New Liturgy: the Lord’s Prayer

אָבִינוּ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם יִתְקַדַּשׁ שְׁמֵךֻ
Avinu shebashamayim, yitkadash sh’meicha.
Our Father, who is in heaven, may your name be sanctified.

(Forgive the transliterated Greek, but I have yet to set up my Mac to type in Greek):
Pater heimon ho en tois ouranois hagiostheito to onoma sou.

What is “new” about this liturgy? Why did Yeshua give it? Why don’t most Protestants and evangelicals use it? Why don’t most Messianic Jews use it?

Revolution is change and Yeshua came for a kind of revolution. We need a revolution now too. So let’s work together for a change. Let’s promote the use of the Lord’s Prayer in Messianic synagogues and in churches. And here is a way I have partnered with Roman&Alaina to help make that happen. Find out about a new melody for synagogues and churches to beautify and promote the message of Yeshua’s prayer. And find out also about a new Hebrew-English New Testament and its roots in the work of Franz Delitzsch. More after the jump.

Yeshua’s Prayer: Background and Translation
The tradition of Yeshua’s prayer comes to us in Greek in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4.

So, why do I quote it in Hebrew and where did this Hebrew come from? It is from the Hebrew translation of the New Testament by Franz Delitzsch. It never was Delitzsch’s intention to make a Bible more accurate than the Greek tradition passed down from the apostles. He rendered the New Testament into Hebrew as a gift to the Jewish community and to recover, possibly, some of the Hebraic idioms and associations Yeshua’s words may have had in the original Aramaic form in which they were spoken. Delitzsch did not imagine he could recreate the exact words of Yeshua or that the apostle’s recorded Yeshua word for word. He simply presents a translation which speculates about the original words and idioms (but in Hebrew and not Aramaic).

But Delitzsch’s translation is especially noteworthy for the prayer of Yeshua, because he may have given the prayer in Hebrew (though possibly Aramaic as is the case with the Kaddish).

This Hebrew translation also makes the prayer of Yeshua useable in the Jewish liturgy (for Messianic Jews like myself).

And early this year, Vine of David will be releasing the Delitzsch Hebrew-English gospels. You can see more about the project here.

A Preview of More Information to Come
Did you know that some Talmudic sages gave their disciples a prayer specifically written by them?

Yeshua far predates these Talmudic sages and so we cannot know to what degree something like this was already going on.

But consider Luke 11:1 where the disciples of Yeshua say to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

In a post later this week (maybe tomorrow), I will say more about the history and intent of Yeshua’s prayer. For now, shame on all of us in Messianic Judaism and in Protestant communities who do not make regular and emphatic use of this prayer.

That is why . . .

Getting the Prayer of Yeshua in Liturgical Melody and With Chords and Lyrics in Hebrew and English
I contacted my favorite Messianic Jewish musicians, Roman&Alaina, back in November, and commissioned the writing of a new melody for Yeshua’s prayer.

The song, both acapella and with instrumentation, will be on their next album. But you can get it now and start incorporating it.

HERE ARE SAMPLES IN HEBREW AND ENGLISH OF THE PRAYER SET TO MUSIC BY ROMAN&ALAINA:
Hebrew sample.
English sample.

AND YOU CAN SEE MORE AND BUY THE FILES HERE:
THE AVINU PROJECT AT ROMANANDALAINA.COM

It is my hope that use of this prayer, and I hope this melody, will become a regular fixture in Messianic synagogues. It is my hope that we will grant a much more important place to this prayer which Yeshua gave us as John gave a prayer to his disciples and later sages gave to their disciples.

It marks us as followers of Yeshua that we say his prayer.

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