.....I'm still at reading selections from the Bible; it may take me longer to read it than it took the scribes to write it; and as I went through the gospels of Matthew it became pretty boring because with each one there were so many repetitions in the writing it was hard to keep up with it; except when I came to the Sermon on the Mount which was beautiful and which surprising to me, at least, contained "The Lord's Prayer". I was amazed because I surely remembered this being used in a prayer in the synagogue--or at least something similar to it. "Hallowed be thy name" is reflected in the Kaddish; "Lead us not into sin" is echoed in other Jewish prayers. The purpose of the sermon was to teach the people how and where to pray. It seems that God was angry with the people because they prayed openly, and sometimes in the street, just so people could see them praying and think them wise and without sin. So, Jesus delivered this sermon to his disciples and to a multitude of followers. Sometimes this psalm is known as "Our Father"; in Latin it begins, "Pater Noster qui es in caelis...". Is that how I got the idea to title the volumes of my blog, "Pater Noster in Condoland"? It's interesting to contemplate, anyway.

.....One of the problems with this psalm, it seems, is the line, "...and lead us not into temptation." This goes against the the teachings elsewhere in the Gospels that God does not lead people into temptation--that's Satan's job. However, Abraham was tempted to sacrifice his son--which I suppose is called infanticide. And David also was lead into sin when God got angry with the people again and asked David to count the people of Israel and of Judah. (2 Samuel 24). So David asked Joab, the General of the army, I gather, to go and count the people--to what purpose is not clear to me--perhaps for conscription. At any rate, it took him nine months and twenty days to do it and the people of Israel numbered 800,000 and of Judah, 500,000. After Joab reported this, David petitioned God to relieve him of his iniquity. Why counting the people was a sin, according to David, I don't know...but the bottom line is that God had lead him into this "temptation," if that is what it was.

.....I am writing about this in my blog because it is what is most interesting to me in my life these days. I am still going to physical rehab for my hip twice a week, and that is less of an interest than anything else I can come up with at the moment. I thought that the Theatre Workshop class would capture my interest, but it's quite the disappointment. There is infinitesimal interest there in teaching people how to act. People get up and read monologues, but the diction leaves a lot to be desired, and there is no real attempt to make any reading that's done, dramatic. And for some reason, there is very little critique of these readings--perhaps not to embarrass the reader which is a lousy reason if the reader is there to be taught.

The Lord's Prayer Words

(traditional)

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory,

for ever and ever.

Amen

(King James Bible AD 1611)