Jesus almost certainly taught the Our Father in Aramaic, the everyday language of Galilee in his time, but the prayer has come down to us in Greek, the language in which the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were written; the oldest Aramaic form we have is the Syriac version, Syriac being a later Aramaic dialect, which Christians of the Middle East still pray today and which begins “Abun d’bashmaya,” “Our Father who art in heaven.” Below is what we can and cannot know about the “original” Our Father, the Syriac version in a literal 1851 English translation, the Greek text of Matthew’s Gospel, the Aramaic words of Jesus that the Gospels kept, why Aramaic helps explain “forgive us our debts,” and an honest note about the “Aramaic Lord’s Prayer” that circulates online.
Did Jesus pray the Our Father in Aramaic?
Jesus, his disciples and most Jews in Galilee spoke Aramaic, a language related to Hebrew. When the disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1), he very likely answered in Aramaic. But no Aramaic text of the Gospels from the first century survives: the evangelists wrote in Greek so that the whole Roman world could read them. So the Greek text of Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4 is the original text of the prayer as Scripture gives it, and any Aramaic version today is either a translation back from the Greek or a reconstruction by scholars.
The Gospels do keep a few of Jesus’ own Aramaic words. In Gethsemane he prayed (Mark 14:36, Douay-Rheims):
And he saith: Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee: remove this chalice from me; but not what I will, but what thou wilt.
Abba means “Father,” the same word that stands behind the first word of the Our Father. To the dead girl he said (Mark 5:41):
And taking the damsel by the hand, he saith to her: Talitha cumi, which is, being interpreted: Damsel (I say to thee) arise.
And on the cross (Mark 15:34):
And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying: Eloi, Eloi, lamma sabacthani? Which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
The Lord’s Prayer in Syriac (Aramaic)
The Syriac Bible, called the Peshitta, translated the New Testament into the Aramaic of Edessa in the early centuries of the Church. Syriac Catholics, Maronites, Chaldeans, Syro-Malabar Catholics, Syriac Orthodox and the Assyrian Church of the East still pray the Our Father in Syriac at their liturgies. Its opening words are usually written “Abun d’bashmaya” (pronunciations differ between Eastern and Western Syriac). Here is the Syriac Lord’s Prayer in the literal English translation of James Murdock (1851):
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name: Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done; as in heaven, so on earth: Give us our needful bread, this day: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors: And bring 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.
Notice “our needful bread,” “as in heaven, so on earth,” and the closing doxology, “For thine is the kingdom…,” which the Syriac Gospel includes.
The original Greek text
Matthew 6:9–13 in the Greek of the New Testament, the oldest text of the prayer we have:
Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς
ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου
ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου
γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου
ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς
τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον
καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν
ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφίεμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν
καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν
ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ
It begins Páter hēmōn ho en tois ouranois, “Our Father, who are in the heavens.” The rare word epioúsios, translated “daily” or “supersubstantial,” has puzzled readers since the early Church; St. Jerome rendered it supersubstantialem in Matthew, and the Douay-Rheims follows him.
“Debts” or “trespasses”?
In Aramaic one word, ḥawbā, means both “debt” and “sin.” That is why Matthew’s Greek says “forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors,” while Luke’s says “forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.” Catholic English says “trespasses,” an older word for sins. All three express the same request.
The Our Father as Catholics pray it in English today:
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.
Amen.
The “Aramaic Lord’s Prayer” online
A version often shared online as “the Lord’s Prayer in the original Aramaic,” which addresses God as a cosmic “Birther” and speaks of the universe and vibrations, comes from a 1990 book by Neil Douglas-Klotz. It is a free, poetic meditation inspired by the Syriac words, not a translation, and it is not the prayer Jesus taught or a text any Church prays. For the real Syriac text and its meaning, see the translation above.
Frequently asked questions
What was the original language of the Our Father?
Jesus probably taught it in Aramaic, but the original written text, in the Gospels, is Greek.
How do you say “Our Father” in Aramaic?
“Abun” (or “Abwun”) means “our Father”; the Syriac prayer begins “Abun d’bashmaya,” “Our Father who art in heaven.”
Do any Catholics still pray in Aramaic?
Yes. Maronite, Syriac, Chaldean and Syro-Malabar Catholics use Syriac, a form of Aramaic, in their liturgies.
More about the Our Father
- Our Father prayer
- Our Father in Latin
- Our Father in Spanish
- Prayers in the Bible
- Orthodox Nicene Creed
- How to pray as a Catholic
Texts and sources
- Syriac version in English: James Murdock, The New Testament: a literal translation from the Syriac Peshito version (New York, 1851), Matthew 6:9–13, public domain (archive.org).
- Greek: Matthew 6:9–13, Greek Wikisource, page “Πάτερ ημών”.
- Mark 14:36, 5:41 and 15:34 (Douay-Rheims).