Lead us Not into Temptation

Granted that God does not ‘tempt’ anyone to sin, and that a reference here to the end-time tribulation is unlikely, this article revives a neglected suggestion that the peirasmos ‘testing’ that Jesus wants his followers to avoid is putting God to the test, i.e. disobeying or rebelling against God. Being tested by God is hard; putting God on trial is sin, as prohibited at Deut. 6.16. Alongside Meribah (‘strife’) at Exod. 17.1–7 Massah (‘testing’) is a new name, signifying and symbolizing Israel’s repeated (Num. 14.22) disobedience and rebellion against God, as at the Exodus. That testing God was remembered in penitence in Ps. 78.18, 41, 56; 95. 8f.; 106.14 as the Exodus was recalled. The Septuagint always translates nsh (to test) peirazein , and its cognate massah , the place that memorializes it in the Pentateuch and Psalter, peirasmos . The specific topographical echo was lost in translation into Greek and the petition gained its general meaning. Later Syriac, Hebrew and Aramaic versions translated Matthew’s Greek, not the original, and accepted Matthew’s interpretation which lacked the symbolism of massah . Jesus himself perhaps combined a positive request that God lead us, with a warning: not to that place and now symbol of sinful disobedience. This proposal illustrates how historical Jesus suggestions can sometimes enrich the reception of a biblical text without displacing the evangelists’ meanings.