshua could have spent the night in prayer.

We visited the Horns of Hattin during the hottest time of the year, and on the top of the hill the wind was fierce throughout the day. The only shelter from the howling winds was a series of large volcanic boulders on the western side of the hilltop. We came across one particular grouping of boulders that were laid out in a circle. These cyclopean boulders have not moved since they were thrust out from the heart of the volcano in the distant past. In Yeshua's day, this stone circle could have provided perfect shelter for a small group of disciples gathered around to hear the wisdom of their master. Perhaps this was the very spot where Yeshua instructed his disciples after he called them up the hilltop in the morning.

As we sat in this circle of boulders, we began to discuss the Avinu Prayer, talking about the richness of meaning gained by exploring the nuances of Hebrew. Keith got excited about discussing the Hebrew meaning of the prayer on the very spot where it may have first been uttered. He began to preach and as I got swept up into the experience I shouted an energetic "Amen!" Our excitement grew as we went back and forth that afternoon preaching, shouting, and laughing. It was a good old-fashioned revival at the Horns of Hattin. We had both come so far since that first encounter with the Torah Scroll.

When we finally left the hilltop we found something that for us confirmed this spot as the place where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer. Low on the side of the southern "horn" we came across an outcropping of rock that towered over a flat plain. We realized this outcropping could have served as a natural podium from which to teach a sermon to a crowd of people standing on the level place below. We decided we needed to test the acoustics of this natural pulpit to see if it could be the "level place" described by Luke. I walked out into the plain as Keith shouted from the outcropping. Despite the strong winds the sound carried perfectly, and even with Keith speaking in a normal voice I could hear him clearly. I eventually walked out a total of 400 feet and could still hear Keith's every word. Overcome with emotion, we realized that we may have found the very spot on which Yeshua stood when he taught the Avinu Prayer to the Jewish multitudes. We had finally found a place that matched the geographical, topographical, and textual description of the place where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer. We can never know for sure because the Gospels do not say the name of the mountain where this happened, but of the six spots suggested by various traditions and scholarly theories this one seemed to best coincide with the evidence.

Keith standing on the rock outcropping at the Horns of Hattin, where Yeshua probably stood when he preached the Sermon on the Mount.

The Hebrew Meaning of the Avinu Prayer

It was exhilarating to find what may have been the very spot where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer. What truly gave this meaning was studying the Hebrew origins of the prayer. Exploring the Hebrew origins of the New Testament is nothing new. In the 4th century, the Church Father Jerome left the comfort of the imperial capital at Rome to live in a remote part of Judea where he studied Hebrew under a Jewish rabbi. In the 16th century, the founder of the Protestant Reformation Martin Luther said:

The Hebrew language is the best language of all ... If I were younger I would want to learn this language, because no one can really understand the Scriptures without it. For although the New Testament is written in Greek, it is full of hebraisms and Hebrew expressions. It has therefore been aptly said that the Hebrews drink from the spring, the Greeks from the stream that flows from it, and the Latins from a downstream puddle.[89]

Luther recognized the richness of Hebrew nuance and idiom in Yeshua's message, likening the Hebrew to a source of water. In the following chapters we invite the reader to join us in returning to the Hebrew source of the Avinu Prayer as we explore it in its original Hebraic and Jewish context.

Below is an English translation of the Avinu Prayer as preserved in Hebrew Matthew, compared line by line with the King James Version. The remaining nine chapters of the book are each dedicated to examining a single line of the prayer. For example, the first of these chapters examines the words "Our Father which art in heaven;" this chapter is titled "Our Father in Heaven," based on the version of the Avinu Prayer preserved in Hebrew Matthew. Below each chapter title we have placed the Hebrew text of the Avinu Prayer discussed in that chapter, written out in a 1st century Hebrew script. This is the type of ancient Hebrew writing that would have been used in the time of Yeshua and it is intended to give the reader an idea of what the prayer would have looked like in his day.

Comparison of Hebrew Matthew (HM) and the King James Version (KJV)

HM: Our Father in heaven,

KJV: Our Father which art in heaven,

HM: May your name be sanctified.

KJV: Hallowed be thy name.

HM: May your kingdom be blessed.

KJV: Thy kingdom come.

HM: Your will shall be done in heaven and on earth.

KJV: Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

HM: Give us our bread continually/ daily.

KJV: Give us this day our daily bread.

HM: Forgive us the debt of our sins as we forgive the debt of those who sin against us.

KJV: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

HM: Do not bring us into the hands of a test,

KJV: And lead us not into temptation,

HM: and protect us from all evil.

KJV: but deliver us from evil:

HM: ---

KJV: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

HM: Amen.

KJV: Amen.

Our Father in Heaven

Our exploration of the Avinu Prayer almost ended before it began. It was the opening words of the prayer, "our Father in heaven," that posed a dilemma. In our preliminary research Keith and I were confronted by a number of Christian sources that stated matter-of-factly that these words were both un-Hebrew and un-Jewish. These sources claimed that 2,000 years ago, addressing God as "our Father" was revolutionary and would consequently have shaken the very foundations of the Jewish world. For example, one Christian theologian wrote:

The Lord[']s Prayer begins with an invocation that was a scandal to the Jews. The Jews never addressed God as Father. There is no example of any Jewish prayer that addresses God as Father until around the 10th century A.D. God had not told the Israelites to call Him Father...[90]

According to this, Yeshua's message was something entirely new and alien for the Jewish audience to whom he preached. Hence, any attempt at understanding the Avinu Prayer within a Hebraic context was doomed to failure. It took Keith and I all of 30 seconds to disprove this assertion. A simple computer search proved that both the Hebrew Bible and ancient Jewish sources contain numerous references to God as "our Father." The first person known to have used this exact phrase was the prophet Isaiah, who prayed:

Look down from heaven... for you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father; our Redeemer from of old is your name.[91]

In this prayer Isaiah beseeches God to act in his covenant role as the Father of the Israelites by saving them from their enemies, something their deceased ancestors Abraham and Jacob are no longer capable of doing. Here, for the first time, God is referred to in a prayer as "Our Father," which is connected to his being in heaven.

In the Book of Jeremiah God himself calls on every Israelite to pray to him as the heavenly Father:

And I said: "You shall call Me, 'My Father,'" and not turn away from Me.[92]

The prophet Malachi also emphasized God's role as Father to all human beings:

Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us?[93]

Malachi is asking a rhetorical question and the answer is an emphatic: Yes! We all have the same heavenly Father because we were all created by the same God! Every human being, whether Jew or Gentile, is God's creation and we can all be his children if we follow his path.

Even after the time of Malachi - the last prophet of the Hebrew Bible - Jews continued to call upon God as their heavenly Father. The Mishnah, which contains the teachings of the early Rabbis, relates that before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE Jews used to pray: "Upon whom shall we rely? Upon our Father in heaven!"[94] This ancient Jewish prayer emphasizes God's fatherly role as provider and protector. Another ancient Jewish prayer begins: "May it be the will of our Father in heaven."[95] Two hundred years before Yeshua, the Jewish sage Ben Sira prayed: "O Lord, Father and Master of my life... O Lord, Father and God of my life..."[96] The Dead Sea Scrolls, written hundreds of years before Yeshua, also contain a prayer to "Our Father."[97] These prayers and many others like them illustrate that the concept of calling God "Father" has deep roots in both the Hebrew Bible and traditional Jewish prayer. It was not a "scandal" when Yeshua taught the Jewish multitudes to pray this way, it was perfectly natural.

The Meaning of "Our Father"

The Jews who came to hear Yeshua teach on that windswept Galilean hillside were simple shepherds and farmers. They were, however, well-versed in the Hebrew Bible, which was read aloud every week in their synagogues. When Yeshua spoke to these simple people he chose his words carefully, knowing they would be familiar with the biblical connotations of every expression and phrase. He knew that when he spoke about God as Father this would immediately conjure up numerous associations from the words of the ancient prophets. These simple Jews knew that in the Hebrew Bible God is the Father of mankind, creating human life and "establishing" his children by raising them, educating them, and providing for them.[98] God is a Father to the orphans who have no earthly father to protect them.[99] As our heavenly Father God expects us to honor and respect him and he offers us privileges and rewards for being faithful to his way.[100] As our heavenly Father he lovingly reproves us when we stray from the right path, but still has mercy on us even when we do not deserve it, and saves us from calamity when we get ourselves in trouble.[101]

God as Father in Hebrew Names

One way in which the ancient Israelites expressed their love and appreciation of God as their heavenly Father was through the names they gave their children. In the Western world most people have no idea what their names mean, if they mean anything at all. Keith's parents chose his name simply because it started with a K; they had no idea that it came from a Gaelic word for "forest." One of the exciting benefits of studying Scripture in the original language is that it unlocks the richness of Hebrew names. In Hebrew, every name has a meaning and most names are short sentences. When my parents chose the name "Nehemia" they knew it was a short sentence meaning, "The LORD comforts."

Many biblical names refer to God in his role as our heavenly Father, and most of these names begin with the Hebrew word Avi, meaning "my Father." The simplest of these names is Avi-el (Abiel), meaning "God is my Father."[102] Other names express the different ways that God acts as our heavenly Father, such as Avi-da (Abida) "My Father knows," Avi-dan (Abidan) "my Father judges," Avi-ezer (Abiezer) "my Father helps," and Avi-nadav (Abinadab) "my Father gives freely."[103] There are also names that praise God in his role as our heavenly Father, such as Avi-hud (Abihud) "my Father is glorious," Avi-ram (Abiram) "my Father is exalted," Avi-tuv (Abitub) "my Father is good," Avi-shalom (Abishalom) "my Father is peace," and Avi-gayil (Abigail) "my Father is joy."[104]

One name that is particularly interesting is Avi-shua (Abishua), the name of the great-grandson of Aaron, the first High Priest and the brother of Moses.[105] The name Avi-shua means "my Father [provides] salvation," or simply "my Father saves." This name is very similar to the name Eli-shua which means "my God saves."[106] If we take both names together they express the deep religious devotion of the ancient Israelites that "my God, my Father provides salvation." When Yeshua of Nazareth taught the Jewish multitudes to pray to "our Father in heaven," he was conveying all of these Old Testament connotations that were embedded in the hearts and minds, and even the names, of the Jews that came to hear him teach.

The Jewish "Our Father" Paradox

Even though the Hebrew Bible and ancient Jewish sources are awash with references to God as the heavenly Father, today some Jews think of "Father" as a Christian way of referring to the Almighty. This is not because they are unaware of their own ancient sources. Most Jews are familiar with the rabbinical prayer called Avinu Malkenu, which means "Our Father, our King." This prayer is recited on the 10 days that culminate with the Day of Atonement, and it opens with the words:

Our Father, our King, favor us and answer us even though we have not done righteousness. Be kind towards us and save us for your name's sake.[107]

The same Jews who pray these words on the holiest day of the Jewish year consider referring to God as "Father" in any other context as a "Christian thing to do." Over the centuries, referring to God as Father has become so closely associated with Christian worship that some Jews make a point of avoiding it.

Not all Jews have developed an aversion to calling upon God as our heavenly Father. We found confirmation of this during our search for the place that Yeshua taught the prayer when we came across the phrase "our Father in heaven" in a rather unexpected place. At the end of one long day of excursions we were driving back to our hotel in Tiberius along the road that runs along the coast of the Sea of Galilee when all of a sudden we saw a large billboard on the side of the road that proclaimed:

Dear brother, Our Father in heaven is your Father![108]

That day we had visited many churches and Christian holy sites dedicated to the words "Our Father in heaven," but here were the words painted in large red Hebrew letters in the middle of a modern Jewish city. We decided we needed to find out who was responsible for this wonderful sign.

The Our Father sign in Tiberius.

I got out of the car and began exploring the area while Keith looked for parking. After scouting out the immediate vicinity of the sign, I walked through a large stone gateway about 50 feet away. Inside the gateway I turned a corner and found myself facing an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man with a long white beard and dressed in a ratty white t-shirt and black slacks. The man was also wearing a talit katan - a prayer shawl usually worn as an undergarment - draped over his shoulders like a superman cape. The man introduced himself as the rabbi of a "Kosher" Beach. The rabbi explained that according to Ultra-Orthodox Jewish practice men cannot bathe in the presence of scantily clad women, and so he operated a small section of privately owned beach on the Sea of Galilee that was exclusively for men. After this brief explanation, I pointed to the billboard outside and asked the man in Hebrew: "Do you know whose sign that is?"

The rabbi smiled and said, "Yes, of course, that is my sign!"

"What does it mean?" I asked.

The rabbi explained that God is the Father of us all; he pointed to himself and said, "God is my Father." Then the rabbi pointed to me and said, "He is your Father as well." Just at that moment Keith walked through the large stone entrance and turned the corner to find me speaking with the rabbi.

The rabbi stared at Keith for about 30 seconds and then slowly asked: "Is he Jewish?"

I responded, "No, he is a Christian."

Without hesitation the rabbi pointed to Keith and shouted, "God is also his heavenly Father!" When I translated the rabbi's words, Keith let out an uncontrollable shout of excitement. Several Ultra-Orthodox men wading in the cold waters of the Sea of Galilee looked towards us, mystified by the unexpected sound, but the rabbi beamed with a welcoming smile.

That afternoon we broke bread with the rabbi in the superman cape on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. At one point, Keith leaned in close to the rabbi and asked him: "When I say 'Our Father,' do you believe we are praying to the same God?"

The rabbi responded confidently: "Of course! When a Christian says 'Our Father in heaven,' he means the same Father as we worship." When the rabbi said "we" he pointed to himself and several Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who had formed a small crowd around us. The rabbi went on: "He is the Father of the whole world." After a brief pause the rabbi looked Keith straight in the eyes and said, "When the Messiah comes, everyone will know that God is our Father in heaven." Keith later told me that when he heard this it occurred to him that in some ways Jews were not all that different from Christians. The Jews believe in a Messiah just as the Christians do. The big difference is that the Jews believe that the Messiah will come whereas the Christians believe the Messiah will come back! These differences aside, both Jews and Christians believe in the same God and both can pray Avinu She-Ba-Shamayim, "Our Father in heaven."

May Your Name Be Sanctified

I first learned to pray the words "hallowed be thy name" when I became involved with my local Church as a teenager. I used to think this was a simple statement of fact - "Your name is holy" - and after proclaiming the Father's name to be holy the matter was finished. But then I learned Greek in seminary and discovered that the prayer literally said: "May your name be sanctified." The Hebrew version of the prayer says the exact same thing: "May your name be sanctified." In both Hebrew and Greek, this is not just a statement of fact but a call to action similar to God saying, "let there be light" during creation.[109] When God said these words he did not mean, "allow there to be light," or "I wish there was light." This call to action was a commandment that summoned light into existence. Translated into plain English, what God meant by issuing this call to action was, "I hereby command light into existence through my very word!" The words "may your name be sanctified" - or in poetic English, "hallowed be thy name" - are a call to action, commanding that his name be sanctified.[110] Of course, as humans it is not enough to just say the words; this call to action must be followed up by sanctifying his name in action and deed.

Millions of Christians issue this daily call to action without giving much thought to what should be an obvious question: What is the name of our heavenly Father? I never gave much thought to this question until I began relearning Hebrew during the year prior to my trip to Israel. During seminary I learned that the name of our heavenly Father was written in the Hebrew Bible with the four Hebrew letters Yod-He-Vav-Heh, equivalent to the English YHVH or YHWH. In Hebrew, vowels are written as small dots and dashes just above and below the consonants. I had been taught that the name was written in Hebrew without vowels because it was "ineffable," which is to say, unpronounceable. As I relearned Hebrew I kept coming across the name YHVH, and I had a burning desire to know how this name was originally pronounced in biblical times.

I knew the name of our Father was still important for me as a Christian. When God first revealed his name to Moses he said:

Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel, "YHVH, the God of your fathers... has sent me to you, this is my name forever, this is my memorial for every generation."[111]

Believing every word of Scripture, I knew the name YHVH was still important because "forever" and "every generation" is a scope of time that never expires. And God's eternal name was not just important for the Jews, but for all humankind, as the Psalms declare:

Kings of the earth and all peoples; princes and all judges of the earth; both young men and maidens; old men and children, let them praise the name of YHVH, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above the earth and heaven.[112]

As I investigated the name of the Father I found that theories about its original pronunciation abounded. Many experts insist upon pronouncing it as "Yahweh." However, according to the Anchor Bible Dictionary this is nothing more than "a scholarly guess."[113] The reason for this uncertainty is that the ancient Rabbis instituted a ban on pronouncing God's holy name.[114] As a result of this ban, most Jews call God Adonai, which means "Lord." Even when they see the name YHVH written in the Hebrew Bible they read it as if it were written Adonai (Lord).

