Expert: Edward Bode - 11/14/2005

Question
In the "Our Father" certainly in Latin, French and Dutch as known to me, the translation of Christ's words mentions the word heaven once in plural and once in singular.
See http://www.sspx.co.uk/prayers.php?id=119
(1) Pater noster qui es in CAELIS => plural
(2) Fiat voluntas tua sicut in CAELO (=> singular) et in terra.
Is there a different meaning between the two? If not, why is this?
Apparently the English and German versions do not make that distinction.

Answer
I wrote to a friend who is an internationally-known scholar on the NT.  Here is his response:
The phrase that you are referring to occurs
only in Matt 6:9-13 and is not in Luke's parallel.  On the other hand, the Didache, another parallel, does have the singular.  The Hebrew word for "heaven" is a plural and in the literature led to a distinguishing of levels or stages of the heavens; John L. McKenzie writes of three, five, seven or ten levels.  In some passages, God's dwelling is said to be the "the heaven of heavens" (Deut 10:14; 1 Kgs 8:227; Ps 148:4).  Matthew's plural would have the advantage of covering all of these possibilities, and would be the more difficulty reading (as I see it).  In addition, Matthew has drawn a strong connection between "heaven" and
God; for instance, out of reverence for the name of God, he generally does not refer to the "kingdom of God", but to the "kingdom of heaven."  So, in one sense, "heaven" would be equal to "heavens"; nonetheless, the plural would have the advantage of covering all possibilities and so eliminating any suggestion that God does not have dominion over all the heavens.  For Matthew, whether singular or plural, as a possible substitute for God's name, it would also carry a nuance of "divine."   


Bernard, you have brought to my attention a puzzle that had escaped me.
The original text of the Our Father [Greek of Mt 6:]also uses a plural and a singular.  That would be the source of the Latin and subsequent translations.  However, the early Greek version of the Didache [late first century AD]uses two singulars; were they puzzled as you are and desired to remove the problem?
I have checked several commentaries on Matthew without finding anyone who speaks to your question.
My thought on the plural and the singular:  Plural is the tradtional way of speaking of God in the heavens; the singular might be an adaptation because of the singular "earth", which precedes heaven.
The singular and the plural of the prayer do not have different meanings.  Possibly, one could avoid confusion by translating the opening phrase as "Our heavenly Father" but that would fly in the face of 2000 years of traditional translations.
If you would wish some further thoughts, please feel free to write again.
Best wishes.