Give us this day our daily bread....
This petition is in the center of the prayer Jesus presented to His disciples when they asked Him to teach them how to pray.
The first three petitions relate to God....Holy be Your name....Thy Kingdom come...Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven....
The three following requests relate to man, and this first one is about daily bread.
The Jews had 18 daily prayers - they were called Amidah - standing prayers, because the Jews prayed them while standing.
These prayers existed while Jesus was living on the earth.
In the middle of the 18 prayers, number 9, is a petition that the year may be fruitful.
Bread is the staple food for the Middle East, and much of the world, and symbolizes all the food we eat.
Give us this day our daily bread....
Interesting and provocative insights from Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, by Kenneth Bailey:
"But the word daily presents a problem. In English it is traditionally translated, "Give us this day our daily bread." The phrase this day is clear. We are not asking for bread for next year or for retirement, but for "this day."
"The problem is with the word epiousios, which for centuries English versions have translated daily.
"The problem is that this particular word appears no where else in the Greek language.
"Origen, a famous Greek scholar of the early third century, wrote that he could not find this word in use among the Greeks, nor was it used by private individuals.
"The only way to discover the meaning of a word in any language is to see how it is used. But if a particular word appears only once in the entire history of that language, the translator has a special problem.
"...If in the third century Origen did not know what the word meant, what hope have we in the twenty-first century? Keep in mind that Origin lived in Alexandria, Egypt, which was one of the two great centers of Greek learning in the ancient world."
Is the problem unsolvable?
"...If in the third century Origen did not know what the word meant, what hope have we in the twenty-first century? Keep in mind that Origin lived in Alexandria, Egypt, which was one of the two great centers of Greek learning in the ancient world."
Is the problem unsolvable?
More in Part 2...
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