Ray Brown wrote:
> Translating texts that large numbers of peoples hold to be religious has
> its own difficulties. This is presumably why Muslims insist that any
> translation of the Koran should retain the Arabic text as well, so the
> original is there for comparison. If one paraphrases one is likely to be
> moving into areas of interpretation & controversy. IMO it is best to keep
> as close as possible to the original and as literal as you can without
> doing violence to the language.
I second it.
> [skip]
> > *** The Greek word _epiousion_ here is problematic: it's not the usual
> > word for 'daily', and appears only once outside the Lord's Prayer.
>
> Yes - the word is extremely rare. But there can be no real doubt that it
> is derived from 'epi' (preposition = "on" in a very wide range of
meanings)
> plus iont- the stem of the present participle of the irrgular verb
> _ienai_ "to go, to come" (depending on direction of movement) and the
> formative suffixes -io-n (the last is the accusative singular). The
> adjective _epiousios_ is thought by most to be derived from _epiousa: (he:
> mera:)_ "the coming day". That is: "give us bread for the coming day" -
> whether that is today or tomorrow will depend up whether the prayer is
> said in the morning or the evening :)
I think it makes a certain parallel with Proverbs 30:8 _lehhem hhuqi_ "my
lawful bread", explained by the sages as "a portion of food necessary to
live a day".
In general, it's a wonderful piece of exegesis!!!
-- Yitzik