${ The conception that God’s will is already perfectly done in heaven, by the angelic host, is at the same time an assurance and a model for the full realization of His will on earth among men. The angels are frequently mentioned both in the OT (Ps 9111 10320) and in the NT (Mt 1810 2436 2653, Mik 938 1225 1327. 32, Lic 128. 9 1510 1622, Jn 151, He 14-14 1222. 23); on the Jewish angelology see art. ANGEL in vol. i. ; Encycl. Bibl., art. ‘Angel’ ; also Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. ii. Appx.; Wendt, Lehre Jesu, ii. pp. 121-126.
$ Mt 611 cov aprov qudv cov exioboroy dds quwiv ohepov; Lik 118 Tov c&proy HLdiv Toy Extovotov Didov quiv +o zoel’ Futpov. Tt is strik- ing that the strange word éroéc10v, which is found nowhere in all Greek literature outside of this passage (so Origen, de Orat. 27), should appear in both of these widely divergent accounts of the Lord’s Prayer. The fact can be explained only by the
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
needs of men, upon which the spiritual life is dependent during this earthly stage of existence.” The conditions under which we live are created b
God, He has full knowledge of them (Mt 6°: >-*2), and He stands ready to supply what is necessary to human well-being (Mt 5” 6% 7). This provi- dential bestowal comes, of course, not as a pure gratuity, but as a return for the honest, energetic labour of men. The ‘bread’ which is asked for in this Prayer is meant in the wider_sense as referring to all necessary food; and by implication it certainly includes all those things which are essential to physical welfare. The petition con- templates only a simple, frugal life, enjoining trustfulness and contentment therein. In other words, the idea of the Prayer is that men are to ask God confidently for what they need; but only for what they really need, and only as they need it. The disciples of Jesus are to live trustfully in the present and for the present, without anxious concern as to the future (Mt 6%). About this general interpretation of the fourth petition there can be no question. A difficulty exists, however, as to the precise force of émovctov; since it is a hapaxlegomenon, we cannot determine its usage from other contexts; the Greek word most like it is mepiovovos, which appears first in the LXX. Recent scholars are largely in agreement that the word is derived somewhat irregularly from éri+ elvas in a fem. ptep. form, signifying ‘ being unto,’ ‘pertaining to’; so that the prayer would be, ‘Give us to-day the bread which pertains (to this day),’ 7.e. just so much as is needed for to-day to meet one’s physical requirements (cf. Ja 2% 16).+
hypothesis that these two Greek forms of the Prayer must have had a literary relation to one another in some stage of their transmission.
* Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers?, p. 125, thinks that this petition contains an allusion to the giving of the manna, Ex 164; cf. Ps 784f-, Wis 1627f, Jn 682.
+ So Achelis, Bergpredigt, pp. 265-271; H. Holtzmann, Hand- Comm. ti. d. Synoptiker, p. 116; Kamphausen, Das Gebet des Herrn, p. 97ff.; Leo Meyer in Kuhn’s Zeitschr. f. vergleich. Sprachforschung, vii. 401 ff. (though he afterwards withdrew this opinion, in Nachrichten d. kgl. Gesellschaft der Wissen- schaften zu Géttingen, 1886, p. 245 ff.); Tholuck, Bergrede®, pp. 875-885 [Eng. tr. 341-353]; B. Weiss, Meyer-Komm. u. d. Matt- evgm. p. 185f.; Wendt, Lehre Jesu, ii. 239f.; Taylor, op. cit. pp. 125-127, 178-186, 190f.; as also Ewald, Nésgen, Bassett, and many others. A list of the older literature upon the subject may be seen in Tholuck, loc. cit. Other interpreta- tions of the passage are: (1) that the derivation of éxsodcioy is from é/-+-the noun oicf, which in philosophical usage signified ‘subsistence,’ ‘existence’; therefore the petition would read, ‘Give us to-day our bread for subsistence,’ ¢.e. that bread which serves to maintain our physical existence. So Cremer, Bibl.-Theol. Wérterbuch7, in loc.; also Origen, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Maldonatus, Bleek, Keil, Kuinol, Ktibel. This con- ception, however, seems forced, and too technically philosophi- cal; nor is there any certain parallel instance of such a usage of odcia. It differs from the view adopted above in stating the end of the giving instead of the measure, for what purpose the bread is asked rather than the quantity of bread asked for. (2) That the derivation of éxsodciov is from éai-+iéves, and that with it is understood in sense a 7uépx (cf. Ac 1611 éxsodcn, 2311, Pr 271 LXX) ; it then means ‘ the coming day,’ and the petition says, ‘Give us to-day our bread for to-morrow.’ So Lightfoot, Fresh Revision of English N.7.? (1891), Appx. I.; Schmiedel in Winer’s Granunatik d. NTlichen Sprachidioms® (1894), pp. 186-188; also Grotius, Wetstein, Bengel, Fritzsche, Winer, Gore, Bruce, Meyer, Marshall, O. Holtzmann, and RVm. The difficulty with this temporal interpretation of ériodcioy is that it contradicts the very idea of the petition as intended by Jesus : instead of haying men pray for to-morrow’s food, He would have them pray for to-day and trust for to-morrow. No other mean- ing can be derived from the passage Mt 6-34, ending with the words, ‘Be not therefore anxious for the morrow ; for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.’ This temporal interpretation also throws an incongruous meaning into the Lukan form of the prayer, ‘Give us every day the bread for the next day’; that would be a mechanical kind of Providence. (8) That the ‘bread’ for which this petition asks is to be understood spiritually, at least in its primary reference. This was the favourite interpretation among the Fathers. of the early Christian centuries; it arose easily from the figurative use of ‘bread’ in Jn 648-58, and was suitable to the allegorical mode of the time. Augustine held the ‘bread’ to refer to three things, in an ascending scale of significance: (a) physically, actual food; (0) intellectually, the word of Christ ; (¢c) spiritually, the Lord’s Supper, For the