Apparently the Anglican Bible obscures the connection to debt and in the Lord's Prayer talks about "trespasses". That's interesting.
The Swedish Bible, in all official translations from 1526 to 2000, has something that translates to "forgive us our debt, like we forgive those indebted to us" with minor spelling and grammar changes over the centuries.
@clacke
The german version (that I know) goes "und vergib uns unsere Schuld, wie auch wir vergeben unseren Schuldigern". Schuld mostly means guilt/blame, but it can mean debt too, and here in this context it's really ambigous because "die Schuldiger" does mean "those indebted to us" mostly (it's not commmonly used anymore). I think (guilt and debt) towards god are really conflated in this version.
@clacke I just looked it up in my bible (Luther, 1984 revision) and it has exactly this wording. There's a reference though that points to Matthew 18,21. This really makes it clear that even "Schuldiger" is meant in a sense of "those that sinned against me".
But why was this reference put there? Maybe in Luther's time the meaning of "Schuldiger" was more "sinned against me" than "indebted to me"? Maybe he wanted to skew the meaning. Maybe the revisors wanted to skew the meaning? Maybe he understood it thus, but the modern interpretation of the original texts doesn't support it that much?
But the ultimate question is of course, what do the original canonical texts say/mean. But that's of course up for interpretation, seeing how old they are and that languages change (and die out).
What's your opinion @Sandra?
"After the request for bread, Matthew and Luke diverge slightly. Matthew continues with a request for debts to be forgiven in the same manner as people have forgiven those who have debts against them. Luke, on the other hand, makes a similar request about sins being forgiven in the manner of debts being forgiven between people. The word "debts" (ὀφειλήματα) does not necessarily mean financial obligations, as shown by the use of the verbal form of the same word (ὀφείλετε) in passages such as Romans 13:8. The Aramaic word ḥôbâ can mean "debt" or "sin". This difference between Luke's and Matthew's wording could be explained by the original form of the prayer having been in Aramaic. The generally accepted interpretation is thus that the request is for forgiveness of sin, not of supposed loans granted by God. Asking for forgiveness from God was a staple of Jewish prayers (e.g., Penitential Psalms). It was also considered proper for individuals to be forgiving of others, so the sentiment expressed in the prayer would have been a common one of the time."
