The Greek adjective “ἐπιούσιος”

Limited to Mt. 6:11 and Lk. 11:3, the Greek adjective “epiousios” meant “daily.”  Jesus taught His people to pray for their “daily” bread.

As discussed in my Sermon on the Mount commentary,

Bread was a food staple for those in Jesus’ day, and people ate it with virtually every meal.  It is analogous to rice in Asia or tortillas in Latin America.  Today we could pray, “Give us this day our daily rice” or “Give us this day our daily tortillas.”  This prayer for bread is not merely about the loaves that bakers make; it is a synecdoche for all human food we need to survive.  “It refers to physical needs, emotional needs, material needs” (Kendall, p. 240), one of which could be the ability to work a secular job.