The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9–13 is perhaps the most frequently quoted passage in the Bible. In it, are we to request for daily bread or future bread? Many of us grew up and memorized the prayer:
“Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us today our daily bread
And forgive us our debts
As we also have forgiven those who are debtors to us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.”
I want to focus on the sixth line, which literally reads, “the bread of us, the epiousion, give to us today”
(τoν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τoν ἐπιούσιον δoς ἡμῖν σήμερον). This line begins a string of “we” petitions or first-person plurals in the Lord’s Prayer: “us…our…us our…we….us….us…us.” The only other first-person plural in the prayer is the opening phrase—”Our Father”….
What does the Greek word Epiousion mean?
Epiousion: The coming day?
The word is a hapax legomenon. It appears only once in the Bible–in the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is found in Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3. It also appears in the late first-century Christian instruction manual called the Didache (8.2) or the Teaching of the Twelve. These appear to be the word’s earliest extant instances.
The word is traditionally translated “daily,” which is thus understood in the sense of our requesting that God meet our daily needs with “bread” or food. If so, then ἐπιούσιος = epiêimi, which means “to arrive,” “take place,” and hence “the arriving day.” Alternatively, the term could be understood as the sustantivizing of epi tên ousan and thus as hêmeran or “for today” (BDAG, 376). John Chrysostom understood the sense as “daily.”
But it could mean instead what is “necessary for existence”: ἐπιούσιος = epi + ousia, referring to nature, substance. St. Jerome provides this witness.
A third option is more prominent: to “go or come”; i.e., what is coming in the future: ἐπιούσιος = epi + eimi. Alternatively, it could be derived from the feminine form epiousa, which means the next day or coming day (Acts 16:11; 20:15; 21:18; see Ceslas Spicq and James Ernest, TLNT 2:54-57).
If in the future sense, this aspect of the Lord’s Prayer may encourage the disciples to pray for the “bread of the future” today. The futuristic food may exemplify the believers’ participation in coming messianic banquet at the Second Coming (cf. Matt. 8:11–12; 26:29; Rev. 19:9). The future heavenly food is to be requested in the here and now by this petition.
If so, then the “food” would seem to be something supernatural or of spiritual sustenance, such as miracles or a taste of the futuristic kingdom in this day and age.
“Give us today our daily bread” or “Give us the bread of the future today?”
So which view is it? I think I. H. Marshall’s compromise may be right:
“The food which God provides is food for the body and soul; he gives men what they need and he gives them a foretaste of the rich provision available in the kingdom of God — and he does so each and every day in answer to their prayers” (Marshall, Luke, 460).
Have you prayed the Lord’s Prayer in faith recently?
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