Modern services often preface the saying of the Lord's Prayer with an invitation, for example, ‘As our Saviour taught us, so we pray.’ While we may accept that the words and the use are in harmony with the early tradition of Jesus, we shall certainly be mistaken if we believe ourselves to be uttering Jesus' words verbatim. As a matter of fact, this prayer contains within its short compass every conceivable problem that could afflict a Gospel saying: it exists in widely divergent forms, it includes a word otherwise unattested whose meaning is unknown, it contains an ambiguity, and its text was altered in the course of its transmission. For good measure, it is used in liturgical forms which draw on different Gospels.

To explain the last point first: in England, we use the word ‘trespasses’ or ‘sins’, which is from Luke, in an otherwise Matthaean form. In Scotland, the Matthaean word ‘debts’ is used.

The prayer is found twice in the Gospels: in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, as a part of teaching about prayer; and in Luke when Jesus has been praying, and his disciples ask ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’