When I met Nehemia in Jerusalem for my tour of the Old City, one of the first things I asked him about was the pronunciation of the name. I distinctly remember sitting with Nehemia in the early hours of the morning on the benches across from the Western Wall. He was not the first Jew I had asked about the name and I expected him to give me the same old response; that the name was too holy to be pronounced and as a Gentile I had no business sticking my nose into such sacred matters. Instead, Nehemia asked me if I knew any Hebrew. When I responded with a nod he pulled out a pen and piece of paper from his backpack and began to jot down various Hebrew words as he explained a long series of linguistic and grammatical issues related to the pronunciation of the name. When he was done with this technical explanation he reminded me that there was still a great deal of valid debate about the true pronunciation of the name. Nevertheless, in his opinion the best evidence pointed to it being originally pronounced "Yehovah." As Nehemia said the name "Yehovah" I heard two blasts of a shofar, a traditional Jewish ram's horn. I immediately looked up and saw a man standing a few feet away, wrapped in prayer shawl and holding a shofar.[115]

While I was overcome with emotion at hearing a Jew pronounce the name followed by the blasts of the ram's horn, I needed to see the name for myself. So I put on my poker face, looked Nehemia straight in the eyes, and demanded that he show me where I could see the name written out in the Hebrew text of Scripture with the exact vowels he had just used. He explained that there were many such examples in the oldest vocalized manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. However, he could not remember book, chapter, and verse off the top of his head. That night I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning searching through every verse of my old seminary Bible until I found what Nehemia was talking about. The name Yehovah had been right there in front of me all along. I was blown away that I now had access to the name that I had been praying to be "hallowed" my entire Christian life. Now it was time to turn that access into action by sanctifying his name.

Proclaiming the Name

One way to sanctify Yehovah's name is to proclaim his name to the world so, as King Solomon said, "that all the peoples of the earth may know [his] name."[116] With all the numerous theories about how to pronounce the name of our heavenly Father, the point is not to get dogmatic about this or that pronunciation of Yod He Vav He. Whether one pronounces it as Yehovah, Yahweh, or some other variation, the important thing is to direct our hearts towards heaven and give honor to his name by proclaiming it to the world. After all, this is his name "forever" and for "every generation."

When the Rabbis issued their ban on pronouncing the name, they never intended it to be permanent. According to the Rabbis, the name will once again be spoken aloud in the final age when the Messiah reigns as an earthly king of the world. The daily devotions of the Rabbis incorporate the prophecy of Zechariah, which foretells the future Messianic age:

Yehovah shall be king over the entire earth and on that day Yehovah will be one and his name will be one.[117]

They understood this prophecy to mean that in the end-times all mankind would once again call upon the actual name of Yehovah. As the Talmud explains:

This world is not like the world to come. In this world the name is written Yeho[vah] and read Ado[nai] but in the world to come it will be one, written Yeho[vah] and read Yeho[vah].[118]

Despite the rabbinical ban on pronouncing the name, it still appears written out in the Hebrew of the Old Testament 6,828 times. While the frequent appearance of the name in Hebrew is common knowledge among Jews, it may come as a surprise to Christians who read the Bible in English. In most English translations of the Bible, the name Yehovah is a rarity, and often it does not appear at all. The King James Version only contains the name seven times, always in the anglicized form "Jehovah." An example of this appears in the Psalms:

That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.[119]

The King James Version originally had the name six times with a "J" ("Jehovah") and once with an "I" ("Iehovah"). When it was first published in 1611 , "J" and "I" were still used interchangeably. As a result, both forms of the name were pronounced "Yehovah."[120]

The original 1611 edition of the King James Version actually contained the name Yehovah an eighth time, although not as part of the main text of the Bible translation. The title page of this edition featured a woodcut of various biblical characters arranged in an ascending hierarchy according to their importance. The name "Yehovah" was placed majestically at the very top of the woodcut, written out in Hebrew letters and surrounded by clouds representing the heavens. The King James translators thus gave recognition to "Yehovah" as the name of God in heaven and proclaimed it to the world by placing it at the very pinnacle of the title page of their historic translation.

The title page of the original 1611 King James Version

An enlarged view of the name Yehovah on the top of the title page of the original 1611 King James Version.

Those who read other translations may wonder why they never noticed the name Yehovah in their Bible. The reason is that some translations have completely removed the name, even from the seven places it appears in the King James Version. For example, the New International Version translates the above verse:

Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD, that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.[121]

By substituting the name of Yehovah with the title "LORD," the New International Version has completely changed the meaning of the verse; the name of God is no longer Yehovah but rather "the LORD."

A question arises: Why does the King James Version only have the name seven times when it appears in the Hebrew nearly 7,000 times? The Christian scholars who originally translated the Bible into English were taught Hebrew by Jewish rabbis. In accordance with the ban on the name, these rabbis taught their Christian disciples that they must always read the word "Yehovah" as "Lord." Throughout the King James Version the name Yehovah is usually represented by "LORD" in capital letters, and most English translations have followed this practice.[122] The King James translators retained the name in seven verses they believed would not make sense with a replacement such as "LORD."

Today, speaking God's name may seem counter-intuitive to many people. Over the centuries we have been taught that the way to sanctify the Almighty's name is by not speaking it. As proof of this assertion, people often invoke the Third Commandment, which is translated in the King James Version:

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.[123]

Some interpret this to mean that it is totally forbidden to utter the holy name of God. However, in ancient Hebrew the phrase to "take the name in vain" is a figure of speech that means to make a false vow in that name.[124] Ancient vows were made by invoking the name of God with the statement "As Yehovah lives."[125] To take the name of Yehovah in vain meant to swear falsely while invoking his name in this manner. This might sound radical to some people but it is actually the oldest known interpretation of the verse. Targum Onkelos, an ancient Jewish translation of the Torah into Aramaic, translates this verse:

You shall not swear by the name of the Lord your God in vain because the Lord will not make innocent he who swears falsely by his name.[126]

More recently the Jewish Publication Society translated the verse:

You shall not swear falsely by the name of the LORD your God; for the LORD will not clear one who swears falsely by His name.[127]

This is not just a Jewish interpretation. The Peshitta, an ancient Aramaic version of the Bible used by the Church of the East, translates the verse:

You shall not swear by the name of the Lord your God falsely because the Lord does not make innocent he who swears falsely by his name.[128]

Furthermore, the official catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that this commandment "forbids false oaths," and two of the key figures in the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther and John Calvin, taught this same exact interpretation.[129] This commandment is simply forbidding us to swear falsely in the name of Yehovah. There is no biblical prohibition to utter the divine name as long as one is speaking the truth. On the contrary, in some instances one is required to speak God's holy name. For example, Deuteronomy says:

You shall fear Yehovah your God, and you shall worship him, and in his name shall you swear.[130]

There is an important end-times prophecy in the Book of Jeremiah that involves swearing in God's name. In this prophecy, God speaks to the nations of the world and makes them a promise:

And it shall come to pass if they nevertheless learn the way of my people to swear in my name "As Yehovah lives," in the way that they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built in the midst of my people.[131]

Jeremiah is saying that if the nations learn to swear in the name of Yehovah the way that they taught Israel to swear in the name of Baal, then they shall be grafted into his people.

Before the ban on the name, Jews used to revere the name of God not by suppressing it but by speaking it in prayers, praises, and blessings. In fact, the early Rabbis taught that "a man is required to greet his fellow using the name."[132] They based this teaching on the Book of Ruth, which tells of Boaz, who was walking on the road from Bethlehem when he saw a group of men harvesting grain in the fields. Boaz shouted to the harvesters, "May Yehovah be with you!" to which they responded, "May Yehovah bless you!"[133] To many Jews today it must seem inconceivable that those simple harvesters, covered with the dirt and grime of the fields, would shout out the name of the Almighty. But the example of Boaz proves not only that it was permissible to use the divine name in ancient Israel but that it was used in everyday speech.

Yehovah in Hebrew Names

Just as ancient Hebrew names expressed love for God as the heavenly Father, they also expressed the Israelites' dedication to God's holy name. There are over 200 names in the Hebrew Bible that contain the name of our heavenly Father. Many of these names begin with "Yeho-," a truncated form of Yehovah, which is then followed by another word describing God's attributes. For example, Yehoshafat, commonly anglicized as Jehosaphat, is made up of two words: Yeho-, the truncated form of Yehovah, and shafat, meaning "he judges." When these two words are combined, the name Yehoshafat means "Yehovah judges." Other examples are Yehoram (Jehoram), meaning "Yehovah is exalted," Yehonatan (Jonathan), "Yehovah gives," and Yehoyada (Jehoiada), "Yehovah knows."

The first person to ever have the name of our heavenly Father added to his name was Moses' servant Joshua. According to the Book of Numbers, Moses' servant was originally called Hoshea (Hosea), but Moses changed his name to Yehoshua (Joshua). The original name Hoshea had the generic meaning "He saves," but after Moses' slight modification - in Hebrew the addition of a single letter - the name Yehoshua took on the meaning "Yehovah saves."[134]

Names that incorporate Yehovah's name within them continued to be popular among Jews even in Second Temple times. In fact, the name Jesus comes from the Hebrew "Yeshua" (Jeshua), which is itself the abbreviated form of Yehoshua (Joshua). As we have just seen, Yehoshua and Yeshua both mean "Yehovah saves." Yeshua's brother was named Joses, which comes from an abbreviated form of the Hebrew Yehoseph (Joseph), meaning "May Yehovah add."[135] Yeshua also had a disciple named John, whose name derives from the Hebrew Yehohanan, meaning "Yehovah favors."[136] Thus, the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the Apostles of the New Testament proclaimed the name of Yehovah through their names.

The profound importance of the name of Yehovah should be obvious to both Jews and Christians alike. Most Christians are familiar with Peter's Pentecost sermon recorded in the Book of Acts. In this sermon Peter proclaimed:

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.[137]

Any good reference Bible will reveal that Peter was actually quoting an Old Testament prophecy from the Book of Joel. In the original Hebrew, Joel said:

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of Yehovah shall be saved.[138]

For both Christians and Jews it is a blessing to call upon the name of our heavenly Father. On the other hand, suppressing the divine name is actually a form of desecrating it. Jeremiah spoke about the false prophets of old who "think to cause my people to forget my name."[139] We can choose to be like the false prophets of old and cause our heavenly Father's name to be forgotten, or we can choose the blessing of sanctifying his holy name by proclaiming it to the world.

Praising the Name

In Hebrew, to sanctify something means to set it apart and exalt it above everything else. Another way to sanctify God's name is to exalt his name with words. The Hebrew Bible has an entire book dedicated to sanctifying God and his name through exaltation and praise, the Book of Psalms. In Hebrew, this book is called Tehillim, which literally means "praises." In Psalm 145, King David says:

I exalt you, my God the King, and I bless your name forever. Every day I bless you and praise your name forever.[140]

Later in the same psalm David continues:

May all flesh bless his holy name forever.[141]

These verses and many others like them teach us that the name of our heavenly Father is worthy to be praised forever, it is worthy to be praised every day, and it is worthy to be praised by every one.

Most Jews and Christians have praised the name of Yehovah countless times throughout their lives without even realizing it. Everyone is familiar with the word Hallelujah, which is made up of the two Hebrew words, Hallelu and jah. Together they mean: "Praise Yah." Yah is simply an abbreviated form of the divine name Yehovah. Despite the rabbinical ban on God's name, there has never been a ban on pronouncing the abbreviated form Yah.[142] So without realizing it, most Jews and Christians regularly praise and proclaim the name of our heavenly Father Yehovah by shouting "Hallelujah" - "Praise Yah!"

The Book of Revelation takes a page out of the Psalms when it relates that the angels in heaven praise God by shouting "Hallelujah."[143] This picture of praise was first painted in Psalm 148:

Hallelujah! Praise Yehovah from the heavens, praise him from on high. Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his hosts... Let them praise the name of Yehovah, for he commanded and they were created.[144]

On July 21, 1969, American astronaut Michael Collins made history by being the first human to ever praise the name of Yehovah "from on high." Collins was the pilot of the command module on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are best remembered from that mission as the first men to ever step foot on the moon. While his fellow astronauts ventured forth from the lunar module to explore the surface of the moon in front of hundreds of millions of television viewers, Collins stayed behind quietly in the Columbia command module, maintaining a low orbit of the moon. Hours later, Bruce McCandless at mission control in Houston radioed Collins with the news that Armstrong and Aldrin made it back safely to the lunar module, now dubbed "Tranquility Base."[145] By this time most Americans had gone to sleep, and were it not for the onboard voice recorder documenting the brief conversation that ensued, these words might have been lost to history:

McCandless: Roger, Columbia. This is Houston. Reading you loud and clear on Omni Charlie. The crew of Tranquility Base is back inside their base, repressurized, and they're in the process of doffing the PLSSs [removing the space suits]. Everything went beautifully. Over.

Collins: Hallelujah.[146]

As far as anyone knows, this is the first time God's name was ever uttered in outer space. Few human beings have had the opportunity to praise the name of our heavenly Father from outside the confines of Earth's atmosphere, but every time we Earth-bound mortals say Hallelujah we instantly join an angelic choir in praising his name. You may not have the best musical voice, you may not know all of the many Hebrew words of the multitude of songs that are sung to the awesome and exalted God of creation, but when you say Hallelujah your voice becomes a beautiful part of a heavenly song sung to our eternal Father Yehovah!

Sanctifying the Name Through Action

A third way to sanctify God's name is through the deeds we perform. In Hebrew, the phrase Kidush Hashem - literally, sanctification of the name - means to perform deeds that glorify the name of the Almighty. The opposite of this is Chilul Hashem - desecration of the name - meaning to perform deeds that tarnish his name. These Hebrew terms have their origins in the Book of Leviticus, where the Children of Israel are instructed:

Keep my commandments and do them, I am Yehovah, but do not desecrate my holy name, that I may be sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel.[147]

Leviticus is saying that through their obedience to God's will, the Israelites sanctify God's name, and through disobedience they desecrate it. The Hebrew Bible is not speaking about mere mechanical obedience. The prophet Ezekiel rebuked the Israelites for mechanically observing the ritual aspects of the Torah without being faithful to God:

And you, O House of Israel, thus says Lord Yehovah, If you will not obey me then each man should go and continue to worship his idols, but do not desecrate my holy name anymore with your gifts and with your idols.[148]

Ezekiel was saying that to seek blood atonement while continuing a sinful lifestyle is a desecration of God's holy name. If that is what one intends to do then he might as well worship idols. Israel was chosen to serve as an example to all mankind, what Isaiah called a "light unto the nations." When an Israelite sins he fails to serve as a light to the nations and instead desecrates God's name.[149]

Some Christians may think that Kidush Hashem - sanctification of the name through one's deeds - is only for the Jew, whereas the Christian can suffice with faith alone. However, the New Testament teaches:

Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.[150]

Yeshua himself taught about Kidush Hashem in the Sermon on the Mount when he said:

Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.[151]

Through our actions we can give glory to our heavenly Father and sanctify his name in the eyes of the world. Praying "May your name be sanctified" is a call to action that must be followed up by proclaiming his name to the world, by praising his name with words, and by performing deeds that glorify his name in the eyes of mankind.

May Your Kingdom be Blessed

As a Christian pastor I have often thought that the words "thy Kingdom come" conjured up the image of God as an exiled king, patiently gathering his heavenly forces in anticipation of the day when he might wrench back his stolen realm from Satan. These words reminded me of King David, whose kingdom was stolen out from under him by his beloved son Absalom. When Absalom rose up against David, the aged king was forced to flee Jerusalem in disgrace. As Absalom marched triumphantly into the capital, David quietly slipped across the Jordan River like a thief in the night. The exiled David slowly reorganized his forces in Transjordan, while his faithful servants back in the Kingdom of Israel languished under the rule of the usurper, ever longing for the return of their rightful king.[152] It is easy to imagine the people sending messages to David about all the tribulations they were experiencing in his absence and closing their letters with the prayer "thy kingdom come." Praying these words keeps the concept fresh in the mind of the believer that something or someone has caused the Creator to lose his rule over the earth and that his people need to pray for his kingdom to be restored.

