Matthew 6:12

Our debts

(τα οφειληματα ημων). Luke (Luke 11:4) has "sins" (αμαρτιας). In the ancient Greek οφειλημα is common for actual legal debts as in Romans 4:4, but here it is used of moral and spiritual debts to God. "Trespasses" is a mistranslation made common by the Church of England Prayer Book. It is correct in verse Matthew 6:14 in Christ's argument about prayer, but it is not in the Model Prayer itself. See Matthew 18:28; Matthew 18:30 for sin pictured again by Christ "as debt and the sinner as a debtor" (Vincent). We are thus described as having wronged God. The word οφειλη for moral obligation was once supposed to be peculiar to the New Testament. But it is common in that sense in the papyri (Deismann, Bible Studies, p. 221; Light from the Ancient East, New ed., p. 331). We ask forgiveness "in proportion as" (ως) we also have forgiven those in debt to us, a most solemn reflection. Αφηκαμεν is one of the three k aorists (εθηκα, εδωκα, ηκα). It means to send away, to dismiss, to wipe off.