French Bishops Declare The Lord’s Prayer Blasphemy, Edit Bible

The Lord’s Prayer, which Catholics have been using for centuries, is apparently blasphemous. At least, that’s according to French bishops who think that the original meaning of the verse has become so lost in translation that it’s potentially offensive to the Almighty.

The aforementioned French bishops have therefore decided to edit the French-language Bible to amend the Lord’s Prayer in an effort to clear up any confusion. The verse that bishops find particularly controversial is “Lead us not into temptation.” This suggests that God actually has a role in the temptation to sin, and that just doesn’t jibe with the rest of Christ’s message, they say.

Per the Agence France-Presse:

The existing French version of that line reads, “Et ne nous soumets pas à la tentation”, which translates as “Do not submit us to temptation.”

This has long been controversial because of the possibility of interpreting it in a way that suggests God has the power to make people succumb to the temptation of sin — contradicting most orthodox Christian theology which holds that He is infinitely and unchangeably good.

In the revised formulation, to be included in new bibles published on November 22, the line will read “Et ne nous laisse pas entrer en tentation” or “Let us not enter into temptation.”

The new version of the French Bible was approved by the Vatican earlier this year. A few other, minor translation changes were also made, but it’s not like these religious experts are re-writing the Bible all willy-nilly.

Slate reports that the Bible-redux is the culmination of work performed by 70 linguistic and theology experts over 17 years.

The current, soon-to-be-axed Lord’s Prayer has been used in France since 1966.

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