"Thy kingdom come" clearly refers to the establishment of this future end-times kingdom. The Hebrew, however, is quite different on this point. Throughout our study of the prayer we saw numerous examples of minor differences between the Greek and Hebrew versions. At times, these small variations changed the meaning dramatically, but textually speaking these differences were relatively trivial. By and large, the Hebrew version of the prayer resembles the Greek more than most English translations do. Perhaps the greatest difference - a difference of an entire word - appears in reference to God's kingdom. Ironically, during the early stages of investigation we spent months discussing the relatively minor differences of prepositions, conjunctions, and quantifiers, but did not realize this major difference until we met in Israel to search for the place of the prayer.

I remember that when I finally arrived in Israel I wanted to start by seeing the manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew. For months I had been discussing with Nehemia this ancient Hebrew text, preserved by Jewish rabbis through the Middle Ages, and I felt it was important to see the manuscripts for myself. Nehemia had spent long hours pouring over the manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew and told me he was excited to finally share them with me. We decided not to waste any time. Nehemia picked me up at the airport and took me directly to the Jewish National and University Library in the heart of Jerusalem. The National Library is Israel's equivalent of the American Library of Congress and is also an unparalleled repository of Jewish literature. One of the really special things about the National Library is a small department called the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, or the IMHM for short. The IMHM contains microfilms of approximately 80,000 Hebrew manuscripts from all over the world. Another department at the National Library holds about 10,000 original manuscripts. Between these two departments, the National Library makes roughly 90% of all the Hebrew manuscripts in the world available to scholars. This provides a unique opportunity to study ancient Hebrew texts. When Professor George Howard first published Hebrew Matthew in 1987 he based his scientific edition of the text on photographs of nine manuscripts he painstakingly collected from libraries all over the world. When it was Nehemia's turn to study these ancient manuscripts, all he had to do was drive over to the National Library in Jerusalem, where microfilms of over 20 manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew were instantly available.

When I walked through the doors of the IMHM I felt like I was entering a cave containing a great treasure. It was located in the basement, and I was struck by the aura of the place, which was cold and dark. The main hall contained rows of microfilm readers and the room was filled with the whirring of these machines as a dozen Jewish scholars strained their eyes to read ancient Hebrew tomes. I felt a little out of place, and at the same time humbled, as I looked around and wondered how many African American pastors had ever been down in the basement of the Israel National Library to study old Hebrew manuscripts.

Nehemia started the process by jotting down the shelf numbers of several microfilms on an order form he handed to the librarian. After a few minutes the librarian returned from a back room with a small cardboard tray filled with microfilms. Nehemia sat down with the tray in front of one of the microfilm readers and proceeded to feed a ribbon of film into the machine. The first manuscript we looked at was from the Apostolic Library in the Vatican. Nehemia explained that if we did not have access to the IMHM we would have to fly to Rome, schedule an appointment with the Vatican, and then only be allowed to examine the manuscript under the supervision of a librarian wearing special white gloves. After examining the Vatican manuscript we would then have to take a train across Europe to the University of Leiden in Holland to see the next manuscript. In total, the 28 manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew are located in 18 libraries in eight different countries on three continents.[153] The only place in the world where images of all the manuscripts can be examined in one location is the IMHM in Jerusalem.

As Nehemia scrolled through the manuscripts, I was excited at being able to decipher many of the Hebrew words we had been discussing over the previous months. After looking at the Avinu Prayer in numerous manuscripts, Nehemia held up the last three microfilms, leaned over to me, and whispered, "These are three manuscripts I have never seen before!" Nehemia's hands shook with excitement as he fed the first of the three microfilms into the reader. The machine hummed to life as he hit the fast-forward button and after a minute he found the Avinu Prayer.

It turned out that the first of the new manuscripts was not really an ancient manuscript at all. This handwritten copy of Hebrew Matthew had been prepared by a Jewish scholar named Samuel Poznanski who planned on having it printed.[154] While this modern handwritten document cannot be counted as a true "manuscript," it does have an amazing story behind it, and it helped us to understand the Hebrew version of the phrase "thy kingdom come."

Poznanski's handwritten text of Hebrew Matthew was copied directly from a genuine medieval manuscript he examined while visiting the town of Breslau in eastern Germany around the year 1900. Breslau was a major center of Jewish learning, and the manuscript of Hebrew Matthew belonged to Breslau's famous Jewish Theological Seminary. The seminary was destroyed in 1938 on Kristallnacht - "the night of the broken glass" - when the Nazis rampaged through Jewish communities all over Germany, killing Jews, destroying their shops, and burning their synagogues. Many of the seminary's manuscripts were burned but some were confiscated by the Nazis, including the manuscript of Hebrew Matthew. In 1942, the Breslau manuscript of Hebrew Matthew was taken to Prague and deposited in a new museum set up by Hitler, along with countless other Jewish artifacts stolen from all over Europe. Hitler dubbed the facility the "Museum of the Extinct Race" and its purpose was to inform future generations of Germans about the Jews who, according to the plan, would soon be extinct. The manuscript of Hebrew Matthew remained in Prague until 2006 when it was finally returned to Breslau, which today is part of Poland and now named Wroclaw.[155]

As we examined Poznanski's handwritten copy of Hebrew Matthew, we noticed that it contained the Hebrew equivalent of the phrase "thy kingdom come," or literally "may your kingdom come."[156] Poznanski added a note in his handwritten copy that instead of the word "come," the Breslau manuscript from which he made his copy had the word "blessed." Poznanski knew that the Greek version said, "come," not "blessed," but he took the liberty of "correcting" the Hebrew to match the Greek. The difference between "may your kingdom come" and "may your kingdom be blessed" is rather substantial. Although we'd been dissecting every word and nuance of the Avinu Prayer for months, somehow neither of us had noticed this huge difference.

After we read Poznanski's note we pulled out the microfilm of the Breslau manuscript and confirmed that the original said, "may your kingdom be blessed." This led us to re-examine each manuscript. We looked at 28 manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew - not counting Poznanski's modern handwritten copy - of which only 19 preserved the Avinu Prayer; the other nine manuscripts were fragments and did not contain that section of the Gospel. All 19 of the manuscripts that preserved the Hebrew version of the Avinu Prayer had the reading "may your kingdom be blessed."

The phrase "may your kingdom be blessed" reflects an entirely different concept of the kingdom than that contained in the phrase "thy kingdom come." The Hebrew is not speaking about a future end-times kingdom but a present-day kingdom, one in the here-and-now. The Hebrew is saying: O, Father, may your present-day kingdom be blessed!

The concept of God as the present-day king of all creation should not be alien to the Christian reader. The King James translation of the Avinu Prayer ends with the blessing:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.[157]

This blessing is not found in early Greek manuscripts and is generally considered to be a scribal addition to the prayer. As a result, it does not appear in the standard Greek text used by most Christians today, and it is omitted in many modern translations.[158] Nevertheless, the Christian scribe who added this blessing obviously had in mind God's present-day kingdom when he wrote, "for thine is the kingdom." This scribal addition is actually based on a blessing originally offered by King David in the Book of Chronicles:

And David blessed Yehovah before the entire congregation, and David said, "Blessed are you, Yehovah, the God of our father Israel, for ever and ever. Yours, Yehovah, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and on the earth [is yours]; yours is the kingdom, Yehovah, and you are exalted as head above all."[159]

King David, who was anointed as king by the prophet Samuel and who reigned over Israel for 40 years, understood that the true king of the world was Yehovah.[160] When King David said, "yours is the kingdom, Yehovah" he was speaking about God being king in the here-and-now, not in the end-times. The Hebrew Bible actually contains both concepts: God is king in the here-and-now and God will be king in the end-times. We have already made reference to the prophecy of Zechariah, which speaks of the name of God in the end-times. This same prophecy also refers to the end-times kingdom:

And Yehovah shall be king over the entire earth and on that day Yehovah will be one and his name will be one.[161]

On the other hand, the concept of Yehovah as the present-day king is expressed in the Psalms:

Yehovah is king, he is robed in majesty; Yehovah is robed, he is girded with strength. He has established the world; it shall never fall.[162]

These two concepts of kingship are obviously different, and the scope of God's kingdom varies in each case. God is the present-day king of the world in the sense that he rules all of creation and has complete power over every particle in the universe. God will be king in the end-times in the sense that he will rule a political realm on earth.

It is sometimes hard to think of God as king in the present-day because we look around and see human rulers who govern with very real and tangible force. Yehovah is a merciful king and when we sin against him he is patient with us. The human kings of the world are not so merciful and their punishments are often swift and cruel. King Nebuchadnezzar was such a king, and as ruler of the Babylonian Empire he was given the title "king of kings." In his pride Nebuchadnezzar forgot there was a king above him, the Almighty God. The Book of Daniel tells how Nebuchadnezzar was stricken with a debilitating illness by God so that he would "know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses."[163] When Nebuchadnezzar finally recovered from the illness, he proclaimed the present-day kingship of God:

For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, "What have You done?"[164]

In our yearning for the end-times kingdom, both Jews and Christians sometimes forget what Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way, that God is our king in the here-and-now. King David emphasized the importance of proclaiming God's present-day kingdom when he sang the praise:

They will talk of the glory of your kingdom and they will speak about your might, making known among men his mighty acts and the majestic glory of his kingship. Your kingship is an eternal kingship and your dominion is for all generations.[165]

Yeshua also made reference to the present-day kingdom of our heavenly Father when the Pharisees challenged him to predict the future:

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you."[166]

God is not the exiled king! Although the nature of his kingship will change in the end-times, he is now, and has always been, the omnipotent king of all creation.

Blessing the Kingdom

In order to bless the kingdom of God we must fully understand what it means to "bless" a king. The Hebrew word for "bless" is derived from berech, which means "knee," and in ancient times a person would bless a king by kneeling before the king. Scripture tells us that King Solomon blessed God at the dedication of the Temple by raising his arms towards heaven in prayer and kneeling.[167]

When we think about blessing the kingdom of God, most of us imagine the way we bless human kings. For many people in the Western world this conjures up the image of a trail of courtiers standing in line to pay homage to the Queen of England. Others imagine a biblical scenario with travelers coming from far-distant lands to bless the kingdom of Solomon. When they enter the royal court they see the many fine pieces of gold, silver, and bronze, with Solomon sitting on his great ivory throne adorned in majestic attire. As they are filled with awe they kneel before Solomon, speaking words of blessing and adoration, laying their gifts before him.

Unfortunately, it is easier for us to imagine blessing the kingdom of a man or a woman than to comprehend how to bless our heavenly King. From the earliest time in Israel's history the Israelites felt more comfortable with a human king than with the Almighty. When they asked Samuel for a king of flesh and blood, the prophet interpreted this as a rejection of his own leadership, but Yehovah explained to him:

They have not rejected you; they have rejected me from reigning over them as king.[168]

In the end-times, all mankind will finally accept our heavenly King and bless Yehovah by kneeling before him, as we read in the Book of Isaiah:

By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return: "To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear."[169]

We have an opportunity to accept our heavenly King in all his glory today. He is worthy of our adoration. The words "may your kingdom be blessed" are an invitation to bow our hearts and knees before him with our hands raised towards heaven, while blessing his present and eternal kingdom.

Your Will Shall be Done in Heaven and on Earth

Our study of the words "thy will be done" took us to the lowest point on Earth: the hot sulfur springs on the shore of the Dead Sea. Though a seemingly unlikely setting for scriptural study, our impromptu brainstorming session in the Charlotte jacuzzi had been so successful that I decided to take Keith to the Israeli equivalent. The Dead Sea is a wonder of creation located about an hour's drive from Jerusalem. Known in Hebrew as the "Salt Sea," its waters are so salty that nothing can live in them. The Dead Sea is situated at the convergence of two tectonic plates, and its shore is dotted with a series of hot springs that ooze with sulfur from deep within the bowels of the Earth.

As we sat in one of these hot sulfur springs, we pondered the words "thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," which appear in the Greek version of the Avinu Prayer.[170] These words are a call to action to be obedient to God's will. Scripture tells us that the heavenly angels are perfectly obedient to God's will, whereas humans are notorious for defying him.[171] The call to action in the Greek version of the Avinu Prayer is for human beings to be just as obedient to God as the angels.[172]

The Dead Sea was a perfect place to meditate upon the importance of being obedient to God's will. Thousands of years ago, this was the location of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim. The 19th chapter of Genesis tells how God rained down fire and brimstone on these four iniquitous cities for defying his will. Jews and Christians have both learned the lessons of Sodom and Gomorrah and agree that it is important to do God's will.[173] This is why King David prayed: "Teach me to do your will for you are my God."[174] It is also what Yeshua meant when he taught: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven."[175]

While the Greek version of the Avinu Prayer contains a call to action to do God's will, the Hebrew contains a statement of fact: "Your will shall be done in heaven and on earth."[176] To proclaim that God's will shall be done in heaven and on earth means that nothing is beyond his control, neither in the spiritual realm nor in the physical universe. These Hebrew words thus express the idea that our heavenly Father is all-powerful.

God of the Hills and Valleys

God's omnipotence was well-known to the ancient Jews, but was a novel concept to the pagan nations that surrounded them. These pagans believed in many gods, each of whom fulfilled a specific function and exerted its will over a specific domain. There was a god of rain and a god of fertility, a god of the heavens and a god of the seas, a god of the hills and a god of the valleys. In contrast, our heavenly Father, Yehovah, is an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God, whose will is done in heaven and on earth.

Scripture tells of the Aramean king Ben Hadad, who learned a harsh lesson about God's will having no limits. When the King of Israel defeated him in a major battle, Ben Hadad believed he lost because he had engaged the Israelite army in the hills. "Their god is a god of the hills," Ben Hadad's advisors explained to him. "Let us fight them in the valley and we will surely overpower them."[177] The Aramean king was convinced that the God of Israel would be powerless in the valley, so he once again invaded Israel, only to be utterly defeated a second time. Ben Hadad learned that the will of Yehovah, the God of Israel and the Father of all mankind, is done in heaven and on earth and everywhere in between. When we pray the Avinu Prayer we are asking our heavenly Father to do his will in the hills and in the valleys of our lives, in our ups and in our downs, in the big decisions and in the smallest details.

Divine Providence

As mere mortals it is sometimes difficult for us to fathom how God has both the time and patience to hear the prayers of each and every human being. This is because the human will is limited by time and space, and we have a tendency to project our own limitations onto God. In the history of human thought there have been many who created false gods in their own image. Some ancient pagans postulated the existence of a creator-god who withdrew from the universe after the initial act of creation, leaving the world to be governed solely by natural laws. This creator-god was totally disconnected from the affairs of mankind and, as far as these pagans were concerned, human prayers fell on deaf ears.

Other pagans believed that the creator-god took an active role in the universe, but only in a general way, on the level of entire species or nations, a concept known as "general providence."[178] A god of general providence might intervene in the universe to ensure that a particular nation flourished or that a particular species of animal survived, but had no interest in the individual members of any nation or species.

One thing Jews and Christians agree upon is that the true God intervenes in the universe not only on the general level but also on the individual level. In Hebrew this is called hashgachah pratit, or "individual providence."[179] In the Hebrew Bible, the creation of the world was only just the beginning of God's ongoing intervention in the universe on both the general and the individual level. The God of Scripture hears the prayers of every individual, no matter how insignificant that person may be in the grand scheme of things. Yehovah heard the prayer of Hagar the Egyptian maidservant the same as he heard the prayer of his chosen servant Abraham.[180] To the God of Scripture, every individual is equally important. When we proclaim that God's will shall be done, we are asking for both general and individual providence in our lives. Our heavenly Father gets involved in our business and affairs, he cares about us as individuals, and he hears the private prayers of each and every person.

Give Us Our Bread Continually

I never grasped the profound importance of the words "give us this day our daily bread" until I joined Nehemia in Israel to search for the place where Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer. One morning, we went out early to walk Nehemia's dog along the old train tracks that cut through the southern neighborhoods of Jerusalem. The dog was running along the tracks when she suddenly stopped next to a five-foot high stone wall and started sniffing the air. I observed with curiosity as she jumped up on her hind legs, resting her front paws on the upper part of the wall, and stretched her head a few more inches until she could reach the ledge atop the wall. I walked over to see what the dog was doing, and to my surprise I saw her devouring a loaf of bread that had been placed on top of the wall. When I asked Nehemia why bread would be left outside on top of a wall like this, he explained that many Jews in Israel emigrated from countries where starvation was still a constant danger and they consider bread to be a sacred thing. "When a piece of bread falls on the ground these Israelis rush to pick it up and kiss it, just as they would kiss a holy book that fell on the ground," Nehemia explained. Rather than defiling stale bread by throwing it in the trash, they leave it outside for poor people who are delighted to receive it even if it is a little old. After Nehemia explained these things I started noticing bread all over Jerusalem. Every day I noticed new bread on top of walls or hanging in plastic bags next to corner dumpsters. This reminded me how important praying for daily bread must have been when Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer, and how applicable it is today for countless people around the world.

