Forgive has proved remarkably difficult to translate in many languages in which there is no one word that can be used. However, there is usually an idiom or some figure of speech that can express the concept of forgiveness. “Forget the wrong,” “no longer see the wrong,” “put the wrong behind one’s back,” “lift the wrong from between us”—these are just a few ways we have seen “forgiveness” expressed.

Debts (so most translations) represents a literal rendering of the Greek word. However, commentators note that the word is here used figuratively for “sins,” and one standard lexicon gives the meaning “sin” (in this passage the plural form “sins” is used). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “Forgive us our guilt as we also pardon each one who has done us wrong.” The translator must not translate Luke in place of Matthew; however, it may be worth noting that in the parallel passage Luke uses the word for “sins.” Both New English Bible and New American Bible have “wrongs,” as does Good News Translation. If translators render debts literally, it is entirely likely readers will think of debts we owe people, what we have to pay back because we borrowed something. Therefore “sins” or “wrongs” will be much better.

These are wrongs against God, and some translations have had to make this clear, as in “forgive our wrongs against you.” (Of course, if translators use “sins,” it may not be necessary to add “against you,” since in many languages sins are by definition wrongs against God.) It may be necessary to expand “wrongs” to “wrongs we have done,” as Good News Translation has done. Other languages might say “our wrong actions.”

In the clause As we also have forgiven, the pronoun we is emphatic. The verb have forgiven represents an aorist indicative in Greek. A number of translations give it an habitual or timeless force (Good News Translation “as we forgive”). Others specify that the action is past in reference to the petition for God to forgive (see Revised Standard Version). But the function of the aorist indicative is not simply to indicate past action. And so it may then be used here as a means of emphasizing that the act of forgiveness is an accomplished fact. This means translators do have the choice between “as we have already forgiven” and “as we generally (or, habitually) forgive.”

The word as is important. Some translators have taken it to mean “because” or “since.” But it is better to have “in the same way” or “just as.” That is, we ask God to forgive us in the same manner we forgive others.

Note, also, that we forgive others for their wrongs against us. They are our debtors. This can be expressed “for the wrongs they have done to us,” “for the bad things they have done to us,” or “for the wrongs against us they have committed.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .