our daily bread
This brief article proposes a translation that is, I believe, more accurate than the one in the traditional KJV Lord's Prayer saying, "Give us this day our daily bread" (Mt 6:11 - KJV). Unlike in English where adjectives usually come before nouns, as in "the big dog," adjectives in Greek often come after nouns, "the dog, the big." Here, from the Lord's Prayer in Greek word order and with its Greek compound words hyphenated and underlined, this verse reads in English: "For-the bread of-us for-the next-day, give to-us this-day(light)."
In this verse the phrase (acc.) NT3588 - "for-the" + NT1967 - "next-day" is traditionally translated in English as "daily". However, there is a different Greek idiom for the word "daily". The Greek idiom for the English word "daily" is NT2596 "according-to/down" + NT2250 "day", as found in Lk11:3 and Act16:5. So, NT1967's more accurate meaning is just what the Greek says, "next-day / tomorrow." The only time this word, NT1967, is used in the New Testament is in the Lord's Prayer in both Matthew and Luke, and it makes an important but subtle difference.
There are three words of interest in this verse as translated by the TENT Lexicon:
1) NT1967 -
Greek compound of NT1909 - "to/toward (Act15:19) + NT3776 -"being/substance"). It concerns what is "coming" or "about to be", and as an adjective with the article in the accusative case, it means "for-the coming/next ..."
2) NT2250 -
day (Mk14:12; Jn12:1 ) / daylight (Lk22:66; Ac2:15; 1Th5:4 ) [fig.: time (Mt10:15; 2Pet3:10 ) / idiom#1: neut. of NT3588 - "the-thing" + NT2596 - "according-to" + NT2250 - "day" = "daily" (Lk11:3; Act16:5 )
3) NT4594 -
compound of NT3588 + NT2250 = (this-)day(-light) (daylight hours) [fig.: today], adv. 41x, (with a prefix from a prim. stem) - 'this' + NT2250 - "day(-light) = this - day(-light))
Greek case endings carried by an article ("the") before a noun, help determine what English prepositions to use in translation. In this verse, the accusative case can be translated as "for" or "concerning" where both 'the bread' and 'the next day' are in the accusative case, and so are translated as "for the bread" and "for the coming day/for the next day/for tomorrow."
The first part of this verse in Greek says, "for-the bread of-us for-the next day...". "For the next day" is here used as an adjective describing "our bread", and English would say, "for our next day's bread" or "for our bread for tomorrow."
Put all these together and we have the English translation: "Give us this daylight for our next day's bread."
As you can see, this short verse is not necessarily about asking our Father in Heaven for a hand-out of manna every day. It is about asking the Lord to orchestrate our lives for whatever we require in the way of time, materials and conditions so that we can fulfill the Lord's judgment to work for our food (Gen 3:17b).
Asking for manna from Heaven was appropriate for survival in the wilderness, but not for ordered daily life in a self-sustaining community. The Lord's ordering of each day, with what is required for us to be able to work for our food, demands a power and finesse far beyond our own.
In this verse the phrase (acc.) NT3588 - "for-the" + NT1967 - "next-day" is traditionally translated in English as "daily". However, there is a different Greek idiom for the word "daily". The Greek idiom for the English word "daily" is NT2596 "according-to/down" + NT2250 "day", as found in Lk11:3 and Act16:5. So, NT1967's more accurate meaning is just what the Greek says, "next-day / tomorrow." The only time this word, NT1967, is used in the New Testament is in the Lord's Prayer in both Matthew and Luke, and it makes an important but subtle difference.
There are three words of interest in this verse as translated by the TENT Lexicon:
1) NT1967 -
Greek compound of NT1909 - "to/toward (Act15:19) + NT3776 -"being/substance"). It concerns what is "coming" or "about to be", and as an adjective with the article in the accusative case, it means "for-the coming/next ..."
2) NT2250 -
day (Mk14:12; Jn12:1 ) / daylight (Lk22:66; Ac2:15; 1Th5:4 ) [fig.: time (Mt10:15; 2Pet3:10 ) / idiom#1: neut. of NT3588 - "the-thing" + NT2596 - "according-to" + NT2250 - "day" = "daily" (Lk11:3; Act16:5 )
3) NT4594 -
compound of NT3588 + NT2250 = (this-)day(-light) (daylight hours) [fig.: today], adv. 41x, (with a prefix from a prim. stem) - 'this' + NT2250 - "day(-light) = this - day(-light))
Greek case endings carried by an article ("the") before a noun, help determine what English prepositions to use in translation. In this verse, the accusative case can be translated as "for" or "concerning" where both 'the bread' and 'the next day' are in the accusative case, and so are translated as "for the bread" and "for the coming day/for the next day/for tomorrow."
The first part of this verse in Greek says, "for-the bread of-us for-the next day...". "For the next day" is here used as an adjective describing "our bread", and English would say, "for our next day's bread" or "for our bread for tomorrow."
Put all these together and we have the English translation: "Give us this daylight for our next day's bread."
As you can see, this short verse is not necessarily about asking our Father in Heaven for a hand-out of manna every day. It is about asking the Lord to orchestrate our lives for whatever we require in the way of time, materials and conditions so that we can fulfill the Lord's judgment to work for our food (Gen 3:17b).
Asking for manna from Heaven was appropriate for survival in the wilderness, but not for ordered daily life in a self-sustaining community. The Lord's ordering of each day, with what is required for us to be able to work for our food, demands a power and finesse far beyond our own.