My wife asked me a good question last night, “Why aren’t you talking about “For thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever.”

Simple Answer: It isn’t in the original text.

Why did so many of us (including me) learn it?  Well, it is still a Biblical Prayer, so its not bad or anything.  And, the King James had it in there.  Archaeology continues to reveal older and older texts, and it just isn’t in the old manuscripts.  Here is how the ESV Study Bible explains it.

In almost every one of the books I have read the author includes a chapter on “For Thine…”, although they usually add that it isn’t in the early text (meaning: we don’t know if Jesus said it).  Then they write on it anyway  🙂

NT Wright, one of the best living Theologian and certainly the best Biblical Historian writes that Jesus, as a young Jewish Man, would certainly have ended his prayer with “For Thine…”  When I pray the words of the Lord’s Prayer I pray those words, but when I use it the way Jesus said to “Pray this way“, I do not use that phrase.

So, I am not preaching on it for all of those reasons.  And, I have to cut enough stuff out without adding to the text itself!