The Word "Daily" in the Lord's Prayer Appears Nowhere Else in Greek

Did you know the word translated "daily" in the Lord's Prayer — said by millions of Christians every week — is a Greek word that exists nowhere else in the entire body of ancient Greek literature?

The petition is Matthew 6:11 (with a parallel in Luke 11:3): "Give us this day our daily bread." The Greek phrase is ton arton hēmōn ton epiousion (τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον). The word translated "daily" is epiousios (ἐπιούσιος).

Epiousios is what classical scholars call a hapax legomenon — a word that appears only once (or in this case, only in two parallel passages — Matthew and Luke). Search the entire surviving corpus of ancient Greek: Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, the Septuagint, contemporary Hellenistic writings, papyri, inscriptions. Epiousios shows up nowhere except in the Lord's Prayer. Origen (3rd century) — one of the most learned Greek-speaking Christians of antiquity — explicitly noted that the word was not found in any other Greek author and appeared to be a new coinage.

Scholars have proposed multiple etymologies and meanings, none decisively settled:

1. Daily — from epi + ousios derived from "ousia" (substance/being), interpreted as "for today's existence." The most common modern English translation.
2. For the coming day / tomorrow — from epi + iousēs (going forward, future), perhaps related to "give us tomorrow's bread today" — a petition for the eschatological future provision now.
3. Necessary for existence / essential — from epi + ousia (substance), interpreted as the bread necessary for our being.
4. Supersubstantial — Latin Jerome's Vulgate Matthew translation: panem nostrum supersubstantialem. Suggests bread that is more than ordinary food — possibly Eucharistic.

The most fascinating historical detail is what Jerome did with the word when he translated the Bible into Latin around AD 400. In Matthew 6:11 he wrote panem nostrum supersubstantialem da nobis hodie — "give us this day our supersubstantial bread." In Luke 11:3 he wrote panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie — "give us this day our daily bread." Same Greek word. Two completely different Latin translations. Jerome — the most learned biblical translator of the patristic age — couldn't decide what epiousios meant.

This isn't a translation error. It's a translation honesty. Epiousios is genuinely opaque, and Jerome's double-translation acknowledges what every honest scholar since has acknowledged: we're not sure exactly what Jesus asked us to pray for.

The Reformed reading doesn't see this as a problem. It sees it as part of what petitionary prayer is. Calvin's commentary on the Lord's Prayer treats the petition for bread as including both physical and spiritual sustenance — "everything that is necessary for the sustenance of the present life" plus "spiritual nourishment." The opacity of epiousios allows the petition to cover everything we need without our having to specify everything we need. We ask for the bread; the Father knows what He's giving.

Every Christian has prayed this prayer. No one knows exactly what they're asking for. The bread is a mystery. The Father knows what He's giving.

(See ep31 for the related reveal that the Lord's Prayer doxology was added later, and ep42 for the reveal that "trespasses" is Tyndale's paraphrase of "debts" (opheilēmata). The Lord's Prayer mini-thread: ep31 → ep42 → ep47.)

📖 Passages: Matthew 6:9–13, Luke 11:2–4