ton arton hēmōn ton epiousion (τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον)
- Language: Greek
- Romanized: ton arton hēmōn ton epiousion
- Original script: τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον
- Gloss: our epiousios bread
The Greek form of the Lord’s Prayer petition in Matthew. The argument of Our Daily Bread turns on the adjective epiousios attached to the noun artos here.
Concordance Aid
Reading Note
Example passages: Matthew 6:11; Luke 11:3; the Lord’s Prayer in Greek; Jerome’s Latin renderings.
The full phrase keeps noun and adjective together. It is not just “bread,” and it is not just an obscure adjective. It is the prayer’s bread under pressure: ordinary, necessary, future, and more than ordinary all at once.
Translation Range
Our daily bread, our necessary bread, our bread for the coming day, our supersubstantial bread.
Not To Be Confused With
Do not treat the phrase as if only artos matters. The interpretive pressure comes from epiousios modifying the bread.
Translator’s Choice
Every English rendering chooses a theology of time and need. “Daily” is devotional and familiar; “coming-day” is eschatological; “supersubstantial” is theological and liturgical.
Modern Caution
This phrase should not be pressed into a simple food rule. It is a prayer before it is a dietary argument, and its meanings move through language, worship, and reception history.
Related entries
- Artos — bread, loaf
- Epiousios — the disputed adjective
- Quotidianum — Jerome’s Lucan rendering
- Supersubstantialem — Jerome’s Matthean rendering