What Does Matthew 6:13 Mean?
And do not bring us into testing, but bring us out of evil. For yours is the governance, and the power, and the weight, for the ages. Amen.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 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
“do not bring us into testing” in this verse is peirasmon. 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
“for the ages” in this verse is eis tous aiōnas. 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.
No test has seized you except what is common to humankind. God is steady, and he will not let you be tested beyond what you are able to carry, but with the test he will also make the way out, so that you can carry it.The LORD watches over you from all harm; he watches over your living soul.But the Lord is steady, who will steady you and guard you from the one who works harm.THE THREAD
Let no one, when tested, say, I am tested from God; for God is untested by evil, and he himself tests no one.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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