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When I was very young, the version of the Lord's Prayer that I was taught went like this:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Also, when reciting the Lord's Prayer amongst others, this is the version that I've heard used. I've also heard this version used in TV shows, movies, etc... I was recently reading through the NIV translation of Mathew 6 and noticed that the version of the Lord's Prayer used there is different from the one I knew, so I checked some other prominent versions and wasn't able to match them with the version that I had learned.

Which translation of the bible does this version of the Lord's Prayer come from?

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Your version matches exactly the version from the Book of Common Prayer of US Episcopal church.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Other versions of the BCP have slight variations.

The original Book of Common Prayer prayers were not copied from any particular Bible version, but translated to English by the scholars responsible for the book.

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  • This is very interesting. I don't have any connection with the Episcopal church so I find it interesting that the version of the Lord's Prayer that I know is so common. Also, did you just happen to know about the BCP already and remembered their version of the prayer?
    – loremIpsum1771
    Oct 6, 2021 at 21:50
  • It's very similar to other Book of Common Prayer versions, and those have been the dominant translations in the English speaking world.
    – DJClayworth
    Oct 7, 2021 at 1:29
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    Although you quote the 1979 ECUSA Book of Common Prayer, this is the version first proposed in 1928 for the Deposited Prayer Book in the Church of England, which was never ratified by Parliament. It did make it into Series 1 of the Alternative Services in the Church of England in 1965.
    – Andrew Leach
    Oct 7, 2021 at 11:42
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As noted, this is possibly one of the most commonly used English translations, used by many denominations.

As for the source... it probably came out of some church council or another. It is close to, but not exactly, what appears in Matthew 6:9b-13 KJV:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 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.

I expect the version we know was a pre-NIV result of some attempts to "modernize" the KJV language. The specific differences are:

  • "which art" → "who art"; this looks like straight modernization; "Our Father" is obviously a person; a "who" not an "it".
  • "in Earth" → "on Earth"; probably modernization, as "in Earth" might be seen to imply "underground", which is clearly odd. The original language almost certainly means "in [the realm of the] Earth".
  • "debts" → "trespasses"; this one seems obvious, as I believe most Christians understand this part of the prayer to refer to sins, and "debt" is a rather obscure term for sin. That said, quite a few English translations retain the use of "debt". See however here and especially here, and keep in mind also the frequent use of literal financial debts as an allegory for sin. The "more wordy" second half of this petition has some parallels with Luke 11:4.

Wikipedia has some notes on this. The 1759 Ordo Administrandi Sacramenta contains almost exactly this text, sans the Doxology¹ and use of "them that" rather than "those who". However, while omitted by Catholics, the Doxology is present in the earlier (1611) KJV. Although Wikipedia reports the 1928 Anglican BCP as the first instance of the complete prayer in its commonly known form, Henry Eyster Jacobs' 1911 translation of Luther's [Small] Catechism would appear to contain this version. Although the only edition I was able to find was edited in 2020, reducing my confidence that the text matches the 1911 version, the 1917 Occasional Services also contains the same text and still predates the 1928 BCP.

That's the most digging I intend to do, at least for now. To directly answer your question, though, the closest Bible translation is the 1611 KJV. Given the importance of this particular text, it is not surprising that it has been subject to more frequent revisions, and it would appear it does not originate strictly from any one complete Bible translation.

(¹ Some traditions, particularly Catholics, may omit the final sentence, "For Thine is the Kingdom...", also known as the Doxology. This text may or may not be original, and is not present in some Biblical manuscripts.)

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  • Thanks for all of the additional context. I think by "Doxology" you're referring to the "For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever" part right? I didn't realize that those lines weren't actually a part of all translations of the prayer.
    – loremIpsum1771
    Oct 6, 2021 at 22:06
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    @loremIpsum1771, correct. I added a note in the answer. It's worth noting that most translations of Luke lack the Doxology, which lends some credence to the idea that it was added to Matthew (many manuscripts have it, but some do not) and is not original.
    – Matthew
    Oct 7, 2021 at 14:51
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    At Catholic Mass, a version of the final doxology is said by the priest. But you're right, the laity never says it, like when praying the Rosary. It's also present in the Didache, which is a fine thing to note for completeness.
    – Peter Turner ♦
    Oct 7, 2021 at 15:42
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    The 1662 version of the BCP, although it has "which" and "in earth", has "trespasses". I am not sure what the older (pre-1662) versions of the BCP had, but the oldest editions were pre-KJV and relied on older Bible translations. (Even in the 1662 BCP the Psalms are from the Great Bible and are Coverdale's work.) I note that Tyndale has "trespasses" too - biblestudytools.com/tyn/matthew/6.html So "trespasses" here isn't a modernisation but actually a rival translation that has existed for many centuries.
    – rjpond
    Oct 8, 2022 at 22:58

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