What Does Matthew 6:13 Mean in the King James?
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The prayer answers the threat of being drawn into trial with a request for rescue, then names God’s governance as the horizon around both.
THE MEANING
Testing and evil are real conditions you can name openly; the plea asks for rescue as they press on you. The Greek phrase translated “from evil” can also mean “from the evil one,” holding harmful force and personal opposition together. God’s governance, power, and weight remain the final horizon, extending through the ages.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that asking for rescue shows a lack of trust: here, the plea for help and confidence in God’s rule belong in the same prayer.
THE ROOT
πειρασμόν
peirasmon
GROWS FROM
πειρασμ-
peirasm-
trial, testing, or putting to proof
The English “temptation” can sound like enticement alone, while peirasmos also names a test or trial. The prayer can hold both the exposure to testing and the danger of being drawn toward evil.
ALSO GROWS
peirazō: to test, try, or tempt
πειράζω
This verb shows how the same word family can describe testing as well as enticement.
ekpeirazō: to put fully to the test
ἐκπειράζω
This compound preserves the family’s sense of testing or proving.
βασιλεία
basileia
GROWS FROM
βασιλευ-
basileu-
reign, rule, governance
Basileia carries the sense of reign or governance alongside the familiar image of a kingdom. Here the prayer’s final line names who rules over every plea for rescue.
ALSO GROWS
basileus: king
βασιλεύς
The king is the one whose rule gives basileia its sense of governance.
basileuō: to reign
βασιλεύω
This verb makes the active rule within “kingdom” visible.
εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας
eis tous aiōnas
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
age, a span of time
The Greek phrase is “into the ages,” a time-shaped expression behind the familiar “for ever.” It carries God’s governance, power, and weight forward through the ages.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: age, an extended span of time
αἰών
This is the noun at the heart of the phrase “into the ages.”
aiōnios: age-long, pertaining to an age
αἰώνιος
This related adjective keeps the language connected to an age or ages.
THE PATTERN
The request for protection from testing and evil stands alongside confidence in God’s power to preserve.
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.THE THREAD
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:James uses the same peirazō word family translated “tempted,” clarifying that testing and enticement do not make God the source of evil. That distinction opens Matthew’s plea as a request for rescue amid vulnerability.
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