Denmark updates the Lord’s Prayer for modern readers

DR reports that the Danish Bible Society has published a trial translation of the Lord’s Prayer, replacing several older expressions with language intended to be clearer for future generations.

The prayer’s opening changes from “Our Father, you who are in heaven” to “Our Father, you who are in heaven” in a more modern Danish form, using the equivalent of “our” instead of older grammatical variations. The full trial translation reads:

Our Father, you who are in heaven! Let your name be holy, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven! Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our guilt, as we forgive the guilt others have against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen!

Johannes Baun, the Bible Society’s secretary general, said the wording needed to be understandable to coming generations. He also said the prayer should use language spoken today, because it is a prayer rather than a rote recitation.

The closing words about the kingdom, power and glory remain unchanged. The last linguistic update to the prayer was in 1992.

The revision is part of work towards a new Danish Bible translation scheduled for publication in 2036, 500 years after the Reformation in Denmark. The Bible Society says the translation requires years of work, expert review and testing, which is why the trial version of the prayer is being released now. There have been nine versions of the prayer since 1524.