Daily Bread vs. Continual Bread

The Hebrew words behind the familiar phrase "give us this day our daily bread" actually say "give us our bread tamid."[181] The last word in this sentence, tamid, is rich with meaning, which makes it difficult to translate into English. The closest approximation in English to the word tamid is "continually," although some prefer to translate it as "daily."[182] Due to slight variations among the manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew, this line of the prayer can be translated as either "give us our bread continually/daily," or "give us our continual/daily bread."[183]

The Greek equivalent of tamid is epiousion, a word that also defies easy translation, although for entirely different reasons. The early Christian author Origen wrote:

The word epiousion is not found in any Greek writer whether in philosophy or in common usage, but seems to have been formed by the evangelists. At least Matthew and Luke, in having given it to the world, concur in using it in identical form. The same thing has been done by translators from Hebrew in other instances also.[184]

Origen, who lived in the 2nd century, was saying in no uncertain terms that Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer in Hebrew and that it was later translated into Greek. According to Origen, the authors (or translators) of Matthew and Luke struggled to find a word that could faithfully convey in Greek the meaning of Yeshua's Hebrew prayer. When an adequate Greek word could not be found, they simply invented a new one. If Yeshua had stood up and said: "give us our bread epiousion," the multitudes would have stared at one another, wondering what he meant, because this word simply did not exist in the Greek language.

If all we had was the Greek version of the prayer, we would be scratching our heads like Origen and every Christian theologian since, trying to figure out the meaning of the invented Greek word epiousion. In the Hebrew, no such problem exists. When Yeshua wanted to communicate the idea of "continual/daily" bread, he used the word tamid, a perfectly good Hebrew word that was well-established in the Hebrew Bible and well-known to his audience.[185]

The Literal Meaning of Bread

In ancient Hebrew, the word for bread - lechem - had a broader meaning than simply "bread."[186] The word lechem really signified "basic food substance," and when Yeshua taught the Avinu Prayer to the Jewish multitudes this word meant different things to different members of his audience. To the grain farmers lechem was literal "bread," to the shepherds it was "meat," and to the fishermen who abandoned their boats on the nearby Sea of Galilee to hear him preach it meant "fish." Each of these groups lived at a subsistence level, relying on a daily provision of food to survive, with starvation always looming on the horizon. For these people, praying for a steady and continual supply of lechem was not just some hypothetical or spiritual concept but a matter of life and death.

In many parts of our modern world, bread has such little value that it is hard for us to comprehend how vital it was for ancient man. To understand the Avinu Prayer in its historical context, we have to consider the profound changes that took place in the last century. In the middle of the 20th century the world went through the "Green Revolution," a dramatic change in agricultural production that allowed mankind to feed itself reliably and consistently for the first time in history. The Green Revolution was the result of new high-yield varieties of wheat, corn, and rice grown with new irrigation techniques and newly available fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides. Through much of human history, however, things were very different. Before the Green Revolution, people were constantly threatened with starvation. Farmers usually managed to grow just enough food to feed themselves. When crops failed or under-produced, people suffered horribly and even died. This happened frequently from the dawn of civilization and well into the 20th century. Despite the Green Revolution, there are still places around the globe where people suffer from malnutrition. It is no longer because the world lacks food, but because the plentiful food that is available is not given to the poor and hungry that so desperately need it.

The attitude of those Israelis who leave stale loaves out for the poor may seem bizarre to many Americans. However, before the Green Revolution most people held this attitude. On one of our walks around Jerusalem, Nehemia brought home this point by telling me the story of his great-grandfather, who grew up in Lithuania without enough food to eat. He was raised by relatives who would lock the little bread they had in a breadbox. The older children in the family would go days without anything to eat and the breadbox would only be opened when they cried and begged. Today these parents might be arrested for child abuse, but in those days this was a necessary survival technique; if they fed the children as much as they wanted they would run out of bread and the children would die of starvation. To Nehemia's ancestors it made perfect sense to pray to God and ask him to provide them with their continual/daily bread. In fact, after each meal they would recite a traditional Jewish prayer blessing the Almighty "for feeding us the food which you provide for us continually," using the same Hebrew word that appears in the Avinu Prayer.[187] They understood in a very real and tangible way that their lives depended on God's continual provision.[188]

The Symbolic Meaning of Bread

In the Avinu Prayer "bread" clearly has an important literal meaning, but it would be a mistake to ignore its overwhelming symbolic importance. In Hebrew thought, "bread" is often a metaphor for the Word of God, which sustains the universe and nourishes the human soul. This is best expressed through the miracle of the manna, the heavenly bread that fed the Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert. Of all God's miracles for the ancient Israelites, this was the most enduring and consistent. For six days a week for 40 years, the manna-bread fell from the sky and filled the stomachs of those wandering pilgrims. The miracle of the manna was not just its appearance out of nowhere in the middle of a barren wilderness, but that each day's manna only lasted for one day. Those who tried to save the manna for the next day found it rotten and full of maggots the following morning. The only exception to this one-day rule was on Friday, when the Israelites were commanded to collect a double portion so they could rest on the Sabbath. Miraculously, the Friday "leftovers" were still fresh and nourishing on the Sabbath.[189]

While the manna was literal food, it also had a symbolic function, as we are taught in the Book of Deuteronomy:

[God] afflicted you with hunger and fed you the manna which both you and your fathers did not know, in order to teach you that man does not live by bread alone but man lives by everything that comes out of the mouth of Yehovah.[190]

Making the Israelites dependent on the manna gave them a daily reminder that human beings need more than just physical nourishment to survive. We need spiritual nourishment, which emanates from the mouth of our heavenly Father. Our spiritual nourishment comes in the form of the Word of God spoken by his prophets and recorded in the Scriptures.

Bread as Prophecy

The prophet Isaiah used bread in this symbolic way. In Isaiah's time merchants used to roam the marketplaces selling water and bread. The ancient water merchants would shout: "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters," and the ancient bread merchants would yell, "Ho! Come, buy and eat." To this day, the outdoor marketplaces of the Middle East are filled with similar cries of merchants inviting people to buy their wares. After getting the attention of their customers, the ancient merchants would then state the price of their wares. Isaiah used the words of these merchants to call the Israelites to come eat the spiritual food that God offers for free:

Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.[191]

When Isaiah spoke these words he must have had the attention of everyone in the marketplace. Who could resist free food and drink? Once he had their attention the prophet explained that he was speaking about spiritual food that nourishes in a way that physical bread never can:

Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live.[192]

Isaiah was inviting the people to hear the prophecies of the Almighty, which feed the human soul in a way that carnal bread does not.

The Jews of Yeshua's time understood that bread had this symbolic meaning. The symbolic understanding of bread appears in the famous story about the Jewish proselyte Aquila, who became distraught one day after reading the verse in Deuteronomy that says, "[God] loves the proselyte giving him bread and clothing."[193] Before embracing Judaism, Aquila had been a wealthy Roman from the family of the emperor and he wanted more from God than just food and raiment. Aquila sought guidance from a rabbi, who explained the verse in Deuteronomy symbolically:

"Bread" [in this verse] refers to Torah, as it is written [in Proverbs], "Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine that I have mixed."[194]

The rabbi quoted a verse in Proverbs that describes the Word of God as bread and wine that nourish the faithful. Based on this and similar verses, the Rabbis coined the adage, "Bread [in Scripture] refers to none other than the Torah." The ancient Karaite sages expressed the same concept: "Torah is symbolically compared to bread."[195] In addition to asking for physical bread, when we pray the words "give us our bread continually" we are asking our heavenly Father to plant his Word in our hearts and rain down the living water of life so that it may grow into life-giving bread that fills our souls with satisfaction.[196]

Continual Bread

Yeshua knew that the Hebrew word tamid (continually/daily) was ideal for expressing both the literal and symbolic meanings of bread. This word was well-established in the Hebrew language and would have a broad array of biblical associations for his Jewish audience. The word tamid appears in the Hebrew Bible to describe everything from the Temple Shewbread in Exodus to the statutes of God bound upon our hearts in Proverbs.[197] He knew that this one Hebrew word went well beyond physical bread to express devotion to the Almighty in Chronicles and blessing and praises in Psalms.[198] He knew that the word tamid described Yehovah's care for his people through the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, and his guidance in difficult times when they needed strength.[199] He also knew that the prophet Amos foretold a time when there would be a famine for the Word of God:

Behold days are coming, says Lord Yehovah, when I will send a famine upon the earth; it will not be a hunger for bread or a thirst for water but to hear the words of Yehovah.[200]

Yeshua wanted the people to be filled with this bread to get them through the long years of famine. When we pray to God to "give us our bread continually," we are asking the heavenly Baker to provide for our physical needs and to once again send his heavenly bread, the Word of God, to nourish our souls, to soothe our ears and to warm our hearts, so that we may meditate upon it day and night.[201]

Forgive Us the Debt of Our Sins As We Forgive the Debt of Those Who Sin Against Us

Forgiving those who ask for forgiveness is a central part of my Jewish heritage.[202] In the Hebrew Bible, our heavenly Father is called El Nose, a "Forgiving God."[203] The Torah teaches us to "to walk in all his ways," which means to be merciful and forgiving to our fellow human beings just as God is merciful and forgiving to us.[204] While we are taught to emulate God's benevolent traits, vengeance is deemed to be an exclusively divine privilege.[205] In Deuteronomy, the Almighty proclaims: "Vengeance and retribution belong to me,"[206] and the Torah explicitly forbids the individual from exacting vengeance. Some Christians may mistakenly believe that Yeshua coined the phrase "love your neighbor as you love yourself." However, this profound teaching first appears in Leviticus, in the same verse that forbids the individual to take revenge:

Do not hate your brother in your heart... You must not take revenge and you must not bear a grudge, but you must love your neighbor as you love yourself, I am Yehovah.[207]

Instead of taking revenge or bearing a grudge in our hearts, we are commanded to forgive our fellow human beings. God is teaching us to treat others the way we want to be treated ourselves. Just as we want people to treat us with respect and kindness, we must do the same to them. Similarly, just as we wish to be forgiven, we must forgive. The reason we must obey this commandment is simply because "I am Yehovah;" if we bear a grudge or hate our brothers in our hearts then we have sinned against our heavenly Father.

The requirement to forgive those who have wronged us also follows from the Hebrew principle of midah ke-neged midah, or "reciprocal justice."[208] According to this principle, God treats us the way that we treat others. In the Book of Ezekiel, the Almighty declares: "I will deal with you as you have done."[209] This principle also appears in the story of the brutal Canaanite king Adonibezek. When the Israelite army finally put an end to his vicious reign, Adonibezek declared: "As I have done [to others], so has God done to me."[210] According to the principle of reciprocal justice, God treats us the way we treat our fellow human beings, and if we stubbornly refuse to forgive our brothers then Yehovah will refuse to forgive us.

The Hebrew Bible's teaching on forgiveness may appear to some as contrary to the concept of justice. However, if an injustice has been done we can rest assured that "the Judge of all the earth" will take care of it. Vengeance and retribution belong to God, and we as humans must forgive.[211] As King Solomon said, "God will bring every deed into judgment."[212] Thus, when David was mercilessly hunted down by King Saul for no fault of his own, he could confidently say to his oppressor, "May Yehovah judge between you and me! And may Yehovah take vengeance upon you on my behalf! But my hand will not be upon you."[213] In the New Testament, Paul reiterated this point, citing the aforementioned verse from Deuteronomy as proof:

Never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."[214]

Forgiving the Debt of Sin

The Jewish people have always understood that in order to be forgiven by God we must forgive those who have wronged us. Two hundred years before the birth of Yeshua, the Jewish sage Ben Sira taught:

Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray.[215]

Yeshua echoed this message when he taught the Jewish multitudes to pray the Avinu Prayer with the words:

Forgive us the debt of our sins as we forgive the debt of those who sin against us.

Those who read this section of the Avinu Prayer in Greek (or in an English translation of the Greek) cannot help but notice a major discrepancy between the wordings in Luke and Matthew. In Luke, the prayer says "forgive us our sins," but in Greek Matthew, it says "forgive us our debts."[216] The reader of these two Greek Gospels can only wonder whether Yeshua really spoke about "sins" or "debts." The answer to this question lies in the Hebrew source behind the Greek.

The problem that faced the Greek translators of the prayer was that the Hebrew word for "forgiveness" - mechol - literally means "to cancel a debt." In Greek it sounds strange to ask God to forgive a "debt," because this is a term associated with banking and finance. It would be like someone in modern English praying to God: Oh Father, forgive me my mortgage! This is what it would have sounded like to the ancient Greeks when they heard a literal translation of Yeshua's Hebrew prayer. The Greek translators must have asked themselves: How can we convey in Greek the Hebrew idea of 'forgiveness' as the cancellation of a debt? Greek Matthew accomplished this by the phrase "forgive us our debts," which must have sounded odd to the ancient Greeks. Luke, on the other hand, decided on a translation more appropriate for the Greek language, "forgive us our sins," but in doing so he lost some of the flavor of the original Hebrew. Without the Hebrew, we would have to wonder which Gospel authentically preserved the words of Yeshua, when in fact both Greek Gospels are reasonable translations that approximate the Hebrew.

The Meaning of Sin

The Hebrew word for sin is chet, which literally means "to miss." This literal meaning of the word appears in the Book of Proverbs, which says:

He who hurries with his legs, misses (chote).[217]

To understand this proverb we must think of ancient roads, which were little more than dirt paths cleared of large stones and shrubs. The person who walks too quickly may not look where he puts his foot and end up stepping outside the dirt path, inevitably stumbling and falling. To sin is to miss a step, placing one's foot outside the path that God has laid down for us. In both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, our relationship with our heavenly Father is described metaphorically as walking in God's path. In the Hebrew Bible, Moses said:

Diligently do all that Yehovah your God has commanded you, do not turn aside to the right or to the left, but walk only in the path that Yehovah your God has commanded you in order that you may live.[218]

In the New Testament, Yeshua spoke about the road that leads to life and the road that leads to death. He explained to the Jewish multitudes:

The road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.[219]

The Land of Israel is full of narrow paths that wind along the contours of the mountains, usually with a cliff on one side and a deep precipice on the other. Anyone who misses a step on a narrow path of this sort falls into a deep abyss. To be faithful to God means to walk on his path, veering neither to the right nor to the left. Sin is when our foot misses his path, causing us to fall on our faces or stumble into the abyss. But God in his infinite power has the ability to forgive us when we repent and ask for forgiveness.

The "Us" in the Prayer

Yeshua could have opened his prayer with the words "my Father" and asked God to "forgive me for the debt of my sins." Instead, the entire prayer uses the plural, referring to "our" and "us." In Hebrew thought, a person bears both an individual responsibility for his own actions as well as a collective responsibility for the society in which he lives. This is a central concept in the Hebrew Bible that finds clear expression in the New Testament. In Deuteronomy, God speaks about "the blessing and the curse" that result from the collective actions of the People of Israel. If they choose to follow in God's path they are blessed as a nation, but if they rebel against God then they are punished as a nation. Yeshua expressed the exact same concept when he said that God "makes his sun rise on [both] the evil and on the good, and sends rain on [both] the righteous and on the unrighteous."[220] Yeshua was saying that when God sends a collective blessing of rain or a collective curse of drought, everyone is affected by it, both the righteous and the unrighteous.

The reason for this collective responsibility is that we can influence the type of society in which we live. As the 18th century Irish philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke once said: "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing." This concept has its origin in the Book of Leviticus, which says:

You shall not stand by the blood of your neighbor... You shall surely reprove your fellow that you not bear sin because of him.[221]

To "stand by the blood of your neighbor" means to see someone being harmed and do nothing to stop it. The book of Genesis tells how Abraham's nephew Lot exemplified this principle when he invited two strangers into his home. Lot knew that if the men stayed in the public square they would eventually fall prey to the violent gangs that roamed the streets of Sodom. He could have avoided taking responsibility by leaving the strangers in the square, but he saw that they were in imminent peril and he did what he could to protect them. Lot did not know that the men were really angels sent by God to test the people of Sodom, giving them one last chance to redeem themselves.

