Saturday, November 10, 2007

Give us this day our what?

If you've not read or heard anything by Brant Pitre, you should. Dr. Pitre received his Ph.D from Notre Dame in Theology with a specialization in New Testament and Judaism. He's the author of Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of the Exile. He is the co-author of the blog Singing in the Reign (along with Michael Barber, author of Coming Soon: Unlocking the Book of Revelation and Applying its Lessons to Today).

I got to hear Dr. Pitre speak a few Sundays ago here at Franciscan. He was discussing how the Exodus account is the background for Jesus' words "give us this day our daily bread." The Greek there for "daily" is actually επιουσιον or "supernatural/supersubstantial." I thought it interesting that Jesus is literally saying, "Give us this day our supernatural bread."

In discussing the OT scholarship concerning the manna, though, Dr. Pitre pointed out that some have gone so far as to say that the manna was from bugs, or perhaps plant goo. And my favorite line of the lecture comes from that : "Jesus didn't say 'Give us this day our daily plant goo'." Indeed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Douay-Rheims translation of Matthew 6:11 says. "Give us this day our supersubstantial bread."
The footnote to this verse says:
"Supersubstantial bread." In St. Luke the same word is rendered daily bread. It is understood of the bread of life, which we receive in the Blessed Sacrament.