"give us this day our
daily bread": τον άρτον ήμων τόν επιούσιον δίδου ήμιν το καθ' ήμεραν,
lit., "our essential bread give to us each day," wherein επιουσιον is translated
"daily" by the DR and others (ASV ESV KJV NAB NAS NIV NJB NRS RSV, et
al), but it is an adjective describing what kind of bread, thus we could say it
is "everyday bread" or the "essential bread" for that day. Additionally,
Luke use the present imperative di8ov ("give us"), which means,
"continue to give us," which is reiterated in the subsequent phrase,
το καθ' ήμεραν (DR: “this day"), which is adverbial and thus the kaθ'
(short for κατα) acts
distributively and so means "day by day." Conversely, Matthew (6:4)
uses the aorist imperative δος ("give us") which means, "give us
quickly" or "give us as soon as possible." This shows that two
gospel writers provide different nuances to the same statement. Looking more
deeply into επιούσιον, the derivative, επιούση, appears 5x in the NT, all in
Acts (7:21: επιούση ήμέρα: "coming day"; 16:11; 20:15; 21:18: επιουση
“coming"; 23:11: επιούση νυκτι “following night”). According to THR,
Origen testifies (de orat. 27) that επιουσιον "was not in use in ordinary
speech, and accordingly seems to have been coined by the Evangelists themselves
.... Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, explain the word by bread for
sustenance, which serves to sustain life, deriving the word from ούσια, after
the analogy of έξουσιος, ένουσιος. But ουσία very rarely, and only in
philosophic language, is equivalent to ünapgic ["existence"] as in
Plato, Theact., p. 185 c. (app. to: τό μή είναι), Aristotle, de part. anim. i.
1 (η γαρ γένεσις ένεκα της ουσίας έστιν, άλλ' ούχ ή ουσία ένεκα της γενεσεως ["for the beginning
is due to what the substance is, not the substance due to the beginning"],
for other examples see Bonitz's Index to Aristotle, p. 544), and generally
denotes either essence, real nature, or substance, property, resources. On this
account some scholars "prefer to derive επιούσιον from έπειναι (and in
particular from the participle έπων, thus έπουσιος for έποντιος, see below) “to
be present," and to understand it as "bread which is ready at hand or
suffices," so that Christ is conjectured to have said in the Chaldean:
"לחמא דחקנא (cf.לחם חקי" ("my allowance of bread," e.g., Pr
30:8: "give me only the necessaries of life") or something similar.
But this opinion, like the preceding, encounters the great objection (to
mention only one) that, although the iota i' in èni is retained before a vowel
in certain words (as έπιορκος, επιορκέω, επιόσσομαι, etc. (cf. Lightfoot, I.
sec. 1), yet in επειναι and
words derived from it such as επουσια, επουσιωδης, it is always elided."
Still other scholars, "comparing the words εκούσιος, εθελούσιος, γερούσιος
(from έκων, εθελων, γέρων, for έκοντιος, εθελοντιος, γεροντιος, cf. Kuhner, 1:
sec. 63, 3 and sec. 334, 1 Anm. 2), conjecture that the adjective επιούσιος is
formed from επιών, επιούσα, with reference to the familiar expression ή επιούσα
(see άπειμι), and άρτος επιούσιος is equivalent to άρτος της έπιουσης ήμέρας,
food for the morrow, i.e., necessary or sufficient food. Thus, επιουσιον and
σημερον, admirably answer to each other, and that state of mind is portrayed
which, piously contented with food sufficing from one day to the next, in
praying to God for sustenance does not go beyond the absolute necessity of the
nearest future. This explanation is also recommended by the fact that in the
Gospel According to the Hebrews, as Jerome testifies, the word επιούσιος was
represented by the Aramaic -מחר; hence, it would seem that Christ used the
Chaldaic expression: לחמא די למחר... ["the bread of coming" or
"the bread of tomorrow"] ... Nor is the prayer, so understood, at
variance with the mind of Christ as expressed in Mt 6:34, but on the contrary
harmonizes with it finely; for his hearers are bidden to ask of God, in order
that they may themselves be relieved of anxiety for the morrow." Jerome,
however, seems to be inconsistent in his translation of επιουσιον. In Mt 6:11,
Jerome translates it as supersubstantialem, which is "super-substance"
in English. But in Lk 11:3, Jerome uses quotidianum, which is the Latin word
for "daily." (Robert A. Sungenis, Commentary on the Catholic Douay-Rheims
New Testament from the Original Greek and Latin, 4 vols. [State Line, Pa.:
Catholic Apologetics International Publishing, 2024], 2:198-99 n. 372)