As individuals, we often think there is nothing we can do to stop the evil we see happening around us, and sometimes we are right. The commandment to "reprove your fellow" means that it is our ethical duty to at the very least speak out and rebuke those we see perpetrating evil. If our words fail to stop them then at least we tried, but if we remain silent then we share in their guilt.

During the Holocaust, a Lutheran pastor named Martin Niemöller learned a profound lesson about remaining silent. When he saw the Nazis sending various groups of people to the concentration camps he decided not to risk speaking out. By the time Niemöller was sent to the Dachau concentration camp it was too late. After the war Niemöller explained:

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Like Niemöller we all commit the sin of inaction from time to time. How often have we witnessed an injustice and not intervened? Who among us has lived up to the exhortation of Isaiah to "share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house"?[222] When we pray "forgive us the debt of our sins," we are asking God to forgive us not only for our individual sins but also for the sins of our society that we have failed to correct. Of course, asking for forgiveness does not free us from the responsibility to take action and speak out against injustice, but it is recognition that "there is no man who does not sin."[223]

Divine Forgiveness

Moses described our heavenly Father as a "merciful and gracious God, abundantly patient and full of kindness and truth, keeping kindness to the thousandth generation and forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin."[224] In his infinite mercy, God wipes away our sins as if they never happened, as the prophet Ezekiel explains:

The evildoer when he turns away from all his sins which he has done... all his transgressions which he has done will not be remembered against him...[225]

Of course, God knows everything and he does not literally "forget," but for all intents and purposes the sin is no longer held against the repentant sinner.

The Hebrew language has several words for "forgive" that further illustrate this point. Yeshua used the word mechol, which means to cancel a debt. When God forgives us, the debt of our sin no longer needs to be paid. Another Hebrew word for forgiveness is nasa, which means "to bear a burden." As mentioned above, God is called El Nose "a forgiving God," or literally, "a God who bears [the burden of sin]."[226] When God forgives us he takes the burden of sin off our shoulders and carries it for us. A third Hebrew word for forgiveness is machah, which means "to erase." The prophet Daniel saw a vision of God sitting in judgment with the angels, writing down the proceedings in great ledgers. When God forgives us, our sin is erased from the heavenly ledgers.[227] These words all show that when God forgives us he erases our offenses so that we no longer have to bear the guilt or pay the debt incurred by our sins.

Our challenge as mortals is to completely forgive our fellow human beings the way that God forgives us. When a person has deeply hurt us or even physically harmed us, it is very difficult for us to let go of our anger. But Leviticus teaches us: "Do not hate your brother in your heart."[228] Out of all the rituals and rites, out of all the sacrifices and ceremonies, and out of all the fasts and feasts, this is without a doubt the most difficult commandment in the entire Bible. Despite this difficulty, we must strive to resemble our Creator, who forgives us completely, by forgiving our fellow human beings.

Do Not Bring Us Into the Hands of a Test

As we studied the original meaning behind the words "lead us not into temptation" - in Hebrew, "do not bring us into the hands of a test" - I thought about Yeshua's own "temptation" in the wilderness at the hands of Satan. When I mentioned this to Nehemia, he suggested we spend some time in the same wilderness where Yeshua was tempted, the Judean Desert.

In the days leading up to our "temptation in the wilderness," Nehemia repeatedly warned me about the extreme heat we would face, and insisted I be prepared to carry at least a gallon of water. Every time he mentioned the subject of the water or the impending heat, I snickered and told him not to worry so much. The morning of our desert excursion, Nehemia stuffed three large bottles of mineral water into his backpack and urged me to do the same. I flashed a dismissive smile and told him I would be just fine with my single bottle of water. It was only when I got to the desert that I understood what the fuss was all about. The Judean Desert is a blistering furnace created by Israel's geography. The length of the country is cut in half by a mountain range that runs north-south, and everything west of the mountains is generously watered by clouds that form over the Mediterranean Sea. By the time the clouds reach the eastern side of the mountain range they have lost most of their moisture. The result is a vast arid wilderness where temperatures can exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade.[229]

The Judean Desert, the "wilderness" where Yeshua was tempted.

After less than a day in that wilderness I began to get some idea of what Yeshua must have gone through during his temptation. Walking in the July heat, I could feel the sun burning my skin, and it gave me new insight into the words of the psalmist: "Yehovah is your shade at your right hand."[230] When the sun became unbearable, we sought refuge in a small cave. By this time I had exhausted my meager supply of water and was desperate for something to drink. Were it not for Nehemia generously sharing his water with me, I would have undoubtedly been dehydrated. As I rested in that cave, sipping water from one of Nehemia's plastic bottle, I could not imagine surviving a single day in this environment without anything to eat or drink, let alone 40 days and 40 nights. Yet it was only after Yeshua was worn down by the physical challenges of thirst, starvation, and heat that he was approached by his tempter. Such was the crucible in which the words "do not bring us into the hand of a test" were forged.

Temptation vs. Test

While most English versions of the Avinu Prayer speak about "temptation," the Hebrew version speaks about a "test." The English reference to "temptation" is itself based on a particular interpretation of the prayer's Greek text. However, the Greek uses an ambiguous word that can be translated as either "temptation" or "test," depending on the context.[231] In the New Testament the word in question usually means "test," as in the verse:

The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Jesus they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.[232]

Obviously the Pharisees and Sadducees were not trying to tempt Yeshua, they were trying to test him. The Hebrew version of the prayer shows that the Hebrew behind the Greek is "test," not "temptation," and therefore the Greek should be translated: "lead us not into a test." This is exactly what is found in the Peshitta, an ancient Aramaic version of the New Testament used by the Church of the East.

Some scholars have come to the same conclusion based entirely on the Greek text, without any reference to the Hebrew. For example, the Word Biblical Commentary explains that the Avinu Prayer must be speaking about a "test" because otherwise it would contradict another New Testament passage that says God does not "tempt" human beings.[233] Some translations recognize this, and instead of "temptation" they use the word "test."[234] For example, the Bible in Basic English translates: "And let us not be put to the test." Rather than the Hebrew offering an alternative meaning to the Greek, it actually directs us to the true meaning of an ambiguous Greek word, which in this case is also confirmed by independent evidence.

While temptation and test have some overlap in meaning, they are not semantically identical.[235] A temptation can be a test, but not every test is a temptation. Imagine walking down the street and finding a wallet full of cash. Do you return the cash to the rightful owner or give in to temptation and keep the money? This is both a test and a temptation. In contrast, one example of a test that has nothing to do with temptation is the biblical commandment not to test God. The Book of Deuteronomy says:

Do not test Yehovah your God as you tested him at Masah.[236]

When the Israelites arrived at the desert oasis of Masah they tested God, challenging him to see if he was capable of providing them with fresh water. To "test" God means to "challenge" him to see if he is capable of doing something. When God tests us he is challenging us to show our true love for him by remaining faithful to him, even through difficult times and despite situations that tempt us to sin.

To Be Tested or Not to Be Tested

One of the interesting things about the words "do not bring us into the hands of a test" is their strong connection to ancient Jewish sources. In fact, these exact words appear in the Talmud, the teachings of the ancient Rabbis, which records the following prayer:

Do not bring me into the hands of sin, or into the hands of a test, or into the hands of shame.[237]

This rabbinical prayer is virtually identical to what we find in the Hebrew version of the Avinu Prayer. The only difference is that the Avinu Prayer speaks about "us," whereas the Talmudic prayer speaks about "me." To this day, many Jews still recite these words every morning in their daily devotions.[238] It is unclear how a portion of the Avinu Prayer ended up in an ancient Jewish benediction. Perhaps the ancient Rabbis were influenced by Yeshua's teachings, or perhaps Yeshua incorporated a phrase from a well-known Jewish prayer. Either way, the concept of asking God not to test us clearly has a place in ancient Jewish sources.

This concept first appears in the thirtieth chapter of the Book of Proverbs, which records the prayer of a little-known Israelite sage, Agur bin Yakeh:

Two things I ask from you, do not deny me them before I die. Distance from me lies and falsehood; do not make me rich or poor, but give me my allotted bread. Lest I be satisfied and deny saying, "Who is Yehovah?" and lest I become poor and steal and swear [falsely] in the name of my God.[239]

Agur understood that God often tests people in one of two ways - by making them rich or by making them poor - and he was fearful that he would not be able to pass either test. If he became too rich he might forget that all human beings are dependent upon God and would end up denying his Creator. If he became too poor he would be forced to steal to survive, and when caught, he would then feel compelled to deny his crime by swearing falsely in the name of God. Agur was asking God not to test him with great wealth or great poverty, but to give him the bread he needed to survive.

Tests in the Hebrew Bible

The purpose of a divine test is often to see whether or not a person will remain faithful to God. The best-known example of such a test appears in the Book of Job, which tells of a righteous man blessed by God with many children and great wealth. One day Satan appeared in the heavenly court and challenged God to test Job:

And Satan answered Yehovah saying, Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not built a gate around him, around his house, and around all that he has and blessed the work of his hands so that his herds flourished in the land? However, send your hand and touch all that he has and he will surely curse you to your face.[240]

The adversary's argument was that Job was only righteous because he knew he would get rewarded for his actions. But righteousness for the sake of reward and prosperity is not genuine righteousness. If Job remained faithful to God despite his suffering, it would prove he was truly righteous. God agreed to Satan's challenge and gave him permission to obliterate all of Job's wealth and to kill his 10 children who, as it happened, were sinners in their own right.[241] As the challenge escalated, God gave Satan further permission to afflict Job with a painful and incurable disease.

As Job pined away in his tent, every pore of his body oozing with pain, he thought of his beloved children and the wealth he built up over a lifetime of hard work and then lost, but he never wavered from his faithfulness to God. At one point in his suffering, Job uttered what may be the most profound words in the entire Hebrew Bible:

Yehovah gives and Yehovah takes away. May the name of Yehovah be blessed![242]

Rather than cursing God for his untold suffering, Job blessed the name of God even in his darkest hour. Satan had accused Job of only serving God for what he did for him, but Job proved that he loved God for who he was. True faithfulness means remaining loyal to God whether one enjoys prosperity or suffers loss.

When Job was at the height of his suffering he was approached by three friends who tried to talk sense into him. Job's three companions insisted that he was only suffering because he had sinned, and the solution was to confess his transgressions and repent. They incorrectly assumed that righteous people never suffer and sinners never prosper. Job responded to his companions that he was truly a righteous man without sin and he did not deserve to suffer. It did not occur to Job or his three companions that God was testing him. At the end of the book, Job's three companions were rebuked for condemning him as a sinner. They assumed in their arrogance that they knew the reason for Job's suffering, when in fact they were dead wrong.[243]

Abraham's Test

Another person tested in the Hebrew Bible was Abraham. For many years, he and his wife Sarah were childless. When Sarah was 90 years old God finally blessed them with a son. Before the birth of their son Isaac, Abraham used to pray morning and night for a son to be his heir and, after a lifetime of faithfulness, God responded to his prayer. Abraham doted on his son Isaac, grooming him as his heir. But then Abraham was put to the test:

And it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham. And [God] called to him, "Abraham!," and he responded, "Here I am!" And [God] said, "Take your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him up there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains where I will show you.[244]

Abraham loaded up his donkey with firewood and set out with his son Isaac to the place God told him to go. The father and son walked for three days until finally they reached the site. Abraham then gathered stones to build an altar and bound his son to the altar with ropes. As Abraham raised the sacrificial knife to slaughter his beloved son, an angel called out from heaven telling him not to go through with it. During that long process, Abraham could have turned back at any moment. But by continuing faithfully in the path God set out for him, Abraham passed the test. The lesson we learn from Abraham is that a person can say he loves God with his heart, but this is meaningless until it is proven through his actions. Abraham's faith was not just an idea in his mind, but something he committed to through his deeds.

The Test of the False Prophet

One of the most difficult tests God presents us is the test of the false prophet. We are warned about this test in the 13th chapter of Deuteronomy:

When a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a miracle, and that sign or miracle which he told you comes to pass, saying, "Let us go after other gods (which you have not known) and let us worship them." You must not listen to that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, because Yehovah your God is testing you to know if you really love Yehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul.[245]

The false prophet the Torah describes is capable of performing genuine signs and miracles while trying to lure us away from the true worship of our heavenly Father. God empowers these false prophets to perform these signs and miracles in order to test us. The ultimate test is to see whether a person remains loyal to God even when faced with impressive signs and extraordinary miracles designed to lead him astray from the true path.

Yeshua's Test

Yeshua himself faced such a test at the hands of Satan.[246] As mentioned above, most translations describe this as a "temptation," but the same Greek word for "test" used in the prayer, appears in this context as well. It is also clear from the description of the incident in the first three Gospels that Yeshua was tested, rather than tempted. After fasting for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert, Satan presented Yeshua with three tests.[247] The first test was to see if Yeshua was capable of turning stones into bread. The second test was to see if he could throw himself down from a high building and remain unharmed. In the third test, Yeshua was offered a vast earthly empire in exchange for bowing down to Satan and worshipping him. The third test involved an element of temptation, but the first two were simply challenges to test Yeshua's capabilities. Throughout these tests, Yeshua revealed an iron resolve to be guided by the Word of God. Like the false prophet in Deuteronomy 13, Satan tried to bedazzle Yeshua with great powers, miraculous abilities, and promises of untold prosperity, but time and again Yeshua responded with scriptural verses that invalidated the words of his seasoned adversary.

Years later, when Yeshua was on that windswept Galilean hillside teaching the Jewish multitudes how to pray, the idea of a divine test was not just an abstract theological concept but an earthly reality he had experienced firsthand. As he stood on that outcropping of rock looking down at the throngs of people hanging on his every word, Yeshua must have turned his eyes towards heaven and prayed in his heart: O heavenly Father, I have been through a test myself and I know how difficult it is! Please have mercy on your children and do not bring them into the hands of a test!

While Yeshua may have known he was being tested, Abraham and Job clearly did not. When God tests us we do not always realize that we are in the midst of a test. Things may seem as bleak to us as they seemed to Job, or as dire as they appeared to Abraham. But whether he tests us with riches or with poverty, with prosperity or with suffering, we should rejoice in knowing that we are being shaped and molded by our heavenly Father, who is a righteous judge with a master plan.

And Protect Us From All Evil

When we visited the Pater Noster ("Our Father") Church during our search for the place of the prayer, we noticed among the numerous plaques two very distinct translations of the section of the prayer that deals with evil. The Greek version literally says "deliver us from the evil," but the numerous translations based on the Greek did not agree about the meaning of the last two words. Some interpreted them as referring to the abstract concept of "evil," while others personified these words as Satan in his guise as "the Evil One." The Greek is ambiguous and can legitimately be translated either way.

We later examined over 20 different English translations and found that half had "evil," while the other half had "the Evil One." These translations revealed a tendency to introduce Satan into the prayer over time. For example, the original King James Version published in 1611 has "deliver us from evil." The New King James Version - which is supposedly only an update of the archaic language of the original - has "deliver us from the evil one." The same thing happened in the Revised Standard Version ("evil"), which was updated by the New Revised Standard Version ("the evil one"). Needless to say, there is a big difference between asking God to protect us from the evil which may befall us in the course of our lives and asking him to protect us from the Evil One.

While the Greek is ambiguous, the Hebrew is not. The Hebrew version reads "protect us from all evil," which echoes the words of the psalmist: "May Yehovah protect you from all evil."[248] Because the Hebrew speaks about "all evil," it is clear that it is not just referring to a personified Satan but to all forms of evil.

The Origin of Evil

Ever since Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, humans have wondered about evil's origin. As people suffered from wars, plagues, and famine, they struggled with the question of how a good God could have created a universe filled with evil. The ancient Persians found a solution to this problem in the religion of Zoroastrianism, which taught that there were really two gods in the universe who are diametrically opposed to one another: Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu. The Zoroastrians believed that all good in the world emanated from Ahura Mazda whereas all the evil emanated from Angra Mainyu. These two gods were believed to be archenemies, and each led a large host of angels perpetually engaged in spiritual warfare against one another. The Zoroastrians looked forward to the final showdown between the two gods, in which Ahura Mazda would emerge victorious, ushering in a millennial age of peace and tranquility. In the 6th century BCE, Zoroastrianism quickly became the dominant religion throughout the vast Persian Empire, which stretched from India to Ethiopia.

