The Lord's Prayer in Ancient Greek
This is the prayer in the Greek of the Gospel of Matthew, written in the first century AD. The Greek of the New Testament is one of the most approachable kinds of Ancient Greek, and if you already know the prayer, you have a head start on every line.
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The text and translation
Οὕτως οὖν προσεύχεσθε ὑμεῖς· Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου,
Pray like this: “‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
Word by word
- Οὕτως
- thus, so
- οὖν
- therefore, then
- προσεύχεσθε
- to pray, pray for
- ὑμεῖς
- you
- Πάτερ
- father, Father, ancestor
- ἡμῶν
- I
- ὁ
- the
- ἐν
- in, on, among
- τοῖς
- the
- οὐρανοῖς
- the sky, the heaven
- ἁγιασθήτω
- to make holy, sanctify
- τὸ
- the
- ὄνομά
- name, character, reputation
- σου
- you
ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου, γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ⸀ἐπὶ γῆς·
Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Word by word
- ἐλθέτω
- to come, go
- ἡ
- the
- βασιλεία
- kingship, sovereignty, authority, rul...
- σου
- you
- γενηθήτω
- to come into being, be born
- τὸ
- the
- θέλημά
- will, wish, desire
- σου
- you
- ὡς
- as, like as, how, while, so that
- ἐν
- in, on, among
- οὐρανῷ
- the sky, the heaven
- καὶ
- and, even, also, namely
- ⸀ἐπὶ
- on, to, against, on the basis of, at
- γῆς
- the earth, soil, land
τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον·
Give us today our daily bread.
Word by word
- τὸν
- the
- ἄρτον
- bread, a loaf, food
- ἡμῶν
- I
- τὸν
- the
- ἐπιούσιον
- for the morrow, necessary, sufficient
- δὸς
- to offer, give
- ἡμῖν
- I
- σήμερον
- today, now
καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ⸀ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν·
Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
Word by word
- καὶ
- and, even, also, namely
- ἄφες
- to send away, release, remit, forgive,...
- ἡμῖν
- I
- τὰ
- the
- ὀφειλήματα
- a debt, offense, sin
- ἡμῶν
- I
- ὡς
- as, like as, how, while, so that
- καὶ
- and, even, also, namely
- ἡμεῖς
- I
- ⸀ἀφήκαμεν
- to send away, release, remit, forgive,...
- τοῖς
- the
- ὀφειλέταις
- a debtor, sinner
- ἡμῶν
- I
καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ ⸀πονηροῦ.
Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
Word by word
- καὶ
- and, even, also, namely
- μὴ
- not, lest
- εἰσενέγκῃς
- to lead into, bring in
- ἡμᾶς
- I
- εἰς
- into, in, among, till, for
- πειρασμόν
- trial, testing, temptation
- ἀλλὰ
- but, except
- ῥῦσαι
- to rescue
- ἡμᾶς
- I
- ἀπὸ
- from, away from
- τοῦ
- the
- ⸀πονηροῦ
- evil, bad, wicked
What to notice
- Πάτερ ἡμῶν means “our Father”. Πατήρ is related to the English word father and to Latin pater, from one much older ancestor language.
- ἁγιασθήτω means “let it be made holy”. It is a command in the third person, a form English has to spell out with “let”.
- τὸν ἐπιούσιον is the word translated “daily”. It is almost unknown anywhere else in Greek, and nobody is fully sure what it means.
- τὰ ὀφειλήματα means “the debts”, not “trespasses”. The small raised marks in the text come from this edition and show where manuscripts differ. The closing words of the English, “for yours is the Kingdom”, are not in this Greek edition.
Read it yourself
Urling teaches the words in this text first, so that when you reach it you can read it in Ancient Greek. It uses short lessons, and nothing has to be memorised from a list.
Learn to read this in Ancient Greek
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Sources
SBL Greek New Testament with MorphGNT tagging. English: World English Bible, which follows the Majority Text and may add words this edition does not have.
Text licence: Text CC BY 4.0 (SBLGNT); tagging CC BY-SA 3.0 (MorphGNT).
Language pack licence: Text CC BY 4.0 (SBLGNT); tagging CC BY-SA 3.0 (MorphGNT); glosses CC0.
Text: The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition, Copyright 2010 Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software (CC BY 4.0). Lemmas and parsing: MorphGNT (James Tauber et al., CC BY-SA 3.0). Glosses: Dodson Greek-English Lexicon (CC0), with AI-written corrections (marked "ai"). English: World English Bible (public domain, eBible.org); it translates the Majority Text, so a verse’s English sometimes has words this Greek edition does not (e.g. the end of the Lord’s Prayer).
The introduction and notes on this page were written by Claude (AI). Word glosses are AI-assisted, and so is the English unless the source above names another translator.