Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.09.1990, Síða 176

Stefán Karlsson
4. The differences among the versions are mainly a matter of word
order, but also a matter of word choice.
As a rule, the oldest versions follow the word order of the Vulgate,
even where it differs from normal Icelandic (Norse) word order, in the
third, fourth and sixth petitions. This Latinate word order was
gradually abandoned in favour of a normal Icelandic order, but in the
sixth petition (Lat. ne inducas nos in temptationem), where the negative
precedes the verb, the Latin order remained in some versions, as it still
remains today. In the oldest translations the possessive pronoun
normally followed the noun, in conformity with the Latin text and
customary Icelandic word order. Because of the influence of German
and Danish this was changed, beginning in the late Middle Ages and
becoming a fixed feature during the Reformation period. Attempts to
retum the possessive pronoun to its earlier position after the noun have
failed.
As for vocabulary, the main changes have been the shift from
hversdaglegt to daglegt (Lat. cotidianum, daily) in the fourth petition
and from leys to frelsa (Lat. libera, deliver) in the seventh. Also, the
fifth petition is found in more varied formulations than the other
petitions; it is the longest of the petitions anyway, and there have been
many different attempts at translating debita (debts) and debitores
(debtors).
5. In spite of the many forms that the Lord's Prayer has taken in the
course of the centuries, there is no substantial difference among the
versions; most of words have remained the same all the way from the
time of the earliest sources (which go back to texts from before 1200)
to the present day.
Between the oldest preserved Icelandic texts and Danish texts from
the sixteenth century there is a close similarity in vocabulary, which
might be explained by assuming a common source in a Danish text at
Lund, which may in tum have been influenced by a German text from
Bremen. Bremen and Lund were the first archbishoprics for Iceland in
the second half of the 1 lth century and the first half of the 12th century
respectively.
The versions of the Lord's Prayer in Icelandic Bibles, both in
Matthew and in Luke, have undergone some changes, while the version
used in the liturgy and in the prayer as uttered by the congregation
acquired a fixed form with the Guðspjallabók (Ritual) of Bishop Olafur
Hjaltason 1562. This version has remained virtually unchanged in the
handbooks of the church, independent of changes in the Biblical
versions of the prayer, and in the most recent translation of the New
Testament, in the Bible of 1981, this traditional version was used in the
Gospel of Matthew.
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