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The Concealed Word in The Lord’s Prayer


The Lord’s Prayer is the only prayer (model) that comes with a reward - “your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”  Reward here in the Greek is apodōsei which means to give up, give back, return and restore.  In Jewish Gematria “Reward” here equals: 591 and means to “Rest in the Lord.”  Praying the Lord’s Prayer back to Him, and resting in the Lord comes with the promise of the Lord responding, by giving back and restoring something to you.  It also has another little known and remarkable element – a Concealed Word!


“It is the glory of God to conceal the word, and the glory of kings to search out the speech.”

Proverbs 25:2 Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)


The verse above was never so pointed and true when it is applied to The Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer has a little known “Concealed Word” or word with a concealed meaning or message - a hapax legomenon (meaning a word which only appears once in the entire Bible). The Greek word ἐπιούσιον or Epiousios, is most often (mis)translated “Bread” – give us this day our daily “Bread”…it may not be that straightforward.


Hidden within the Lord’s prayer is this mysterious word that both Greek and Biblical scholars have little agreement over or even a clear understanding of in terms of its precise meaning. It is “hidden” only because most Christians
do not read Greek and are unaware of the difficulties and debate surrounding the word. They simply accept that
the most common English translation of The Lord’s Prayer as undisputed. To them the problem is hidden.


The mysterious word occurs right in the middle of the prayer: τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον (ton arton hēmōn ton epiousion) which is rendered most usually as “give us this day our daily bread.” The concealed word is Epiousion.


The difficulty is that the word seems to exist nowhere else in ancient Greek and that no one really knows what
it means.  Even the Greek Fathers who spoke and wrote Greek as their mother-tongue were unaware of it’s
exact meaning. It occurs nowhere else in the Bible (with the exception of the parallel passage in Luke 11:3 of
The Lord’s Prayer). It appears nowhere in wider Greek literature, whether Christian or Pagan.

Continued...