The Story Behind My Books: The Lord's Prayer (Book #6)
Smyth & Helwys Supplement Series
**Substack Series**
I am kicking off a new series (inspired by Mike Bird’s Substack series on his previous work): “The Story Behind My Books” (2010-2025). Fifteen years is a good time for a rear-view mirror perspective. The general discussion of a book will be free for everyone, but when I get into what I think I might have done wrong or what I might change now, I provide for paid subscribers only. I don’t tend to dwell on regrets, but I will have something to say for most books.
Book #6: The Lord’s Prayer Commentary
A couple years after I published my Colossians commentary with the Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary series, I was invited to write for the new “Supplement Series” they were planning. This new series was designed to tackle short texts or key biblical topics that would serve pastors and students well. I was thrilled to write for Helwys again, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do: a commentary on the Lord’s Prayer. I have always been intrigued by this text and I appreciate the worldwide commitment to the LP throughout the centuries and the unity it has brought to the Christian faith through time and space.
It was so much fun to go into a lot of depth on a very short passage. I could get into OT influences (like the Shema and the Psalter), and second temple liturgy and prayers (like the Jewish Eighteen Benedictions). I did a deep dive into Matthew’s version of the LP versus Luke’s shorter version. I did some work on reception history in the Church Fathers and modern scholarship (including theological perspectives of Barth and Bonhoeffer). I think it was with this commentary that I finally found my comfortable stride with researching and writing commentaries.
I felt so comfortable I got to play around more with fun ideas. Like the Lord’s Prayer in politics and the news. And I really enjoyed how various cultures adapted the LP and oriented towards their own context and situation.
What would I do differently? I am pretty pleased with this commentary. I did see in reviews that I didn’t explain much of how the ending (“For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, Amen”) got added to how we pray the LP. But otherwise I am satisfied with the book.
I am now the editor of the Supplement series and it is shaping up well. The series got stalled by the pandemic, but we will have new volumes coming out in the next five to ten years. Here is another released volume from 2019: Mark McEntire, The Internal Conversation of the Old Testament.
