Forgive Us Our Trespasses
The Phrase Today "Forgive us our trespasses" is one of the most universally recognized phrases in the English-speaking world, known even to those with no active religious practice. It is recited in churches every Sunday, but it has also percolated into secular speech and writing as a phrase of moral petition or ironic self-examination. The legal term "trespass" maintains an independent life in property and tort law while the spiritual term continues in liturgical use - the two meanings constantly enriching and complicating each other.
Biblical Origin The phrase comes from Matthew 6:12 within the Lord's Prayer, which Jesus gave as a model of prayer: *"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."* Matthew's version uses the word "debts" (Greek: opheilema), while the parallel in Luke 11:4 uses "sins" (Greek: hamartia). The traditional English liturgical version - "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" - derives from the influence of William Tyndale's 1526 translation, which introduced "trespasses" as the rendering of the Greek. The KJV retained "debts" in Matthew but the Tyndale liturgical form had already embedded itself in the Book of Common Prayer and remained the spoken version of the Lord's Prayer for English-speaking Christianity.
Semantic Drift The word "trespass" had a complex dual life in English from the beginning. In law it meant unauthorized entry on another's property or a civil wrong. In theology it meant sin, moral transgression, or offense against God. The Lord's Prayer petition held both meanings simultaneously, and the interplay shaped both domains. Theologically, the petition introduced a contractual or legal framework into forgiveness: sins are debts or trespasses that require cancellation. Legally, the theological weight of "trespass" as moral offense gave extra gravity to the civil concept. Over time the theological sense became primary in religious contexts while the legal sense remained in property and tort law, but the two meanings have never entirely separated.
Historical Usage The Book of Common Prayer (1549) embedded the "trespasses" form in Anglican worship, guaranteeing its repetition across centuries by millions of English speakers. The phrase influenced the development of equity law in England, where the concept of moral debt and forgiveness intersected with legal remedies. In American law, "trespass" remains a fundamental tort category. The theological petition also shaped popular moral philosophy: the conditional structure - forgive us as we forgive others - became a foundational principle of Christian ethics about the reciprocity of forgiveness, much discussed by philosophers and theologians from Aquinas to Arendt.
Cross-Linguistic Reach The Lord's Prayer has been translated into more languages than any other text, and the word choices made in each translation reveal the theological and linguistic priorities of translators. Luther's German uses *Schulden* (debts), emphasizing the economic metaphor. French uses *offenses* (offenses). Spanish uses *deudas* (debts) in Catholic liturgy. Each translation has shaped that language's vocabulary of moral failing and forgiveness. The tension between "debts," "sins," "trespasses," and "offenses" as translations of the Greek is itself a major topic in biblical scholarship and comparative theology.
Cultural Usage The phrase appears in literary and cinematic confessional scenes, often recited at moments of moral reckoning. Graham Greene's novels frequently invoke Lord's Prayer language at points of Catholic conscience. In film and drama, the phrase is used to frame scenes of seeking or granting forgiveness. The conditional clause - "as we forgive those who trespass against us" - has been the subject of extensive ethical, psychological, and theological analysis. Philosophers such as Hannah Arendt, who wrote influentially about forgiveness as a political faculty, traced the concept back to Jesus's teaching as preserved in this petition. The phrase thus bridges liturgy, law, ethics, and literature in a uniquely dense nexus of meaning.
Bible References (2)
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