Epiousion and why Jesse thinks a Firefly is a fly on fire - the chronic denial of frontier protestantism toward holy things

"Give us this day our superstantial/super being (epiousion) bread." 

Or, "give us this day just the bread we need for the day/tomorrow (episousion?!)."

Moving from kekaritomene to epiousion, we move from Jesse's manually limited grasp of Greek to just willful stupidity.

He claims that prefixes don't have their own meaning changed in the compound words of which they modify the root word. And many, of course, don't change their meaning in compound words: in-sufficient; exhale; overlord. And, yet, just as many completely change. All three can lose their meanings in other compound words: inflammable (supremely flammable rather than "not" or "into" -flammable ; exacerbate (worsening rather than just "former" or "out"; overkill (where the meaning is immensely more domesticated and sedate than too much killing!)

Many times our prefixes have disparate meanings because we've assumed a prefix in a latinate word but not it's meaning but for germanic words we share more the same meanings of prefixes. 

Still, firefighter fits into Jesse's denial of changed meaning while firefly does not. Nor does butterfly. 

Outstood fits into Jesse's detail. But not with withstood. 

Understand? "Under-stand"? Are you standing under these concepts or are you comprehending them?

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Aside from the above, however, as I wrote to Jesse, we can agree to disagree about epiousion in the Lord's Prayer. After all, the Lord's Prayer in both Matthew and Luke is the only place in all of ancient Greek literature where it appears And the prefix, "epi," has a vast number of possible meanings in Ancient Greek. Jesse himself noted that discerning the meaning of epipousion is a matter of selectivity. But then he just baselessly determines that reading "epi" + "ousios" has to be his way.

Which is a complete lack of due diligence for someone whose idol is the book of the Bible. To attempt too be faithfully selective in determining the meaning of episousion comes to down to respecting the context in which the two Gospel writers use it.

The context:

1. Why didn't the gospel writers, if they meant "daily bread", just use the word for "daily" After all, they just use the form of the word for today!

Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς/δίδου ἡμῖν σήμερον/τὸ καθ’ μέραν...

Ton arton hemon ton epiousion dos/didou hemin smeron/to kath hemeran...

The bread of us daily grant (Matthew)/ give (Luke) us today (Matthew)/ each day (Luke)

Matthew says smeron/today, while Luke says to kath hemeran/each daily. Both are usages of the word for day: ἡμέρα or hemera.

So why didn't they say, "give us today/each day our ton arton (bread) ton hemeron (daily)?Why did they, as Origen said, make up a new word? Were they just playing around like silly writers or were they saying something unique? Comes down to selectivity. Jesse and I have to select one. 

2.a. There are lots of different word choices and even whole phrases missing between Matthew and Luke. And the manuscript evidence is varied. It seems Luke didn't have "Our Father who is in heaven..." Just, "Father, holy be your name."

So, we cannot say they are quoting Jesus or using the same source, unless we allow them the freedom to make changes or they are making mistakes.

But they both use epiousion.

2.b. So, the Lord's Prayer is quite a bit different between Matthew and Luke. Matthew's text closely parallels texts of Jewish prayers we have from the same time period. In fact, Matthew's version shows the same Jewish character as the Eighteen Benedictions that Jews prayed 3 times a day. The Eighteen Benedictions, the Amidah, is quite a bit longer but just parallels to every phrase of the the Lord's Prayer can be found there. It is entirely possible that the Lord's Prayer was the Jewish Christian's answer to the Eighteen Benedictions: it was the Didache's injunction to Christians to pray the Lord's Prayer 3 times a day and the Didache comes from the same time period as Matthew's Gospel. Matthew uses the word for "debts" which is characteristic of Jewish usage in penance. Whereas Luke uses "sins". Luke has nothing of the Jewish parallel character.

In Matthew, Jesus is heavily criticizing hypocrites and their synagogues for their show public displays of piety. In Luke, Jesus is asked by a disciple how to pray and he gives his followers a framework and teaches them about the perseverance of prayer.  

So, two entirely uses of the material of the Lord's Prayer seem to be at play.

But they both use epiousion.

2.c. One of them could have easily chosen to just say, simply, give us today our "daily bread," without all the mystery. 

But they both use epiousion.

3. But clearly, in both Matthew and Luke, Jesus is clearly talking about big, eschatological stuff:

- God's name is holy
- Let his kingdom come and his will be done here on earth
- Forgive our sins and let us forgive others theirs toward us
- Let us escape temptation, the trial, and deliver us from evil

oh! and give us food for the day/the coming day

Really? we're going to throw bread in the mix with heaven's holiness and will and redemption and evil?

Or is episousion, which by its meanings cannot mean daily (that's just sane acceptance), agreed upon and intended to signify something extraordinary?

Comes down to selectivity. Jesse and I have to select one.

4. In all of this context, in this truly amazing prayer taught to us by both Matthew and Luke, in all this significant language from Jesus and language construction by the writers... we are going to select a loaf of bread?

We can agree to disagree, I guess.

5. I know what I believe. Lord, give us this bread always.

This, of course, comes after he has feed the crowds with their day's bread:

"So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."