Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why

by Bart D. Ehrman

One of the best-known liturgical changes to the text is found in Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer is also found in Matthew, of course, and it is that longer, Matthean form that was, and is, most familiar to Christians.20 By comparison, Luke’s version sounds hopelessly truncated. Father, hallowed be your name. May your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive our sins, for we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation. (Luke 11:2–4) Scribes resolved the problem of Luke’s shortened version by adding the petitions known from the parallel passage in Matt. 6:9–13, so that now, as in Matthew, the prayer reads: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. May your kingdom come and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. This scribal tendency to “harmonize” passages in the Gospels is ubiquitous. Whenever the same story is told in different Gospels, one scribe or another is likely to have made sure that the accounts are perfectly in harmony, eliminating differences by strokes of their pens.