Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Today an attender shared his frustration with the Lords Prayer.  

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come. 
Thy will be done,
On earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us. 
And lead us not into temptation, 
But deliver us from evil. 
For thine is the kingdom, 
The power, and the glory, 
For ever and ever. 
Amen.

Why, he said, would the word bread appear in a prayer?  Such a mundane thing to ask for!  Unless the bread is specially leavened. 

The word for bread, in this passage, is epiousios (ἐπιούσιος) and it is an hapax legomenon (a word that only occurs only once within a context) found only in the Lord's Prayer.

The Greek word was translated to mean bread, but its original meaning could also be interpreted as "spiritual nourishment,", "the revelation of Jesus," or in Catholic teachings the "supersubstantial bread or eucharist."  

When read with this context in mind, we can recite the Lord's Prayer and ask for our daily bread in a whole new light.  As Quakers we sit in quiet waiting for word of God.  Our epiousios.

​Joseph Olejak