Daily Bread

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

I’ve been praying this prayer my whole life and I never noticed the two references to “day” in this sentence until reading Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes.  Why did Jesus put in both “day” and “daily”?  Even more confusing, the word “daily” in Greek is used here and only here in all of ancient writing, so we don’t really know exactly what he means.  Kenneth Bailey gives four possible answers and I like all of them.  Two have to do with how often we get bread, two with how much bread we get.

• Enough for today, as Cyril of Jerusalem wrote ~300AD.  Walk by faith.

• Enough for tomorrow, that we need not worry, as per Jerome ~400AD.  This would seem to fit with the next section of the Sermon on the Mount, comparing us to sparrows and lilies. “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ (Matthew 6:31)”  

• Enough to stay alive.  Bailey indicates that most Arabic speaking Christians pray this way.  It was espoused by Origen and Chrysostom ~300AD.  

• The bread that we need.  This is not as harsh as the third interpretation, allowing for a whole loaf of bread instead of a slice.  Similar to having enough for tomorrow vs just today, this speaks to our need for peace of mind.  This is first found in a 4th century translation into Syriac.  

All of these grow directly out of learning to trust that God is good.  We just finished praying that “his will be done”.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).”  “All things work to good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).” 

However, Bailey offers a fifth interpretation: “the bread that does not perish”, the bread of Communion, Jesus’ own body.  “I am the Bread of Life”, he proclaimed in John 6:35.  This is the bread of forgiveness that we all need, and we need it daily, as the Israelites needed to collect their manna, just enough for each day, throughout the book of Numbers.  Interestingly, the numeric value of the word Bethlehem is 490, that is seven times seventy, which is the number of times we must forgive one another.  “Bethlehem” means “House of Bread”.  

Is it right to say we need forgiveness as much as we need food?  From a spiritual standpoint, yes!  Sin brings spiritual death.  Forgiveness, life.  I think all five of these definitions of “daily” can be edifying.  Learning to trust God and to be grateful for the blessings of each day, learning not to worry.  But for me, the “bread that does not perish” resonates most.

This leads directly into the next line of Jesus’ prayer, just like “thy will” feeds into “daily bread”.