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Old & New Testament Greek Lexical Dictionary Greek Lexicon
Strong's #1967 - ἐπιούσιος
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- the bread of our necessity
- the bread that suffices for each day
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ἐπιούσιος, ον,
either, sufficient for the coming (and so current) day, (ἐπιοῦσα (sc. ἡμέρα)), or, for the day (ἐπὶ τὴν οὖσαν (sc. ἡμέραν)), ἄρτος Matthew 6:11, Luke 11:3; τὰ ἐ. dub. sens. (cf. Phil.Woch. 47.889) in Sammelb. 5224.20. (Very rare word in Origen's day, De Orat. 27.7.)
ἐπιούσιος, ἐπιούσιον, a word found only in Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3, in the phrase ἄρτος ἐπιούσιος ([Peshitta] Syriac oNQNSd 4MXL [
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*† ἐπιούσιος , -ον
(cf. περιούσιος , [in LXX for H5459, etc.]),
found only in the phrase ἄρτος ἐ ., EV, daily; R, mg., for the coming day: Matthew 6:11, Luke 11:3. (Several derivations find support, each pointing to a different meaning.
1. < ἐπιοῦσα (sc. ἡμέρα ) (or, < ἐπὶ τὴν ἰοῦσαν (sc. ήμέραν ), Zorell, s.v.), hence, for the morrow or for the coming day (R, mg.).
2. (a) < ἐπί + οὐσία , hence, for subsistence, needful (Am. R, mg.);
(b) < ἐπί + εἶναι in fern. ptcp. form, hence, pertaining to (the day). For renderings of versions and views of various writers, v. reff. in DB, ext., 36 f.; DCG, ii, 58 f., 62a; ICC on Lk, l.c. The EV, daily, is based on the Vg. (Lk; OL, Mt, Lk, quotidianus). "It is difficult not to think that τὸν ἐ . rests upon misunderstanding of an original Aramaic phrase, or upon a Greek corruption" (ICC on Mt, l.c.; cf. also Cremer, 239).†
Copyright © 1922 by G. Abbott-Smith, D.D., D.C.L.. T & T Clarke, London.
The papyri have as yet shed no clear light upon this difficult word (Matthew 6:11, Luke 11:3), which was in all probability a new coinage by the author of the Greek Q to render his Aramaic original. The unlikely derivation from ἐπί and οὐσία is not supported by the papyri where οὐσία generally means ";property,"; ";estate,"; the abstract sense being confined to certain magical documents (see s.v.); and it is much more probable that ἐπιούσιος should be connected with ἡ ἐπιοῦσα [ἡμέρα ], ";the immediately following day,"; in accordance with the sense of ἐπιέναι ";to come close after,"; instare (cf. Acts 16:11 and P Petr III. 56 (b).12 αὐθήμερον ἢ τῆι ἐ ̣π ̣ι ̣[ού ]σηι, cited s.v. ἔπειμι). That ἡ ἐπιοῦσα is not always equivalent to ἡ αὔριον is clearly shown by the opening scene of Plato’s Crito (44 A), where τῆς ἐπιούσης ἡμέρας refers to the same day as τήμερον (43 D). The desire to emphasize immediacy made the translator dissatisfied with τὸν τῆς αὔριον or the like as a rendering of the Aramaic before him : he followed a right instinct in coining a new adjective from the common term for ";the coming day."; Lightfoot supports this derivation in his well-known discussion (On a Fresh Revision.3, p. 217 ff.), and it is adopted as certain by Schmiedel (Winer-Schmiedel Gr. i. p. 136 ff.), Deissmann (NTliche Studien Heinrici dargebracht, 1914, p. 115 ff.), and Robertson Gr. p. 159.
On the other hand Debrunner (Glotta iv. (1913) p. 249 ff. : cf. Blass-Debrunner p. 75) prefers to regard ἐπιούσιος as a substantivizing of ἐπὶ τὴν οὖσαν [ἡμέραν ], ";for the current day,"; comparing ἐπιμήνιος (Polybius), ";for the current month,"; ἐφημέριος, etc.; and in spite of the valid objection that ἡ οὖσα, unlike ἡ ἐπιοῦσα, has not been found with ἡμέρα understood, he has obtained the weighty support of Thumb (Brugmann-Thumb, p. 675). Moulton, from whose Grammar (II. § 120 b) the above brief account has been epitomized, gives his vote for ἡ ἐπιοῦσα as being on the whole the most probable etymology. See also Klostermann ad Matthew 6:11 (in HZNT), and cf. ZNTW i. p. 250 ff., vii. p. 266 ff.
[Supplemental from 1930 edition]
Add JBL xliv. (1925), p. 215.
Copyright © 1914, 1929, 1930 by James Hope Moulton and George Milligan. Hodder and Stoughton, London.
Derivative Copyright © 2015 by Allan Loder.