Translation commentary on Luke 11:3

Exegesis:

ton arton hēmōn ton epiousion ‘our daily bread.’

epiousios (only here and Mt. 6.11 in the N.T.) a very rare word of uncertain meaning. In the light of the great diversity of opinion the traditional rendering ‘daily’ is to be commended.

didou hēmin to kath’ hēmeran ‘give us each day.’ didou is repetitive imperative. to kath’ hēmeran is an adverbial phrase meaning ‘day by day,’ ‘each day.’

Translation:

Our daily bread, i.e. the bread/food (we need) for this day. For bread see references on 4.3.

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 11:3

11:3

Give us each day our daily bread: This clause means “Each day, give to us the bread/food that we need for that day.” It is a request to God to provide the food that we need each day. Some other ways to translate this are:

⌊We pray that you will⌋ give to us each day the bread that we need for that day.
-or-
Each day, ⌊please⌋ give to us the food that we need.

This phrase is not exactly the same as in Matthew 6:11.

bread: For the Jewish people of Jesus’ time, bread was the most important food. In this context, the word bread represents “food” in general. If people in your area will not understand a literal translation of bread in this way, you may translate bread more generically as “food.” For example:

food (New Living Translation (2004))

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