3:00 a.m. Theology: Why Would God Lead Us into Evil??

Summer 2025

This summer series will explore questions that we may wonder when we’re awake at 3:00 a.m., or, generally, in the middle of the night. Some of my reflections will come from my experiences as a chaplain working the night shift at a Level I Trauma Center. Other stories come from other times in my life. If you have questions that you wonder when you’re awake in the middle of the night, I invite you to leave a comment or message me to submit them, as I’d love to ponder more than just the ones I’ve thought of or been asked. Also, as a little fun, I’ll schedule these posts to publish at 3:00 a.m. EST.

This is a reader-submitted 3:00 a.m. question: In the Lord’s Prayer, it says “lead us not into temptation.” Why would we need to ask God to not lead us into temptation???

You’d think it would be assumed that God’s good nature is to not lead us astray. Temptation is supposed to come from the devil, not from God. God, as the good shepherd, after all, is the one to “lead us down paths of righteousness.” I would submit that to find the answer theologically, one must also consider the source of the phrase, and I don’t mean Jesus, who speaks it. I mean the English translation of the original Aramaic that Jesus spoke.

Many of our English translations of the Gospels are from Greek, which means Jesus’s words have gone through at least two translations, from Aramaic to Greek to English. Think of the telephone game and how the message changes with each retelling. Even more, some English translations, like the King James, relied on the Vulgate Bible, the Latin translation that St. Jerome wrote in the 5^th century. That would mean Aramaic to Greek to Latin to King James English, and King James English is very different than 21^st century American English.

“St. Jerome in His Study” fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1480; in the church of Ognissanti, Florence. St. Jerome is often pictured at his desk and is the patron saint of translators.

The NRSV translation (and its newer variations) is one of the translations that does not rely solely on the Greek but intentionally went back to the oldest source material available, back to the original Aramaic. In addition, the committee of translators included persons from a variety of Christian backgrounds, including Orthodox, Catholic, and Christian, as well as Jewish. While the Greek to English translation talks about “lead us not into temptation” or “do not cause us to be tested,” when you start with Aramaic, you get phrases more like “save us from the time of trial.” Instead of God not leading us astray, it becomes more about asking God to see us through the less pleasant parts of life. It’s not about avoiding the trial; it’s survival through the trial.

Thus, the answer is no, God does not lead us into evil. God does not lead us into temptation. God does walk with us through the ups and downs of life and see us through the good and the bad, the pleasant and the parts we’d rather avoid. Life isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, or flowers and lollipops. Neither is life even keel. It’s not even about being tested. It’s about knowing that there are times you’ll love and times that will feel like ordeals and that God will see you through both. Turns out there’s a big difference between “Save us from the time of trial” and “Lead us not into temptation.”

Finally, I encourage you to do your own search on that phrase from Matthew 6:13 from Aramaic into English. No two results that I found use the same words in English. The general idea, however, seems to be around a request for God to not let us be deceived, seduced, or distracted by things that take us away from our purpose. So, no, God would not lead us into evil. And, yes, God can help us stay focused on our purpose and not waylaid by the shiny things around us. May it be so. Amen.