• Benny Nalkara, CMI

The final phrase, “Deliver us from the evil one” (Mt 6:13), is the seventh and last petition in the Lord’s prayer and it reveals the desire of the disciple to get protected from all the forms of evil that may prevent one from having a filial relationship with God, the Father. We pray that our loving Father will deliver us through the power of His Son and the Holy Spirit. This petition incorporates a major element in the ministry of Jesus and his preaching of the Kingdom of God: his effective power over the demoniac forces.

The final petitions of the “Our Father,” go closely together, “do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil ones.” Only in a few manuscripts of the Lord’s prayer in the Gospel of Luke, we come across the phrase, “Deliver us from evil ones.” Quite certainly this petition of the Lord’s Prayer should be translated not, “Deliver us from evil,” but, “Deliver us from the Evil One.” The Bible does not think of evil as an abstract principle or force, but as an active, personal power in opposition to God. Paul says in Ephesians 6:12 that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” This is why the modern translations say “from the evil one” instead of the classic “from evil.”

The Greek term that is almost always translated as “evil” or “wicked” is poneros, which means “oppressed by toil,” “burdened,” and “worthless.” Of things, it means “toilsome,” “painful,” and “grievous.” However, its direct meaning is “cunning” “deception”. The Greek word for “evil” in the Lord’s Prayer has the definite article with it (“Tou ponerou”) and that implies that it’s not talking about a concept, but an actual evil person, someone who intends you harm. The term, “evil” refers to both to the lure of Satan and sin.

The demons and their Lord Satan, the Devil, Beelzebub, and other names get mention in the Bible. The development of the idea of Satan in the Bible is of the greatest interest. In Hebrew, the word Satan simply means an adversary (1 Kgs 5:4, 2 Sam 19:22). The Jews had the idea that in heaven there was an angel whose charge it was to state the case against a man, a kind of prosecuting angel; and that became the function of Satan. In Job 1: 6, Satan is numbered among the sons of God: “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.” The other name of Satan is the Devil; and Devil comes from the Greek word Diabolos, which is the regular word for a slanderer. So Satan becomes the Devil, the slanderer par excellence, the adversary of man, the power who is out to frustrate the purposes of God and to ruin mankind. Satan comes to stand for everything which is anti-man and anti-God. It is from that ruining power that Jesus teaches us to pray to be delivered.

In the ministry of Jesus, we come across vivid examples of what the seventh and last petition of the Lord’s prayer entails. Right from his baptism Jesus had to come face to face with the devil. Many a time we come across the narratives where Jesus wins over the demoniac powers through his exorcisms. A Gerasene demoniac provides the classic example of Jesus delivering someone from evil powers (Mk 5:1-20). He very often rebuked them, commanded them and casted them out. He used the same “finger of God” (Lk 11:20) – the same divine power used by Moses and Aaron to deliver people from the evil powers. In his exhortations, we come across the numerous illustrations on the evil and the warnings against the evil powers. The gospels see the human life as a battlefield dominated by one or another supernatural being or Satan. “The evil one” in the Lord’s prayer is the same one seen in the parable of the Sower explained.

This petition is a hefty reminder that, just as we ought consciously to depend on God for physical sustenance, so also ought we to sense our dependence on him for moral triumph and spiritual victory. The petition immediately directs our thoughts to God the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Strengthener, the Illuminator, the Guide and the Guardian of our way. In the contemporary context, we come across various horrendous evils from which we need to pray to be delivered. Terrorist activities, communal riots, environmental crisis etc give a new edge to the petition, “Deliver us from the Evil Ones” in the prayer “our Father” in our times.