The Mystery Word - Part One

The Linguistic Basis of the Mystery

Do you want to hear about a historical mystery? It involves you. You get involved every time you say the Lord’s Prayer. Most of that prayer is a sloppy hash of a translation, (the basis for a future article). Still, one word stands out because the English translation has nothing to do with the Greek source. However, we cannot blame the translators except for their general indifference to representing what Jesus said accurately. This word is unknown in Greek except for its appearance in this prayer. Though translated as “daily,” in the phrase “daily bread,” scholars recognize that this translation of the Greek has little basis in linguistic fact, history, or logic.

Examination of this mystery starts in this article but is concluded in the following article. Any good mystery deserves a bit of a cliff-hanger.

The Greek Word

The Greek word is an adjective, epiousios, (ἐπιούσιον). This form matches the form of the preceding word for “bread,” ton arton, (Τὸν ἄρτον), which literally means “this loaf,” the word beginning the Greek sentence. This word is identical in Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3, so it is unlikely to be a mistake of some kind. However, it is introduced by a definite article, “the,” ton epiousios, which makes it act like a noun. This would be “the daily one,” if the word meant “daily,” which it doesn’t. These are the only two uses of the Greek word, other than in discussions of its meaning. We have no further context other than the prayer itself, from which we can infer its meaning.

So, what does it mean? As I said, it is a mystery, and I think of the puzzle as a bit of fun Jesus was having with the people at the time and with us today. In this article, I can give you the clues to work out your own solution. My personal solution may or may not be correct. Still, it is based upon my knowledge of Greek, which is narrowly focused on Jesus’s use of it.

Let us start by dissecting the body of the word. This Greek compound word is parsed into two parts, the prefix epi and the base word, ousia.

The Prefix

The prefix is based on the preposition, epi (ἐπὶ) , which commonly means “on,” "over" or "upon." As a prefix, it is often used in verbs and generally means “over” or “upon.” The sense is something resting on top or over something else. When beginning with a word beginning with a vowel, the final “i” would usually be dropped. Still, it isn’t here, possible because Jesus didn’t want the meaning of the prefix lost among other possible interpretations.

The following paragraph lists most of the uses of epi, but you don’t have to read them all. It is provided so you can play with other possible solutions to the puzzle yourself. The point is to demonstrate that this prefix has many different meanings in many different contexts.

The most common meanings of the preposition are "on", "upon", "at", "by", "before", "across," and "against." With a noun in the genitive case (the possessive form), it means “upon,” “on” but not necessarily of place, “by (of persons),” “deep (with numbers),” “in the presence of,” “towards,” “in the time of,” and “over (referring to a person of authority).” With a noun, dative (the indirect object form), it means of place: “upon,” “on,” or “over,” of people: “against (in a hostile sense),” regarding a situation: “towards” or “in reference to,” of an accumulation: “upon,” “after,” “addition to,” and “besides,” of position: “after,” “behind,” “in dependence upon,” and “in the power of,” of time: “by,” and “after,” and. in a causal sense: “of the occasion or cause,” “of an end or purpose,” “of the condition upon which a thing is done,” “on condition that,” and “of price.” With an accusative (an object), it means of place: “upon or on to a height,” “up to,” “as far as,” “a little way,” “a little,” “towards,” “to,” in the hostile sense: “against,” of extension: “over,” “over (a space),” of time: “for,” “during,” “up to” or “till,” in a causal sense: “of (the object),” for (this purpose),” “as regards,” “according to,” and “by (this cause).” With verbs of perceiving, observing, judging, it means “in the case of.”

The Root Word Meaning

The root word is ousia (οὐσίας), which Jesus uses twice as a noun. It means “that which is one’s own,” “one’s substance,” “property,” “substance,” “essence,” “true nature,” “substantiality,” “stable being,” “immutable reality,” and, in magic, “a material thing by which a connection is established between the person to be acted upon and the supernatural agent.” Jesus uses it both times in the sense of “property.”

However, I am especially drawn to its magical meaning. The idea of something providing a magical connection is an aspect of sympathetic magic, specifically the so-called Law of Contagion or Contact. Under this law, a talisman becomes an active connection to something else, like the connection between a voodoo doll and a specific person. In this case, however, Jesus might be using it to mean a symbolic connection from Matthew 4:4 between bread and the word of the Divine in his teaching.

Ousia is also the root of a more common word, exousia (ἐξουσία), which Jesus uses in twenty-three verses. The term is translated in Greek generally as “control,” “the power of choice,” “permission,” “the power of authority,” “the right of privilege,” “abundance of means,” and “abuse of power.” In the KJV, it is usually translated as “power” and “authority.” The prefix, ex, means “out of” or “from.” The sense is that power and authority come “out of” a person’s “property” or “essence.” Jesus used a verb form of this word twice, katexousiazo(κατεξουσιάζο), which means “to exercise authority.” It has an additional prefix, kata, meaning “down,” so literally “down from property” or “down from essence.”

The Root of the Root

The root of ousia is the most common word in Greek, the verb eimi (εἰμί), that means “to be,” “to exist,” or a The two words don’t look alike because the verb “to be” is irregular, like our verb “to be” in English, which takes the forms of “be, is, are, am, etc.” Ousia is the feminine form of the participle for the verb, literally “being” or “existing.” The simple sense is that our “essence” arises from our existence. Where does the idea of “property” come from? The idea is that our working to survive creates our property and that our property allows our being. This idea is something like we say “making a living” in English to equate our work with staying alive.

However, ousia has a Greek homonym, a word spelled the same with a different meaning. This word, a word Jesus never uses, figure prominently in historical debates about the meaning of the mystery word, epiousios. The participle form of another Greek word, also spelled, eimi, means “to go or to come.” Still, it is used as the future tense, so “coming in the future” or “going in the future.” This meaning figured more prominently in historical debates about Jesus’s meaning.

My tendency is to discount this meaning of “to go” because Jesus doesn’t seem to use this word. Instead, he uses a couple of other Greek words with a similar sense, or at least no one translated him that way, not even me. Of course, theoretically, we could apply this concept to many of Jesus uses the verb “to be” in 614 verses. It is entertaining to think of it applied to all of Jesus’s “I am” statements that are the basis for much Christian dogma.

What Can It Mean?

In the next article, we will discuss a bit of the historical debate about the meaning of this word and where we got the word “daily.” I will also look at the meaningful ways to combine the multiple meanings of the prefix and root of epiousios.