The prophet Isaiah spoke about Zoroastrianism in the 45th chapter of his book, which discusses Cyrus, King of Persia. God gave this Persian king a vast empire so that he would return the Jews from their captivity in Babylonia to the Promised Land. Yehovah foretold the appointment of Cyrus more than 100 years in advance to prove to the world that he is the true God. In Isaiah's prophecy, God directly addressed Cyrus, telling the Persian king that even though he was a Zoroastrian he was chosen to show the world that the God of Israel is the one and only God:

I am Yehovah and besides me there are no other gods; I girded you [in armor] even though you did not acknowledge me [meaning, even though you, Cyrus, are a Zoroastrian], in order that they would know from the rising of the sun to the setting that there is none but me. I am Yehovah and there is no other; I form light and create darkness, make peace and create evil; I Yehovah do all these things.[249]

Yehovah told Cyrus there is no other god besides him and he is the creator of evil, just as he is the creator of good. This is in direct opposition to the Zoroastrian belief in two gods, the Good One and the Evil One. While Scripture makes clear reference to Satan, he is not the source of evil in the universe. Yehovah is the source of all things, both good and evil.

The Blame Game

When Jews discuss the problem of "evil" the question of the Holocaust often comes up. How could God have allowed the Holocaust to happen? If God is good and just, how could he have allowed the systematic murder of six million innocent Jews? While these may be meaningful theological questions, a no less important question is: How could mankind have allowed the Holocaust to happen? The entire world knew what the Nazis were planning. In 1938 the League of Nations, the forerunner to the United Nations, held a conference in 'vian, France to formulate a plan to save the Jews of Europe. After long debates and deliberations, they adopted a nearly unanimous resolution to do absolutely nothing. It is so easy to blame evil on God while the human race is cleared of any wrongdoing.

As we write these words, another holocaust is taking place in the Sudanese province of Darfur. Once again the human race is determined and resolute to do absolutely nothing. This time it is happening in the Information Age and no one can claim ignorance. Anyone can download videos from the Internet that document people being brutally massacred in Darfur. How can mankind sit back and allow such unadulterated evil to run rampant?

Some Christians prefer not to blame God, and they certainly do not want to blame themselves, so they shift all the blame to Satan. The image in the minds of many people is of Satan as an out-of-control teenager and God as an overwhelmed parent, unwilling or unable to rein him in. Blaming someone else for the evil that we do is as old as the first human sin in the Garden of Eden. When Eve defied God's explicit commandment not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, she tried to blame it all on the serpent.[250] It was as if Eve borrowed a line from the 1970s American television comedy What's Happening: "The Devil made me do it!" This was Eve's way of shirking personal responsibility for her actions. While God creates all things, including evil, he gives us the freedom to choose whether we do good or evil. A central concept in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament is that we are responsible for our own actions, and cannot blame anyone else for the evil that we do. God explains this in the Book of Deuteronomy:

Behold, I place before you today life and good and death and evil ...choose life so that you and your descendants may live![251]

This concept also appears in the Epistle of James, which says:

Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.[252]

James is saying that when we do evil it is because of our own choice. We can choose to embrace life or to inherit death. Whatever tests we go through or temptations we may face, in the end we are the ones who choose whether to do good or to do evil.

Focusing on Our Heavenly Father

When Yeshua taught the Jewish multitudes to pray "protect us from all evil," he wanted them to focus on their heavenly Father and no one else. God is the only one who can protect from all evil. This includes the evil of Satan, the evil that lurks in the human heart, and the evil of natural consequence. The words "protect us from all evil" are so much more powerful than asking God to protect us from the Evil One. Our heavenly Father is the only one who can answer this prayer. He is the only one who is not limited by time or space, the only one not intimidated by evil spirits or angels, the only one not bound by heaven or earth, and the only one who controls both light and darkness. Our heavenly Father is the source of all things, from the Alpha to the Omega, from the Aleph to the Tav, he is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, and he alone is able to protect us from all evil.

The Last Word

"Amen!" The way Yeshua ended the Avinu Prayer and the focus of which we want to end this book. The Hebrew root of the word 'amen means "truth," and in ancient times the Israelites were accustomed to ending their prayers by shouting: "Amen!" - "Truth!"[253] This word is also related to the Hebrew 'emunah meaning "faith" and "belief." Amen thus implies "true faith" and "true belief." By shouting "Amen," the ancient Israelites were confirming their belief in the truth of everything that had just been spoken. Amen also means "trust," and by ending a prayer with this word a person is expressing his trust in God.[254] Perhaps more than any other word or concept "Amen" testifies to the intimate relationship between the New Testament and the Hebrew language. This Hebrew word appears in the New Testament no less than 129 times, written out in Greek letters: amen. The Hebrew word Amen has crossed over into countless languages and has become "the most widely known word in human speech"![255]

* * *

In generations past this book could not have been written. For nearly 1,600 years, Jewish-Christian relations were marred by the circumstances of history. Throughout this period, Jews lived as the persecuted subjects of corrupt rulers who used anti-Semitism as a way of distracting their Christian subjects from the bondage of the feudal system. It was only in the latter half of the 20th century that reconciliation became possible. As the world cringed at the scope of the Holocaust, Christian leaders began to consider their own culpability in the Nazi atrocities. While the Holocaust was not carried out in the name of Yeshua or Christianity, many of those who perpetrated it considered themselves devout Christians, guided by centuries of Christian theology and Church policy. The justification for ruthlessly exterminating six million innocent people was that the Jews were responsible for the death of the Christian Messiah.[256]

In 1965, the Catholic Church finally came to terms with the anti-Semitic teachings of its past by publishing a document entitled Nostra Aetate as part of the Vatican II Council. In this document the Church proclaimed that "what happened in [Yeshua's] passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today." The Church was finally admitting that only those Jews present at Yeshua's condemnation 2,000 years ago bore any guilt for his death. This guilt never applied to the vast majority of Jews who were alive at the time, and it certainly does not apply to the Jews of today. In light of these historical facts, the Nostra Aetate concludes that "the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God," and from now on "the Church... decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone."[257]

Other Christian denominations have slowly followed suit. In 1982, the Lutheran World Federation proclaimed, "we Christians today must purge ourselves of any hatred of the Jews and any sort of teaching of contempt for Judaism."[258] In 2003, the Alliance of Baptists issued a statement to "renounce interpretations of Scripture which foster religious stereotyping and prejudice against the Jewish people and their faith."[259]

Having been set free from the sin of anti-Semitism, Christians have begun to rediscover the Hebrew and Jewish roots of their faith. The Catholic Church has recognized "the spiritual inheritance common to Christians and Jews," and the Lutheran Church took this one step further, stating:

All of us [Christians] have been impoverished by an understanding of the Bible that minimizes our Jewish roots. We find new vitality in the faith as we rediscover how Jewish the Bible is and recall that Jesus and his disciples were Jews.[260]

With the fear of persecution now lifted, some Jews have responded by reclaiming Yeshua as an important figure in Jewish history. This has led to an unprecedented interfaith dialogue as Jews and Christians share the results of their investigations into the Hebrew origins of the New Testament. Unfortunately, this dialogue has, by and large, remained the private pleasure of a select few, and the great discoveries it has produced have only rarely reached the mass of believers in both faiths. In this book we have attempted to present some of these discoveries resulting from the interfaith dialogue of one Christian and one Jew. This is only a small drop in the vast ocean of knowledge that Hebrew scholarship has to offer those who wish to understand the words of Yeshua of Nazareth as they were originally taught to the Jewish multitudes.

After reading and absorbing the richness that Hebrew adds to the Lord's Prayer, the reader must ask the question: How does this apply to my life? For the Christian, this prayer comes from the Messiah, and one cannot believe in him without following his teachings. As Yeshua himself said, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me."[261]

For the Jew, the prayer is part of an underappreciated chapter in the Jewish people's cultural history. Most Jews would be hard-pressed to find anything in this prayer that is contrary to the Jewish faith. Furthermore, the ancient Rabbis taught: "Who is a wise man? He who learns from every man."[262] Similarly, the 12th century Jewish sage Moses Maimonides used to say, "Accept the truth from whoever speaks it." Jews should not reject such a profound teaching just because Yeshua taught it to his disciples.

Some Jews may object that they cannot accept anything Yeshua taught because his ministry was rejected by the Jewish establishment of the 1st century. However, the canon of Jewish literature and culture is full of the expressions of Jews who had ideas that were unconventional at the time. Surely the moral and ethical teachings of Yeshua are of no less value to the Jewish people than the eschatological speculations of the Dead Sea Scrolls, or the skeptical musings of Baruch Spinoza. In their days, both the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Spinoza were persecuted for their unconventional ideas. But today they are universally accepted as part of the national Jewish heritage, and embraced by non-Jews as part of the collective inheritance of Western Civilization. Whether one agrees with their philosophy or not, they have much to teach us about ourselves.

The Avinu Prayer is so much more than a beautiful piece of liturgy. Its nine statements are full of wisdom on how to live a moral and ethical life in the presence of the Father of all mankind, and in relation to our fellow human beings. The Avinu Prayer teaches us to love our Creator, to live our lives in a way that sanctifies his name, and to always remember that he is the true King of the world. The prayer rouses us to do our heavenly King's will, to recognize him as the all-powerful God of heaven and earth, and to seek nourishment from his perfect Word. The Avinu Prayer emphasizes the importance of treating our fellow human beings the way we ourselves wish to be treated, admonishing us to have the same compassion and tolerance for our fellow man that we desire for ourselves from God. The prayer reminds us that our heavenly Father is the Creator of all things and that only he can protect us from the various types of evil that are a part of his creation. The Avinu Prayer affirms that Almighty Yehovah is the source of both good and evil and that he administers both the test and the reward.

As we come to the end of the Avinu Prayer, first taught by a Jew named Yeshua to a Jewish audience on a Galilean hillside nearly 2,000 years ago, we pray in the name of our heavenly Father, the King of all creation, that this is not the end of our journey, but only the beginning. Therefore, let us say, Amen! Truth, faith, and trust in the Almighty Yehovah! Amen! Amen!

The Avinu Prayer

Hebrew

Transliteration

a-vee-noo she-ba-sha-mai-yeem, yeet-ka-desh sheem-cha, ve-yeet-ba-rech mal-choot-cha, re-tson-cha yee-he-ye a-sui ba-sha-mai-yeem u-va-a-rets, ve-tee-tayn lach-may-noo te-mee-deet, oo-me-chol la-noo cha-to-tay-noo ka-a-sher a-nach-noo mo-cha-leem la-cho-teem la-noo, ve-al te-vee-ay-noo lee-day nees-sa-yon, ve-shom-ray-noo mee-kol rah, a-men.

English

Our Father in heaven, May your name be sanctified, May your kingdom be blessed, Your will shall be done in heaven and on earth, Give us our bread continually/daily, Forgive us the debt of our sins as we forgive the debt of those who sin against us, Do not bring us into the hands of a test, and protect us from all evil, Amen.

Hebrew Terms

Transliteration

Translation

Hebrew

abba

father (Aramaic loan-word)

אבא

achi

my brother

אחי

Adam

Adam, human being

אדם

adamah

ground

אדמה

Adonai

Lord

אדני

Alenu

we must, the name of an ancient rabbinical prayer

עלינו

amen

truth

אמן

a-men

truth

אמן

a-nach-noo

we

אנחנו

a-sui

be done

עשוי

a-vee-noo

our father

אבינו

avi

my father, father of

אבי

Avi-da

Abida, my Father knows

אבידע

Avi-dan

Abidan, my Father judges

אבידן

Avi-el

Abiel, God is my Father

אביאל

Avi-ezer

Abiezer, my Father helps

אביעזר

Avi-gayil

Abigail, my Father is joy

אביגיל

Avi-hud

Abihud, my Father is glorious

אביהוד

Avi-nadav

Abinadab, my Father gives freely

אבינדב

avinu

our father

אבינו

Avi-ram

Abiram, my Father is exalted

אבירם

Avi-shalom

Abishalom, my Father is peace

אבישלום

Avi-shua

Abishua, my Father saves

אבישוע

Avi-tuv

Abitub, my Father is good

אביטוב

ba-sha-mai-yeem

in heaven

בשמים

bashamayim

in heaven

בשמים

berech

knee

ברך

Bereshit

Genesis, in the beginning

בראשית

bochan

test

בחן

cha-to-te-noo

the debt of our sins

חטאתינו

chet

miss (a mark), misstep, sin

חטא

chilul

desecration

חלול

chote

misses, missteps

חוטא

dabru

speak!

דברו

el

God, mighty one

אל

Eli-shua

Elishua, my God saves

אלישוע

emet

truth

אמת

emunah

faith, belief

אמונה

even

stone

אבן

ha‘takah

copy

העתקה

Ha’azinu

Song of Moses, literally: “give ear”

האזינו

ha-ilot

causes

העלות

hallelu

praise!

הללו

hallelujah

praise Yah!

הללו–יה

ha-mashiach

the Messiah (anointed one)

המשיח

har

mountain, hill

הר

hashem

the name

השם

hashgachah

looking, providence

השגחה

ha-sibot

reasons

הסבות

hayakar

dear

היקר

Hey

5th letter of the Hebrew alphabet

ה

Hoshea

Hosea, he saves

הושע

hu

he is

הוא

ilat

the cause of

עלת

ka-a-sher

as

כאשר

kefar

village

כפר

ke-neged

against, for

כנגד

kidush

sanctification

קדוש

kol

all

כל

lach-may-noo

our bread

לחמנו

la-cho-teem

of those who sin

לחוטאים

la-noo

us, against us (literally: to us)

לנו

lechem

bread, basic food substance

לחם

lee-day

the hands of

לידי

machah

erase, forgive

מחה

mal-choot-cha

your kingdom

מלכותך

malchutcha

your kingdom

מלכותך

malkenu

our king

מלכנו

mechol

cancel debt, forgive

מחול

mee-kol

from all

מכל

midah

measure, behavioral characteristic

מדה

Mikra

Literally: “that which is read”. An ancient name for the Hebrew Bible referred to by Christians as the “Old Testament”.

מקרא

mo-cha-leem

forgive the debt

מוחלים

Nachum

Nachum, Nahum, comfort

נחום

nasa

bear a burden, forgive

נשא

nees-sa-yon

a test

נסיון

nifal

the second Hebrew verb conjugation

נפעל

no‘adu

they met one another

נועדו

oo-me-chol

and cancel the debt, forgive

ומחול

peshat

simple, plain meaning

פשט

pratit

individual

פרטית

rah

evil

רע

re-tson-cha

Your will

רצונך

sefer

book

ספר

she-ba-sha-mai-yeem

in heaven

שבשמים

sheem-cha

your name

שמך

shelcha

your

שלך

simchat

celebration of, rejoicing of

שמחת

talit katan

small prayer shawl, four-cornered undershirt with tzitzit (ritual fringes)

טלית קטן

tamid

continual, daily

תמיד

Tanach, Tanakh

An acronym for the three sections comprising the Hebrew Bible, Torah (Instruction), Neviim (Prophets), and Ketuvim Kedoshim (Holy Writings). Often referred to by Christians as the “Old Testament”.

תנ"ך

Tehillim

Psalms, praises

תהלים

te-mee-deet

continually/daily

תמידית

temidi

continual/daily

תמידי

temidit

continually/daily

תמידית

te-vee-e-noo

bring us into

תביאנו

torah

instruction, law

תורה

u-va-a-rets

and on earth

ובארץ

Vav

6th letter of the Hebrew alphabet

ו

ve-al

and do not

ואל

ve-shom-ray-noo

and protect us

ושמרנו

ve-sibat

and the reason

וסבת

ve-tavo

and may it come

ותבוא

ve-tee-tayn

and give

ותתן

ve-yeet-ba-rech

and may be blessed

ויתברך

Yah

Jah, [abbreviated poetic form of Yehovah]

יה

yee-he-ye

shall

יהיה

yeet-ka-desh

May be sanctified

יתקדש

Yehonatan

Jonathan, Yehovah gives

יהונתן

Yehoram

Jehoram, Yehovah is exalted

יהורם

Yehoshafat

Jehosaphat, Yehovah judges

יהושפט

Yehoshua

Joshua, Yehovah saves

יהושע

Yehovah

Jehovah, “he that is, he that was, and he that will be”

יהוה

Yehoyada

Jehoiada, Yehovah knows

יהוידע

yemei

days of

ימי

Yeshua

Jeshua, Jesus, Yehovah saves

ישוע

Yod

10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet

י

yoshia

he will save

יושיע

Greek Terms

Transliteration

Translation

Greek

oros

mountain, hill

ὄρος

hallelouia

Hebrew loan-word

ἁλληλουϊά

allelouia

Hebrew loan-word

ἀλληλούϊα

Iēsous

Hebrew loan-word

Ἰησοῦς

erēmon

desert, desolate

ἔρημον

topon

place

τόπον

epiousion

meaning uncertain

ἐπιούσιον

amēn

Hebrew loan-word

ἀμήν

peirasmon

test, temptation

πειρασμόν

peirazō

to test

πειράζω

Footnotes

1 The Hebrew flavor of the prayer's original name is preserved in many ancient and modern languages such as the Latin Pater Noster ("Our Father") and the Spanish el Padre Nuestro ("the Our Father").

