What Does Matthew 6:11 Mean?
Give us today our bread for the coming day.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Give us this day our daily bread.THE KEY
The prayer asks for what sustains life as a gift for today, not as possession of the whole future.
THE MEANING
This prayer places nourishment in the present: what sustains you is asked for as today’s gift. The rare Greek word translated “daily” is understood as either “for the coming day” or “necessary for existence,” so the line holds immediate provision and what is needed to live.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that you must secure your whole future before you can receive what sustains you today.
THE ROOT
δός
dos
GROWS FROM
δω-
dō-
To give or grant.
The request uses a form of δίδωμι, “to give,” from the δω- word family. Related words name both the act of giving and the gift itself, so the verse’s request for bread is framed in the language of receiving.
ALSO GROWS
dōrea: Gift, freely given; a gift bestowed.
δωρεά
The same word family links the request for daily bread with the idea of a gift received.
dosis: Giving; a gift or act of giving.
δόσις
This branch makes visible the connection between asking for provision and the act of giving.
THE PATTERN
Provision is received in the measure and time of need, while the future remains beyond today’s possession.
Then the LORD said to Moses, Look, I will rain bread for you from the heavens. The people shall go out and gather each day's portion on its day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my instruction or not.All of them look to you, to give them their food in its time.So do not be pulled apart over tomorrow, for tomorrow will be pulled apart over its own things. Sufficient for the day is its evil.THE THREAD
Every good giving and every complete gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no shifting and no shadow cast by turning.The Greek word for “gift,” δόσις (dosis), belongs to the same δω- word family as δός (dos), “give,” in this verse. The shared root connects the daily request with the language of giving and receiving.
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