“Our Father who art in
heaven, Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as
it is in heaven.”
Two weeks ago, we started
a series on the Lord’s Prayer. Just a
quick review:
-Abba: Father, Daddy, intimate yet transcendent.
-Holy Name: His presence, His holy character be on us.
-Kingdom: With Jesus his kingdom is here with us,
veiled. Some see it and some do not and
one day all will see it.
-Will: His will rule over our will. His will is good. There is pleasure and purpose in His will.
We move to the second
part of the prayer. We move from “your”
to “us”, from “your name, your Kingdom, your will” to “give us, forgive us,
deliver us.”
Bread is a basic need. In the Western world, bread is not as
necessary as it used to be. Bread for
the Middle Eastern world is the basic food.
Everything can go up in price, but the price of bread should relatively
stay stable, because it is the basic nourishment of people. Although bread can also represent the body of
Christ, which means the spiritual nourishment, yet I believe Jesus meant the
basic need of our life. We can pray to
God for our basic needs. We can pray for
the economy. Remember the definition of
economy: the management of our house. Like Psalm 23, we asking the Lord to prepare
our table, because He is our shepherd who provides. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in
want.”
Let us be honest, do we
need daily bread? We have more than
daily bread. There are those who do not
or did not have today’s or yesterday’s bread.
How about tomorrow’s bread? Some
are praying this prayer with an empty stomach.
Some are praying this prayer with a full stomach when in fact they need
to go on a diet.
So what exactly is Jesus
asking in this request? What does that
imply in our lives?
We will start examining the word “daily”. The Greek word is epiousion. The problem with this word is that only here
it occurs and no other place in the Bible.
In fact, in Greek writings we find this word only here. Origen, a Greek
scholar 200 AD, writes that he cannot find this word in classical or colloquial
Greek.
There are two
interpretations for this word: time
or amount.
Dr. K Bailey, my NT
professor, compared several early translations.
He studied the 2nd century Syriac
translation, the translation of Cyril of Jerusalem and that of Jerome who came
from
Our epiousion
Bread
Amount (kanag) Time
(+amanag)
“Needed” or
“Subsistence” “For
tomorrow” or “For Today”
Bedk5
abrovsd5 pavarar Wa.ovan5
a3s0rovan
As we read different
ancient translations, we find different interpretations.
- Our English translation implies time. “Give us our daily bread.”
- Jerome, a catholic
scholar from the 5th century found an ancient Hebrew gospel. He found there that this word meant the
bread for tomorrow, the Messianic banquet, when God is providing the bread in
the Eucharistic understanding. “Give us the bread of tomorrow.” (Footnote New Living Translation and English
Standard Version)
-In the classical
Armenian Krapar Bible, which is called the Queen
Translation, the word is hanabazort. It means two things: daily amenorya, or continually, sharounag.
-In the Arabic version
from 2nd and 3rd century we find Khoubzouna
kafafouna which means “just needed.” This word means subsistence, just enough,
just needed.
However, all translations
agree on “Give us this day”. All
agree that Jesus asked the Father to provide our basic needs of life for
today. “Give us …. bread today, aysor al mezi dour,
or dour mez aysor.”
We will continue in English.