Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (Greek: Πάτερ ἡμῶν, romanized: Páter ēmôn; Latin: Pater Noster), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God's holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manuscripts and Christian traditions. Most scholars regard the Lord's Prayer, as recorded in the New Testament gospels of Matthew and Luke, as deriving authentically from the historical Jesus. The prayer survives in two different versions, however, and the relationship between the Matthean and Lukan forms remains the subject of scholarly debate. The first-century text Didache (at chapter VIII) reports a version closely resembling that of Matthew and the modern prayer. It ends with the Minor Doxology. Theologians broadly view the Lord's Prayer as a model that aligns the soul with God's will, emphasizing praise, trust, and ethical living. The prayer is used by most Christian denominations in their worship and, with few exceptions, the liturgical form is the Matthean version. It has been set to music for use in liturgical services. Since the 16th century, the Lord's Prayer has been widely translated and collected to compare languages across regions and history. The Lord's Prayer shares thematic and linguistic parallels with prayers and texts from various religious traditions—including the Hebrew Bible, Jewish post-biblical prayers, and ancient writings like the Dhammapada and the Epic of Gilgamesh—though some elements, such as "Lead us not into temptation," have unique theological nuances without direct Old Testament counterparts. Music ranging from 9th-century Gregorian chant to modern works by Christopher Tin has incorporated the Lord's Prayer into a variety of religious and interfaith ceremonies.