ἐπιούσιος (epiousios)
Definition (house-style)
Epiousios (Gr. ἐπιούσιος) is a rare Greek adjective appearing only in Matt. 6:11 (the Lord’s Prayer) and Luke 11:3. In standard translations it is rendered ‘daily’ (our daily bread). However, the etymological composition — epi (upon, coming toward) + ousios (coming, being, a form of einai) — points to a different meaning: ‘coming toward us’, ‘approaching’, ‘supersubstantial’. This reframes the petition: not primarily earthly food for each day, but the heavenly bread that descends (cf. John 6:32-35) as an instrument of spiritual growth.
In the context of sanctification, epiousios designates the living Word of God as daily spiritual nourishment that enables the believer to grow.
Author variants
Noordzij
Noordzij provides an explicit etymological analysis of epiousios:
“For ‘daily’ the Greek has epiousios. Epi means ‘upon’ and ousios is a form of the verb ‘to come.’ ‘Give us today the bread coming toward us.’ ‘Give us always the bread that descends from heaven’ (cf. John 6:32-35, Rev. 2:17). If you learn to ‘eat’ this ‘bread,’ you grow spiritually.”
[Noordzij, Het Woord Gods en de Schrift (The Word of God and Scripture), AN]
“Whoever learns to ‘eat’ Him will never be ‘hungry’ again (John 6:35). Then he has life, life in abundance (Ps. 23:1-2, John 10:4,10).”
[Noordzij, AN]
For Noordzij epiousios is a key concept in his doctrine of sanctification: the heavenly bread coming toward the believer is the living Word of God, which through the Spirit works inward growth. This bread is not earthly or sacramental but the daily encounter with the living Word as spiritual nourishment.
In Bread and Wine (BW) Noordzij centers epiousios in the Passover feeding motif. The unleavened bread of Passover is the type of the heavenly bread that “comes from above”: “With the Passover began also the feast of unleavened bread, ‘seven’ days long (Ex. 12:17). Jesus says that His disciples should pray for this bread: ‘Father, give us today our daily bread’ (Matt. 6:11). In Greek it is epiousios bread, epi (= upon), ousios (= coming). He does not say that we should pray for bread from the baker, but for the bread that comes from above. Jesus says: ‘That bread is I’ (John 6:51).” [Noordzij, Bread and Wine, BW] The epiousios prayer is thus not material food but spiritual nourishment — the daily intake of Jesus himself as the bread of the gods.