2 The Hebrew word Avinu "our father" is made up of two smaller words: avi meaning "father" and nu meaning "our." In ancient Hebrew, books, prayers, and poems were named after their opening words. Thus, the Book of Genesis was called Bereshit, which means "In the beginning," and the Song of Moses was called Ha'azinu, which means "Give ear," both after their opening words.

3 Matthew 7:28-29 as explained by J. M. Grintz, "Hebrew as the Spoken and Written Language in the Last Days of the Second Temple," Journal of Biblical Literature 79 (1960), pages 32-47.

4 The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus, translated by C. F. Cruse, Grand Rapids 1971, page 127.

5 Translation adapted from P. Lapide, Hebrew in the Church, translated by E. F. Rhodes, Grand Rapids 1984, page x. The German text is published in: D. Martin Luthers Werke. Tischreden. Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimarer Ausgabe), Weimar 1967, volume 1, section 1040 page 525 (Reprint, originally published: Weimar 1912).

6 Amos 3:3 [KJV].

7 Amos ends this verse with the Hebrew word no'adu, which literally means "they met one another" (the nifal expressing a reciprocal action). This verb is used the same way in Exodus 25:22: "And there I will meet with thee" (KJV). Amos is saying that before two people can walk together, they must first meet on common ground. The Hebrew meaning is correctly captured by several modern translations such as the new Jewish Publication Society translation, the New English Translation, and Young's Literal Translation. Even the familiar King James Version says that two people cannot walk together unless they have first agreed to do so (irrespective of whether they agree on theology and religious ritual).

8 Isaiah 2:3.

9 Nehemiah 3:8; 2 Samuel 5:7.

10 Romans 3:1-2 [NRSV].

11 In addition to "Hebrew Bible," Jews also refer to the Old Testament as Tanach/ Tanakh and Mikra.

12 Acts 17:11 [NIV].

13 Genesis 13:17 [NKJV].

14 Deuteronomy 11:24 [NKJV].

15 Deuteronomy 31:13 [NKJV].

16 The term "end-times" is derived from the phrase "time of the end" in the Book of Daniel (8:17; 11:35, 40; 12:4, 9).

17 D. W. Parry and E. Tov (editors), The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader, Leiden 2004-2005.

18 Throughout this book we have employed the convention of referring to years since the traditional birth of Jesus as CE ("Christian Era") and years before his birth as BCE ("Before the Christian Era"). The Dead Sea Scrolls range in date from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE.

19 The results of that investigation are published in: Nehemia Gordon, The Hebrew Yeshua vs. the Greek Jesus, 2005.

20 The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus, translated by C. F. Cruse, Grand Rapids 1971, page 127.

21 Jerome: Letters and Select Works (A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church: Second Series), volume 6, page 495.

22 G. Howard, The Gospel of Matthew According to a Primitive Hebrew Text, Macon, Georgia 1987.

23 In scholarly jargon, word puns are referred to as "paronomasia."

24 Howard 1987 (above), pages 194-201 identified 36 Hebrew word puns in the following verses of Hebrew Matthew: 4:12, 21-23; 5:9-10, 14-15, 23; 7:2, 6; 8:28, 31; 9:8; 10:25, 36, 37, 39; 11:6, 8, 10, 29; 12:13, 15, 24; 14:32, 35-36; 15:34-37; 16:9-11, 18; 17:22; 18:16, 19, 23-35; 19:9, 13; 21:19, 37-38, 46; 23:27-29, 31; 26:9-11, 28, 34-36.

25 Matthew 1:21 [NKJV].

26 Hebrew Matthew 1:21. The name Yeshua was a common Second Temple period abbreviation for the ancient name Yehoshua.

27 Reggie White was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame after his untimely death on December 26, 2004.

28 See K. Aland and B. Aland, The Text of the New Testament, translated by E. F. Rhodes, Grand Rapids 1995. On page 81 a list is given of the approximate ages of 5,195 Greek manuscripts of which 3,657 (70%) are from the 12th century or later.

29 See H. St. J. Thackeray, R. Marcus, et al., Josephus with an English Translation, (Loeb Classical Library), volume 2, pages xxvii-xxix, volume 4, pages xvii-xviii, and volume 6, pages vii-viii.

30 M. H. Goshen-Gottstein and S. Talmon (editors), Hebrew University Bible: The Book of Ezekiel, Jerusalem 2004.

31 Strictly speaking, the top two pages on display are real, but the rest is a reproduction.

32 E. Kutcher, "The Language of the Hebrew and Aramaic Scrolls of Bar Kochba and His Contemporaries," Leshonenu 26 (1962), pages 7-23 [Hebrew].

33 Isaiah 14:23. "I will sweep it with the broom of destruction" [NKJV].

34 Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 26b.

35 Theodoret, Jerome, Gennadius, and Rufinus: Historical Writings (A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church: Second Series), volume 3, page 626.

36 R. A. Pritz, Nazarene Jewish Christianity, Jerusalem 1992, pages 29-30; Eusebius, Life of Constantine (A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church: Second Series), volume 1, pages 538-540.

37 Howard 1987 (above), page xii.

38 In 2002 over 120 rabbis issued a joint statement entitled Dabru Emet - Hebrew for "Speak the Truth" - in which they wrote: "Jews and Christians worship the same God... the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; creator of heaven and earth." (http://www.icjs.org/what/njsp/dabruemet.html).

39 Zephaniah 3:9 [NKJV]; see also Genesis 11:1-11. Proof that Hebrew was the original language before the flood can be found in the names of Adam and his descendants which are derived from Hebrew words and concepts.

40 Matthew 5:1; 8:1.

41 In Jerome's Latin translation of Eusebius's Onomasticon section 196 we find: "Yet also, near the same Bethlehem, the tomb of Archelaus, a former king of Judea, is shown, which forms the beginning of the path which leads off the public road towards our cells" (translated by J. R. Holland of Quintus Latin Translations). The Latin text can be found in R. S. Notley and Z. Safrai, Eusebius, Onomasticon: The Place Names of Divine Scripture, Leiden 2005, page 45.

42 Genesis 35:19-20 [NIV].

43 According to the biblical account, as a young man Saul met the prophet Samuel at Ramah while looking for his father's donkeys (1 Samuel 9:4-6). At this meeting Samuel prophesied to Saul, "When you go from me today you will find two men at the Tomb of Rachel at Zelzah in the border of Benjamin" (1 Samuel 10:2). The prophecy ends with Saul arriving at his home in Gibeah (1 Samuel 10:5). The geography of this incident is of Saul heading south from Ramah to Gibeah and passing the Tomb of Rachel on the way. Based on this, the real Tomb of Rachel must be about 8-12 miles north of Bethlehem, depending on where one locates the biblical town of Ramah.

44 Another example is the Hebrew name Yeshua which became Yesus (Jesus) in Greek. Greek does not have an SH sound so Yeshua was automatically pronounced Yesua in Greek. The Greek language also lacks the guttural letter 'ayin and as a result the "a" in Yesua dropped making it Yesu. When the -us ending was added Yesu became Yesus and eventually Jesus in English.

45 Zechariah 14:4; Luke 22:39.

46 Traditions related to this cave were reported by numerous pilgrims who visited the Mount of Olives over the centuries. Many of these reports are translated into English in the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society series published in London between 1894 and 1896. A sign posted adjacent to the cave by the modern-day caretakers explains: "Of all the Holy Places [this cave] is the most easily shown to be authentic. The early Christians held it in great affection and veneration because it had been the customary hiding place of Our Blessed Lord... Continually threatened with being put to death... He was in safety... in this spacious and peaceful cavern where He could teach His disciples..."

47 T. Wright, Early Travels in Palestine, London 1848, page 42; see also The Pilgrimage of Saewulf: 1102, 1103 A.D., translated by W. R. B. Brownlow, London 1896, page 19.

48 According to the Gospels, Yeshua once wrote with his finger in the dirt but never on marble (John 8:6, 8).

49 As of the writing of this book the church contained 152 plaques of the Avinu Prayer in different languages, but more are added all the time. The associated website is: http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/

50 The stone plaque also contained the Avinu Prayer in Aramaic.

51 Matthew 4:13 [NRSV].

52 Matthew 9:1 [NRSV]. The name of the town could also be translated as "Village of Nachum," named after a patriarch called Nachum ("Comforted One").

53 On the synagogue of Capernaum see Mark 1:21; John 6:59. On Peter's house see Matthew 8:14; Mark 1:29; Luke 4:38. On the history and archaeological finds for both places see S. Loffreda, "Capernaum," The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Jerusalem 1993, pages 291-295.

54 In some sources Egeria is also known as Etheria, Aetheria or Echeria.

55 J. Wilkinson, Egeria's Travels to the Holy Land, Jerusalem and Warminster, England 1981, pages 174, 176.

56 Luke 4:42.

57 Luke 6:12, 17.

58 Wilkinson (above), page 196; Corpus Christianorum: Series Latina, volume 175, page 99. Some scholars suggest changing the passage to read "hill" (Latin: specula), even though it clearly says "cave" (Latin: spelunca), see C. Kopp, The Holy Places of the Gospels, translated from the German by Ronald Walls, New York 1963, page 206.

59 Wilkinson (above), page 201.

60 Luke 7:1 [NRSV].

61 Kopp (above), pages 204-213. The same location had earlier been proposed by P. Karge, Rephaim, Paderborn 1925, pages 320-328.

62 Apparently there was at one time also a third tree, a cedar.

63 Kopp found confirmation of his theory in another local Bedouin tradition. The area in which the Blessed Trees is located is peppered with large mounds of black basalt boulders which the local Bedouin refer to as Deir Mahker. In the Arabic spoken by the Bedouins, Deir means "monastery" but Mahker has no known meaning. Kopp suggested that Mahker was actually a corruption of the Greek name for the Beatitudes which is Makarioi. According to Kopp, the supposedly half-Arabic half-Greek name Deir Mahker roughly translates as "Monastery of the Beatitudes." While no one has ever found the remains of a monastery in the region, Kopp argued that Byzantine monks may have lived on this hill in recognition that Yeshua preached the Sermon on the Mount here.

64 For more information see J. Peters, From Time Immemorial, New York 1985.

65 C. R. Conder and H. H. Kitchener, Map of Western Palestine in 26 Sheets from the Surveys Conducted for the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, during the years 1872-1877, London 1880, Sheet 6 Grid Qg.

66 Kopp (above), page 208.

67 Deuteronomy 12:2; 1 Kings 14:23; Isaiah 57:5; Jeremiah 2:20; etc.

68 J. G. Frazer, Folklore in the Old Testament, New York 1988, pages 323-329; C. R. Conder and H. H. Kitchener, The Survey of Western Palestine: Special Papers, London 1881, volume 2, pages 258-260.

69 Jerome, Commentary on Matthew 5:1-2 (J. P. Migne, Patrologia Latina, 26:33D-34A [Latin]); translated by J. R. Holland of Quintus Latin Translations.

70 Mount Nachum is actually 197 feet below sea level, but is adjacent to the Sea of Galilee, which is 696 feet below sea level. The Sea of Galilee serves as Israel's main source of fresh water and as a result the height of the sea can vary by as much as 16 feet; see http://www.mekorot.co.il/.

71 Jeremiah 46:18.

72 The only source we found for this identification was a website: www.bibleplaces.com. It is possible that this was a misunderstanding of the map prepared by Napoleon's cartographer Pierre Jacotin and published in 1818 under the title Carte topographique de l'Egypte et de plusiers des pays limitrophes. Jacotin's map identifies the Horns of Hattin as Montagne des B'atitudes ("Mountain of the Beatitudes"). The authors of the above website (or their source) may have confused the Horns of Hattin with the nearby Mount Arbel on Jacotin's less than accurate map.

73 Zechariah 14:4 [NIV].

74 The Jews of Arbel were massacred in 161 BCE by the forces of the Greek general Bacchides who had been sent to invade Judea by the Seleucid king Demetrius I Soter (1 Maccabees 9:1-2; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 12:11:1[12:420-421]).

75 This is according to an oral tradition told to us by a local Bedouin.

76 We had reached the top of Mount Arbel by car on a much longer and gentler route that leads up from the west.

77 Z. Gal, "Galilee: Chalcolithic to Persian Periods," The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Jerusalem 1993, volume 2, page 452.

78 A. P. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, London 1905, page 369. Stanley goes on to write that the Horns of Hattin "so strikingly coincides with the intimations of the Gospel narrative, as almost to force the inference that in this instance the eye of those who selected the spot was for once rightly guided."

79 H. K. Booth, The World of Jesus: A Survey of the Background of the Gospels, C. Scribner's Sons 1933, page 117; J. F. Fenlon, "Mount of Beatitudes," Catholic Encyclopedia, New York 1913, volume 2, pages 369-371; Th. F. Mathesy, Pilgrim's Map of the Holy Land, 1942. All of these sources place the Sermon on the Mount at the Horns of Hattin. The map was actually published four years after the Church of the Beatitudes was built but before it had gained wide acceptance as the location of the sermon.

80 Dalman reports that in his day the Greek Orthodox priests identified the site of the "Miracle of the Five Loaves" as hajar en-Nasara, i.e. the "Christ-stones" (G. Dalman, Sacred Sites and Ways, translated by P. Levertoff, London 1935, page 115). On the 1880 British map this site is called Hajaret en-Nusara. Its modern location is unknown.

81 C. R. Conder and H. H. Kitchener, The Survey of Western Palestine, London 1881, volume 1.1, page 379.

82 Matthew 9:9.

83 In Luke's account, the leper incident took place while Yeshua "was in one of the cities" (Luke 5:12 [NRSV]). This seems odd because in ancient Israel lepers were forbidden from entering cities (Leviticus 13:46; 2 Kings 7:3). However, in Hebrew the phrase "in the city" can mean in the fields belonging to a particular city, as opposed to the uncultivated mountains and wilderness. This expression appears in Joshua 5:13, which describes an incident that took place "when Joshua was in Jericho." A few verses later we are told that Jericho was under a tight siege with no one entering or leaving (Joshua 6:1). As a result, most translations correctly understand the expression "in Jericho" as meaning "near Jericho" or "by Jericho." Similarly, we must understand the phrase "in one of the cities" in Luke as meaning "near one of the cities," which explains the presence of a leper. This fits perfectly with the Horns of Hattin to Capernaum route. As Yeshua exited Wadi Hamam he passed through the fields of Migdal, the home of Mary Magdalene, and this would have been a perfect place for the leper to approach him alone on the road.

84 Our thanks to Johan Schutte who confirmed this for us by walking from the rocky outcropping at the Horns of Hattin to Capernaum. The 11-mile journey took Johan 4 hours and 8 minutes, including 25 minutes of resting along the way. After completing the journey, Johan then did the 1-mile walk down from the Church of the Beatitudes to Capernaum in 24 minutes. A few months later Nehemia repeated the experiment, completing the 11-mile journey in just under 6 hours. After losing 100 pounds, Nehemia redid the experiment in June 2010 completing the walk in just over 3 hours.

85 Matthew 4:25-5:1 [NKJV].

86 Matthew 7:28-29 [NKJV].

87 Luke 6:12-13, 17 [NKJV].

88 The southern horn is 1,070 feet above sea level but it looms over the Sea of Galilee, which is about 696 feet below sea level.

89 Translation adapted from P. Lapide, Hebrew in the Church, translated by E. F. Rhodes, Grand Rapids 1984, page x. The German text is published in: D. Martin Luthers Werke. Tischreden. Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimarer Ausgabe), Weimar 1967, volume 1, section 1040 page 525 (Reprint, originally published: Weimar 1912).

90 D. Graves and J. Graves, "The Lord's Prayer," http://www.abu.nb.ca/ecm/topics/life7.htm [retrieved 2007]. This is presumably based on J. Jeremias, The Lord's Prayer, Philadelphia 1964, pages 17-21. Jeremias does not actually claim that Yeshua was the first one to call God "Father," only that he was the first one to call him by the Aramaic term Abba (literally: "the Father," although "the" loses its meaning in the Aramaic of this period). Jeremias writes: "No Jew would have dared address God in this manner" (pages 18-19). However, Abba served as the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew Avi ("My Father"), even though the two forms have slightly different meanings. In Psalms 89:26[27] David is said to call God Avi and the Targum - the ancient Jewish translation into Aramaic - translated this Hebrew word as Abba. For a rebuttal of Jeremias, see J. H. Charlesworth, "A Caveat on Textual Transmission and the Meaning of Abba," in: The Lord's Prayer and Other Prayer Texts from the Greco-Roman Era, Valley Forge 1994, pages 5-11.

