why would Jesus say, “Lead us not into temptation”? This apparent contradiction is clarified when we read the next line of the Lord’s Prayer, which amplifies the request of “lead us not into temptation” by saying “but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13). The word that is commonly used in Greek to refer to evil is ponēros. When the Bible uses this term in the abstract, it occurs in the neuter gender, ponēron. But in the Lord’s Prayer, when Jesus says “but deliver us from evil,” He doesn’t use the neuter gender form of ponēros. Instead, He uses the masculine form with the definite article “the.”
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