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From: credmond@watmath.UUCP (Chris Redmond)
Newsgroups: mod.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Meditations/Questions on The Lord's Prayer
Message-ID: <6255@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Thu, 16-Oct-86 03:27:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.6255
Posted: Thu Oct 16 03:27:16 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Oct-86 18:52:47 EDT
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Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
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In article <6193@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> djo@ptsfd.UUCP writes:
>
>The question that finally drove me to this posting is this:  What does
>"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done" actually mean?  In particular, "Thy
>kingdom come" seems terribly opaque; does this mean
>	-Your kingdom is coming?
>	-Your kingdom has come?
>	-When your kingdom comes (then your will will be done)?
>
>Or what?  Beats me.  Maybe I'm just trying too hard and I've missed something
>obvious; it wouldn't be the first time THAT's happened.

"Come" is a subjunctive verb, something that was much commoner in
1611 (date of the King James translation of the Bible) than it is now.

Current English would express the same meaning as "May your kingdom come",
which in this case I suspect implies "May it come quickly," or perhaps
"May I be a helper in making it come."

"Be" in the next phrase, "Thy will be done," is the same kind of verb:
"may it be done," or "may I help to do it," in other words.