91 Isaiah 63:15-16 [NRSV].

92 Jeremiah 3:19 [NKJV].

93 Malachi 2:10 [NIV].

94 Mishnah, Sota 9:15.

95 Midrash Psalms 25:13 (Buber edition, page 214 [Hebrew]).

96 Ben Sira 23:1, 4 [NRSV]. Ben Sira offers a second prayer to God as Father: "Lord, you are my Father; do not forsake me in the days of trouble, when there is no help against the proud" (Ben Sira 51:10 [NRSV]).

97 4Q511 fragment 127 line 1. The traditional Karaite Jewish prayer book also contains a prayer that opens with a blessing of God's name and then continues: "I have no Father but you, I have no one besides you, and there is none that brings help to my soul other than you. You are the source of redemption and strength, for in your hand is power and might and you have the ability to extol and give strength to all."

98 Deuteronomy 32:6.

99 Psalms 68:5[6].

100 Malachi 1:6; Jeremiah 3:19.

101 Proverbs 3:12; Psalms 103:13; Isaiah 63:16; Psalm 89:26[27].

102 1 Samuel 9:1.

103 Genesis 25:4; Numbers 1:11; Joshua 17:2; 1 Samuel 7:1.

104 1 Chronicles 8:3; Numbers 16:1; 1 Chronicles 8:11; 1 Kings 15:2; 1 Samuel 25:3.

105 Ezra 7:5.

106 2 Samuel 5:15.

107 Babylonian Talmud, Ta'anit 25b.

108 In Hebrew: achi hayakar avinu bashamayim abba shelcha!

109 Genesis 1:3. Grammarians call this sort of call to action "jussive." The Greek version of the Avinu Prayer uses the imperative to express a similar meaning to the Hebrew jussive.

110 A nearly identical phrase appears in the Jewish Kaddish prayer which opens: "May his great name be sanctified and magnified."

111 Exodus 3:15.

112 Psalms 148:11-13.

113 "Yahweh," Anchor Bible Dictionary, D.N. Freedman, et al, (editors), New York 1992, volume 6, page 1011

114 Mishnah, Sanhedrin 10:1; Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 10:1 28b.

115 When I later discussed this incident with Nehemia he insisted that he did not remember hearing the ram's horn. Thankfully I recorded the entire conversation and when I played him the tape the dual blast of the ram's horn was unmistakable.

116 1 Kings 8:43 [adapted from NRSV]; in the original: "that all the peoples of the earth may know your name."

117 Zechariah 14:9. This verse became the closing line of the Alenu prayer, recited three times every day for the last 2,000 years by rabbinical Jews.

118 Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 50a.

119 Psalms 83:18[19] [KJV].

120 It was not until 1634, some 23 years after the publication of the original King James Version, that a consistent distinction was established between the letters "J" and "I." See R. Lass (editor), The Cambridge History of the English Language, Cambridge 1999, volume 3, pages 28, 39.

121 Psalms 83:18[19] [NIV].

122 In recent printings the name is represented by the name in "small caps," but in the 1611 printing it was written in regular capital letters. In some places the name is also represented by GOD in capital letters.

123 Exodus 20:7 [KJV]. Some Christians count this as the Second Commandment.

124 A clear example of this is the Ninth Commandment, which speaks about testifying as a "vain witness" in Deuteronomy 5:20. When the commandment first appears in Exodus 20:16, it uses the synonymous phrase "false witness."

125 Judges 8:19; 1 Samuel 14:39; etc.

126 Targum Onkelos on Exodus 20:7 [Aramaic]. Another ancient Aramaic Targum paraphrases the verse: "O my people, Children of Israel, none of you shall swear in the name of the word of the Lord your God in vain because the Lord will not acquit on the great Day of Judgment anyone who swears in his name in vain." (Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 20:7 [Aramaic]). See also Babylonian Talmud, Sabbath 120a.

127 Exodus 20:7 (Tanakh: A New Translation of the Holy Scriptures According to the Traditional Hebrew Text, New York 1985, page 115).

128 Peshitta on Exodus 20:7 (United Bible Societies edition, page 57 [Aramaic]).

129 Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part 3, Section 2, Chapter 1, Article 2.2 section 2150; M. Luther, The Large Catechism, translated by R. H. Fischer, Philadelphia 1959, page 15; J. Calvin, Commentaries on the Last Four Books of Moses, translated by C. W. Bingham, Grand Rapids 1996, volume 2, pages 408-410.

130 Deuteronomy 6:13.

131 Jeremiah 12:16.

132 Mishnah, Berachot 9:5. According to E. E. Urbach, this ruling predates the ban on the name, see The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs, translated by I. Abrahams, London 1987, page 128.

133 Ruth 2:4.

134 Numbers 13:16.

135 Matthew 13:55.

136 Matthew 10:2.

137 Acts 2:21 [KJV].

138 Joel 2:32[3:5].

139 Jeremiah 23:27 [KJV].

140 Psalms 145:1-2.

141 Psalms 145:21.

142 The abbreviation Yah appears 49 times in the Hebrew Bible, including 24 times in the word Hallelujah. For some reason the King James Version always translates Hallelujah as "Praise ye the Lord" rather than "Praise ye Yah [or 'Jah' in early 17th century spelling]." For example, Psalms 104:35.

143 Revelation 19:1, 3, 4, 6. The Hebrew word "Hallelujah" is actually transliterated in the Greek text of Revelation as hallelouia. The text used by the Greek Orthodox Church has the slightly different allelouia.

144 Psalms 148:1-2, 5.

145 According to the mission log this took place at 12:32 am Houston time.

146 A transcript of the conversation is published at: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11transcript_pao.htm.

147 Leviticus 22:31-32.

148 Ezekiel 20:39; in this verse "Lord" translates the word Adonai in the Hebrew.

149 Isaiah 42:6; 49:6. See also Ezekiel 36:20.

150 James 2:17 [NIV]. Others translate: "Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone" [KJV].

151 Matthew 5:16 [NRSV].

152 2 Samuel 15-19.

153 Manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew are located in Holland, Israel, Italy, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Vatican.

154 The manuscript is designated Jewish National and University Library Ms. Heb. 8º751. This type of manuscript is known as a Sefer Ha'takah (copy book) and was used by printers as a guide for their work.

155 The manuscript is currently in the possession of the University of Wroclaw.

156 In Hebrew: ve-tavo malchutcha.

157 Matthew 6:13 [KJV].

158 The blessing is lacking in Nestle-Aland's 27th edition of the New Testament in Greek and in the following English translations: American Standard Version, NIV, Revised Standard Version, NRSV, New American Bible, New English Translation.

159 1 Chronicles 29:10-11.

160 1 Samuel 16:13; 1 Kings 2:11.

161 Zechariah 14:9.

162 Psalms 93:1.

163 Daniel 4:32[29] [NKJV].

164 Daniel 4:34-35[31-32] [NKJV].

165 Psalms 145:11-13.

166 Luke 17:20-21 [NRSV]. This passage raises an alternative possibility for interpreting the Greek phrase "thy kingdom come" as reflecting the same concept of a present-day kingdom as the Hebrew. According to this alternative interpretation, asking for God's kingdom to come would be a request that his present-day kingdom become manifest in our lives.

167 1 Kings 8:54; 2 Chronicles 6:13.

168 1 Samuel 8:7.

169 Isaiah 45:23 [NRSV].

170 Matthew 6:10 [KJV].

171 Psalms 103:20-21.

172 The Church Father Augustine of Hippo explains: "The Angels serve Thee in heaven, may we serve Thee in earth! The Angels do not offend Thee in heaven, may we not offend Thee in earth! As they do Thy will, so may we do it also!" (St. Augustin: Sermon on the Mount; Harmony of the Gospels; Homilies on the Gospels [A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church: First Series] volume 6, page 285).

173 See for example Isaiah 1:10 and Jude 1:7.

174 Psalms 143:10.

175 Matthew 7:21 [NRSV].

176 In British English the phrase "your will shall be done" can have the meaning of "your will must be done". A more precise translation might have been "your will will be done". We, nevertheless, choose to translate it as "shall" to avoid the obvious confusion that would be brought about by "will will". A notable difference between the Hebrew and the Greek is that the latter has the word "as" while the former does not. However, a number of early Greek and Old Latin manuscripts agree with the Hebrew in omitting the word "as."

177 1 Kings 20:23, 25.

178 This is sometimes referred to as the deus otiosus, or "withdrawn god."

179 Also called "particular providence." The Hebrew term for providence - hashgachah - is derived from Psalms 33:13-14, which says that God looks down from heaven and "looks" upon the inhabitants of the Earth.

180 Genesis 16:11; 20:7.

181 The Avinu Prayer has the adverbial or adjectival form derived from the common word tamid.

182 For example, the word tamid describes the "daily" sacrifice offered every morning and every evening in the Temple (Exodus 29:38). Because this sacrifice was brought twice a day, the word tamid is more aptly translated in this context as "continual."

183 Eleven manuscripts have "give us our bread continually" and nine have "give us our continual bread." In Hebrew, this is caused by the difference of one letter: temidit vs. temidi. The feminine temidit modifies the verb ("give continually") whereas the masculine temidi modifies the noun ("continual bread"). The word order also differs among the manuscripts, but this does not change the meaning. Fourteen manuscripts add the word "today."

184 Origen of Alexandria, Origen on Prayer, translated by W. A. Curtis, Grand Rapids: Christian Classics Ethereal Library 2001, page 46.

185 See the section on "Continual Bread" later in this chapter.

186 Genesis 31:54; Numbers 28:2.

187 See the second paragraph of the traditional Jewish Grace After Meals.

188 This story has been published in: Bernice Cowl-Gordon, The Cowl Family, Minneapolis 1991, pages 10-11.

189 Exodus 16.

190 Deuteronomy 8:3.

191 Isaiah 55:1 [NKJV].

192 Isaiah 55:2-3 [NKJV].

193 Deuteronomy 10:18.

194 Genesis Rabbah 70:5 (Theodor-Albeck edition, page 802 [Hebrew]) quoting Proverbs 9:5. A second rabbi interpreted the verse literally and rebuked Aquila for placing such a low value on physical nourishment. This rabbi pointed out that when the patriarch Jacob fled from Esau he prayed to God for bread (Genesis 28:20) and it would not be right to be ungrateful for that which Jacob valued so highly in his darkest hour.

195 Midrash Proverbs 31:14 (Wisotzky edition, page 192 [Hebrew]); Midrash Psalms 41:7 (Buber edition, page 261 [Hebrew]); Daniel al-Kumisi, Pitron Shnem Asar on Hosea 2:9 (Markon edition, page 4 [Hebrew]).

196 The image of God's word growing like grain that turns into bread appears in Isaiah 55:10-11 (and compare Isaiah 44:3-4). The image of God placing his instruction in our hearts appears in Nehemiah 2:12; 7:5; Jeremiah 31:31-33. The two metaphors are combined in Matthew 13:19.

197 Exodus 25:30; Proverbs 6:21.

198 1 Chronicles 16:11; Psalms 34:1[2].

199 Numbers 9:16; Isaiah 58:11.

200 Amos 8:11.

201 See Joshua 1:8; Psalms 1:2.

202 This is consistent with Yeshua's teaching: "Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, 'I repent,' you must forgive." (Luke 17:3-4 [NRSV]).

203 Psalms 99:8.

204 Deuteronomy 11:22 as interpreted in Sifre Deuteronomy, section 49 [Hebrew].

205 Psalms 94:1; see also Nahum 1:2.

206 Deuteronomy 32:35. Some Jews quote the Talmudic adage, "Where revenge is needed it is a great thing" (Rashi on Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 33a [Hebrew]). However, this is speaking about divine retribution, not human revenge.

207 Leviticus 19:17-18.

208 Literally "measure against measure." This Hebrew concept is referred to in Luke 6:37-38.

209 Ezekiel 16:59 [NKJV].

210 Judges 1:7. See also Obadiah 1:15: "as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head" [KJV].

211 Genesis 18:25.

212 Ecclesiastes 12:14.

213 1 Samuel 24:12[13].

214 Romans 12:19 [NRSV].

215 Ben Sira 28:2 [NRSV].

216 Luke 11:4; Matthew 6:12 [NKJV]

217 Proverbs 19:2.

218 Deuteronomy 5:32-33.

219 Matthew 7:13-14 [NRSV].

220 Matthew 5:45 [NRSV].

221 Leviticus 19:17.

222 Isaiah 58:7 [NRSV].

223 1 Kings 8:46.

224 Exodus 34:6-7.

225 Ezekiel 18:21-22; see also Jeremiah 31:34 which is quoted in Hebrews 8:12.

226 Psalms 99:8.

227 Daniel 7:9-10; Psalms 51:9[11].

228 Leviticus 19:17.

229 The Judean Desert is a type of arid region known as a "rain shadow" desert.

230 Psalms 121:5.

231 The Greek word is peirasmon, a noun derived from the verb peirazo, meaning "to test."

232 Matthew 16:1 [NRSV].

233 D. A. Hagner, Word Biblical Commentary, Dallas 1993, volume 33a, page 151. The verse in question says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone." (James 1:13 [NKJV]). See also Matthew 26:41.

234 See also the Worldwide English translation, the New American Bible, and the New English Translation notes.

235 The Word Biblical Commentary notes: "To be tempted is to be enticed to sin; to be tested is to be brought into difficult circumstances that try one's faithfulness" (volume 33a, page 151).

236 Deuteronomy 6:16. The incident of Masah is described in Exodus 17:1-7.

237 Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 60b.

238 This prayer appears at the end of the morning blessings (Siddur Rinat Yisrael: Ashkenazic Version, Jerusalem 1977, page 25). The same prayer also appears in the traditional Karaite Jewish prayer book, volume 4, page 70.

239 Proverbs 30:7-9.

240 Job 1:9-11.

241 Job 1:5.

242 Job 1:21.

243 Job 32:2-3; 42:7-9.

244 Genesis 22:1-2.

245 Deuteronomy 13:1-3[2-4] [adapted from NRSV].

246 The "temptation" of Yeshua is described in Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13. The tempter or tester is described as Satan in Mark and in Hebrew Matthew but simply as "the devil" in Luke and Greek Matthew.

247 Matthew 4:3, 6, 9.

248 Psalms 121:7.

249 Isaiah 45:5-7.

250 Genesis 3:13. Adam's attempt to shift blame was arguably worse than Eve's, because he not only blamed his wife but also God (Genesis 3:12).

251 Deuteronomy 30:15, 19.

252 James 1:14-15 [NIV].

253 For example, the book of Nehemiah describes the public service that took place shortly after Ezra returned from Babylon: "Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen,' lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground." (Nehemiah 8:6 [NRSV]).

254 See for example, 2 Kings 12:15[16].

255 "Amen," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1960 edition, volume 1, page 744.

256 See for example Hitler's Mein Kampf, New York 1939, pages 84, 422-423; N. Baynes (editor), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 1939, London 1942, volume 1, pages 19-20.

257 The Nostra Aetate is published on the Vatican's official website.

258 The Significance of Judaism for the Life and Mission of the Church, Lutheran World Federation: Geneva 1983, page 8.

259 "A Statement on Jewish-Christian Relations from the Alliance of Baptists," April 25, 2003, http://www.allianceofbaptists.org/christian-jewish.htm.

260 The Significance of Judaism (above), page 9.

261 John 14:21 [NIV].

262 Mishnah, Avot 4:1.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Introduction

The Journey to Common Ground

The Hebrew Gospel of Matthew

In Search of the Prayer

Cave of Our Father

Mount of the Beatitudes

Blessed Trees

Mount Tabor

Mount Arbel

Horns of Hattin

The Hebrew Meaning of the Avinu Prayer

Our Father in Heaven

May Your Name be Sanctified

May Your Kingdom be Blessed

Your Will Shall be Done in Heaven and on Earth

Give Us Our Bread Continually

Forgive Us the Debt of Our Sins

Do Not Bring Us Into the Hands of a Test

And Protect Us From All Evil

The Last Word

The Avinu Prayer

Hebrew Terms

Greek Terms

Footnotes