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by Katie Erickson

As we wrap up this series on the Lord’s Prayer this week, let’s start by reviewing the entire prayer from Matthew 6:9-13:

“This, then, is how you should pray:
‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’”

You may be thinking… where’s the rest? Perhaps you’ve said this prayer in church before, and you’re expecting something like “For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.” But, as you may have noticed, those words are not included in the Scriptures, either when Jesus gave this prayer as recorded in Matthew (above) or in Luke 11:2-4. So, why do we traditionally add that ending?

That ending, also known as a doxology or a benediction because of its form of praising God, is actually found in various forms in multiple ancient manuscripts. But it’s not always found in exactly the same form, which makes scholars suspicious that it should be included. Some manuscripts have this phrasing as, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." Others simply have, "For yours is the power forever and ever." Some even write, "For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit forever. Amen." All of this discrepancy shows disagreement, which indicates it was likely added in various forms by scribes.

So while this ending phrase does appear in ancient manuscripts, they’re not the best, most trustworthy, or most ancient. All of this evidence points to the fact that it should not be included as words of Scripture.

However, some scholars argue it should still be included. They say it’s very likely that Jesus (or Matthew) would not have just ended the prayer like this without some kind of blessing or praise of God at the end. Jewish prayers would traditionally end with something like this, so it would be their custom to do that. It is also unlikely that a scribe would have left this out when copying a text, especially an important prayer like this one. But these scholars are generally in the minority, based on the manuscript evidence. It would be more likely for a scribe to add a benediction at the end rather than leave one out.

So if this benediction at the end is not part of the text, why do we traditionally include some form of it when we say the Lord’s Prayer? Well for one thing, it does give a nice ending to the prayer, rather than leaving us hanging so to speak after asking for deliverance from the evil one. It is always appropriate to give God praise, especially during our prayers. We affirm that the kingdom, the power, and the glory are God’s and they should be proclaimed as such forever.

One interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer is that it represents God as the Trinity. The first part references the Father’s creation and providing for us through our daily bread. Next we see the Son’s work of forgiveness for us. Then we see the Holy Spirit’s power dwelling in us to keep us safe and not tempted by evil. So this triune phrase at the end (kingdom, power, and glory) is a reference to the triune nature of God - three persons but yet one God.

Is it wrong to include this last phrase when we say the prayer? Definitely not! The words that we pray are less important than the heart attitude and meaning behind it. I grew up in a church tradition that says “for ever and ever” at the end of the prayer when we’d pray it together weekly, and when I went to college I attended a church tradition that ended it at “forever.” I had to make a conscious effort to not add “... and ever” each time! Was one of these traditions “wrong”? Nope, they just disagreed on the specific wording, just like various manuscripts disagree as well, but the meaning was still the same.

We know that the kingdom, power, and glory of God will go on to all eternity, and we are proclaiming that each time we pray the words of this prayer. Amen!

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