Why does the Lord's Prayer end differently in different Bibles?

Two Gospels, two versions

The New Testament gives the prayer twice. Matthew's version, in the Sermon on the Mount, is the longer and is the one most churches pray. In the Berean Standard Bible it ends: "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:13, BSB) [1]. Luke's version is shorter. It opens simply with "Father" and ends with "And lead us not into temptation" (Luke 11:2–4, BSB) [2]. Neither Gospel, in its oldest manuscripts, includes the closing words of praise that many Christians say aloud [3].

What the manuscripts show

The ending "For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen" is called the doxology, from the Greek for "word of glory". It is absent from the oldest and most important manuscripts of Matthew, including Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, both from the fourth century [4][5]. Early writers who commented on the prayer, among them Tertullian, Origen and Cyprian, do not quote it either [5].

Where the doxology does appear, it comes in several forms. Some witnesses read only "For Yours is the power forever"; one Syriac version reads "the kingdom and the glory"; a few manuscripts name the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit [4][5]. The full form that English readers know is found in many later Greek manuscripts and became the standard Byzantine text [4]. The variety itself is one reason scholars think the words grew in worship rather than coming from Matthew's pen [5].

Older than the oldest manuscripts

The doxology is still very old. The Didache, a short manual of Christian practice usually dated around AD 100, gives the Lord's Prayer with the ending "for Yours is the power and the glory forever" and tells Christians to pray it three times a day [6][5]. That is earlier than any surviving manuscript of Matthew. It shows that Christians closed the prayer with praise from the first generations, even if the words were not yet written into the Gospel.

The language also comes from Scripture. King David's prayer in 1 Chronicles reads, "Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty", and later, "Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom" (1 Chronicles 29:11, BSB) [7]. Jewish prayer often ended with praise of this kind.

How it reached English Bibles

In the sixteenth century the scholar Erasmus printed the doxology at Matthew 6:13 in his Greek New Testament, following the manuscripts he had [8]. From there it passed into Protestant translations, including the King James Version of 1611, and into the Anglican Book of Common Prayer [8]. Modern translations based on the older manuscripts move it to a footnote [3].

Not everyone holds it was added

Some scholars defend the doxology as Matthew's own. The Trinitarian Bible Society argues that the manuscripts that omit it are a small and unrepresentative group, and that the Syriac versions and the Didache support its place in the Gospel [9]. Supporters of the Textus Receptus, the Greek text behind the King James Version, take the same view [10]. Most textual critics, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant, conclude that it was added [5].

How the traditions pray it

The question of the text has not removed the doxology from worship. The Orthodox Church uses the fullest form: after the prayer, the priest says that the kingdom, the power and the glory belong to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and to the ages of ages [5]. An Orthodox priest, Fr. Lawrence Farley, writes that it is a liturgical ending rather than part of the original prayer, and that the Church rightly keeps it [5]. In the Catholic Mass the priest adds a short prayer after "deliver us from evil", and the people then say the doxology [11]. Most Protestant churches say it directly at the end of the prayer.

Other differences people notice

Two other wording differences often surface when Christians pray together. In Matthew the Greek asks God to forgive "debts". William Tyndale's English New Testament of 1526 used "trespasses", and the first Book of Common Prayer, in 1549, kept his wording [12]. Anglicans, Methodists and English-speaking Catholics have typically said "trespasses" since, while Presbyterian and Reformed churches, praying from the King James text, typically say "debts", though practice varies by congregation [12].

The petition about temptation has also been retranslated. In December 2017 French-speaking Catholic parishes began praying "do not let us enter into temptation" [13]. In Italy the bishops' conference approved "do not abandon us to temptation" on 15 November 2018, as part of the new Italian Missal, which then went to the Holy See for confirmation and was approved in 2019 [14][15]. Both aim to make clear that God does not lead anyone into sin; the Latin and the familiar English kept the older wording.

What this means for the reader

If your Bible has no doxology at Matthew 6:13, nothing has been taken away: it follows the oldest manuscripts and prints the ending in a note. If your church prays it, it is praying words Christians have used since about AD 100, drawn from David's own prayer.