Matthew 6:11

A 19th century depiction of this verse

Matthew 6:11 is the eleventh verse of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and is part of the Sermon on the Mount. This verse is the third one of the Lord's Prayer, one of the best known parts of the entire New Testament. This brief verse contains the fourth petition to God.

Text

The original Koine Greek, according to Westcott and Hort, reads:

τον αρτον ημων τον επιουσιον δος ημιν σημερον

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

Give us this day our daily bread.

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

Give us today our daily bread.

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 6:11

This petition marks a change the character of the prayer. The first three petitions called for the glory of God in the second person. This petition, and the two that follow, call for personal needs to be met in the second person plural. Unlike the earlier parts of the prayer, there is no clear parallel to this one in Jewish prayers of that era.

Meaning

What precisely Jesus intends by this part of the prayer has long been debated. Boring notes three major schools of interpretation. The most basic and literal is the need for bread in basic life and survival. In this era bread was the most important food, especially for the poor and dispossessed segments of society that Jesus references frequently in the Sermon on the Mount. Boring believes that while there may be other metaphorical meanings, this basic meaning of bread as sustenance would always have been read into the verse. Building on the centrality of bread to survival, this verse can also be read as a metaphor, not a specific reference to God giving us bread, but to providing all those things needed in life. Without God life would be impossible.

It is also possible to read an eschatological message into the verse. In the New Testament bread is common "symbol of eschatological blessedness."^[1] It is linked to the mana provided by God to the Israelites during Exodus, and bread thus represents the reward the faithful can expect from God at the end of times. This understanding was a popular one in the early church. The metaphor of the Kingdom of Heaven as a divine banquet was a common one at the time. Schweizer doubts this interpretation, however. Throughout the gospel Jesus has been portrayed as caring for the daily needs of his followers, and his miraculously providing them with bread is a symbol of this. Schweizer feels bread was a very real need, not a metaphoric one.^[2]

The third interpretation is that this verse is referencing the bread of the Last Supper and the eucharist, the accepted view of the Catholic Church. Boring disagrees with this interpretation noting that nowhere in the Gospel does the author of Matthew seem to have any knowledge of or interest in the rituals of the eucharist. Historically the ritual only developed some time after the Gospel was written.^[3]

Epiousios

Main article: Epiousios

The debate over meaning is complicated by the absence of an understanding of the word translated as daily. In the Koine Greek this is epiousios. In the entire Koine Greek literature this word occurs only in this verse, its counterpart in Luke. This problem has been noted as early as Origen, who did not recognize epiousios as a Greek word.^[4] Thus translators and scholars are not certain exactly what it means, and there a number of theories.

Etymologically epiousios seems to be related to the Greek word ousia, meaning substance. For early Catholic writers this was part of the reason the verse was connected this to the Eucharist and transubstantiation. St. Jerome translated the word as meaning supersubstantial, and this meaning appears in the Vulgate. Modern scholars tend to reject this translation as do Protestants, and their Bible translations chose other interpretations.

Substance can also be understood as existence, and thus another translation is as "necessary for existence." This supports the verse as a call for God to provide the bread that is necessary for survival. It is unlikely that epiousios could mean "necessary for existence," as this would violate standard rules of word formation. Koine Greek also has several far more common terms for this idea, and one of these is more likely have been used.

A third interpretation is that epiousios means "for tomorrow" and this verse could thus be read as "gives us the bread for the coming day." The second century Gospel of the Nazareans writes the prayer in this manner, and the writer of this early document, even is it is Apocryphal, would likely have known the meaning of the word. Luz considers this to be the most likely translation. The main problem with this translation is that it seems to conflict with Matthew 6:31. Etymologically it could also mean "today's bread", this would not conflict with 6:31, but there is no external evidence for it.^[5]

Schweizer notes that some scholars believe epiousios means for tomorrow, but that this obscure word refers specifically to an eschatological tomorrow, supporting the idea that this verse is a specific reference to the ends times.^[6]

The most common translation in Bibles remains daily. Most scholars do not see any evidence for this translation, but as Hendriksen notes, without any real proof for alternate readings there is no real need to abandon the traditional translation that readers are familiar with. Daily is also quite close to both the "necessary for survival" and "for the coming day" translations, which are the most popular among scholars.^[7]

References

1. ^ Boring, Eugene "Gospel of Matthew." The New Interpreter's Bible, volume 8 Abingdon, 1995
2. ^ Schweizer, Eduard. The Good News According to Matthew. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975
3. ^ Boring, Eugene "Gospel of Matthew." The New Interpreter's Bible, volume 8 Abingdon, 1995
4. ^ Davies, W.D. and Dale C. Allison, Jr. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew. Edinburgh : T. & T. Clark, 1988-1997. pg. 94
5. ^ Luz, Ulrich. Matthew 1-7: A Commentary. trans. Wilhlem C. Linss. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortess, 1989.
6. ^ Schweizer, Eduard. The Good News According to Matthew. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975
7. ^ Hendriksen, William. The Gospel of Matthew. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976

Gospel of Matthew
Preceded by: Matthew 6:10	Chapter 6	Followed by: Matthew 6:12