I know a little Spanish. I can’t speak it nor comprehend it when listening to it well at all, but I can read it quite well, thanks to God and my Spanish copy of the Lord of the Rings books. A while back, I memorized the Our Father in Spanish (called El Padrenuestro).

As I learned more about Spanish, one of the parts of the prayer caught my attention, as the Spanish version differed slightly, but remarkably, in meaning from the English:

“Lead us not into temptation,” goes the English.
“No nos dejes caer in tentacion,” goes the Spanish.

But what the Spanish actually translates as is “Do not let us fall to temptation”.

This prayer makes much more sense to me, as the English always struck me as a bit redundant, since God clearly promised us that he would never tempt us to evil. God is all good, so why are we praying he not “lead us to temptation”? Of course he won’t–that would be wrong, and God does no wrong.

But now think how much better the prayer, “Do not let us fall to temptation” is. Temptations are going to attack us, and we know that you won’t directly tempt us with them, SO do not let us fall to them; do not let us give in to them and sin against you.

I triumphantly revealed my insight to the G, who is fluent in Spanish, and he must have realized this difference years ago, as he kind of nodded and said he figured the English version was something leftover from an old English version of the Bible.

So I don’t guess that it’s within the realm of possibility to change this translation in the English, is it?

Padre nuestro, que estás en el cielo,
santificado sea tu Nombre;
venga a nosotros tu reino;
hágase tu voluntad en la tierra como en el cielo.
Danos hoy nuestro pan de cada día;
perdona nuestras ofensas,
como también nosotros perdonamos a los que nos ofenden;
no nos dejes caer en la tentación,
y líbranos del mal.