Using postcards as teaching tools in a Catholic Academy has been a practice of mine for many years. A few months ago, one young student asked if other religions had prayers like our religion does. That was a fair question so I asked a postcard collector if I could borrow some cards that illustrate the Lord’s Prayer.
I have asked for this favor many times over the years and have never been disappointed. Well, I wasn’t disappointed this time either, but I was certainly “astonished” when I opened the envelope and found six beautiful postcards of the “Vater unser” – The Lord’s Prayer in German.
My postcard compatriot and I had a conversation a few days later and I thanked him for his efforts, but in a mannerly way told him that I would not be using them because the text was in German.
“Why, should that matter?” he asked; “God knows German.”
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Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
The King James version of the Lord’s Prayer is only 65 words (85 in German) and is known throughout Christendom as one of the most enduring and recognizable passages in the King James Version of the Bible. Its cadence is simple and profound. It has been a cornerstone of Christian devotion for centuries.
The prayer’s history stretches far beyond the English phrasing familiar today. It begins in the dusty hills of first‑century Judea, then moves through the liturgies of the early Church, and ultimately finds its poetic English form in 1611 when the KJV was presented to the King of England. Along the way, it joins a long lineage of humanity’s attempts to speak to the divine—echoing themes found in prayers from many of the world’s religious traditions.
So, my answer was, “Yes, Abigail, there are many versions of the Lord’s Prayer and it is prayed in many languages.”
The origins of the Lord’s Prayer lie in the teachings of Jesus Himself. In the Gospel of Matthew, the prayer appears within the Sermon on the Mount, offered as a model of a humble and sincere way to communicate with God. It became a tradition in Christianity because it was repeated, memorized, and adapted for worship long before being written down.
The early Christian manual known as the Didache (c. AD 80–120) preserves a version close to Matthew’s and instructs believers to pray it three times daily, showing how quickly it became central to Christian life.
When the translators of the King James Version undertook their monumental work in the early seventeenth century, they drew much of their text from the Greek manuscripts. Many of which included the now‑familiar doxology: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.” Though this line does not appear in the earliest surviving manuscripts, it had already become deeply rooted in Christian liturgy.
My students understood much of this, but the fun began when I tried to teach the pronunciations of other prayers like the Kaddish of Judaism, the Al‑Fātiḥah in Islam, and the Gayatri Mantra In Hinduism.
The Lord’s Prayer does not stand alone in the world’s spiritual landscape. From generations, old and new, and across cultures and centuries, human beings have created prayers that mirror mankind’s numerous themes: reverence for the divine, morality, and the desire for forgiveness.
In Judaism, the Kaddish—a prayer sanctifying God’s name—echoes the opening petition, “Hallowed be thy name.” The Amidah, central to Jewish daily worship, includes pleas for forgiveness, provision, and deliverance. In Islam, the Al‑Fātiḥah from the opening chapter of the Qur’an, serves as a prayer and proclamation that is God’s mercy and guidance that we seek as protection from error.
In Hinduism, the Gayatri Mantra invokes divine illumination and moral clarity, while in Buddhism, the Metta (Loving‑Kindness) Prayer asks for peace, protection, and the well‑being of all beings. Even in ancient Zoroastrianism, the Ashem Vohu prayer emphasizes righteousness.
These parallels do not diminish the uniqueness of the Lord’s Prayer; rather, they illuminate its place within a broader human longing for connection with the sacred. It should be recognized that the petitions in all these prayers are universal: the desire for daily bread, the struggle to forgive and be forgiven, the hope for deliverance from the forces that trouble the human heart.
Really, the only accomplishment that the King James Version did was to provide an enduring way to express the longings of those who could speak, write, or read English with unmatched clarity and beauty.