bread," would have been more correctly translated "our sufficient," or, "our needful" bread. As the sentence stands in the common version, there appears to be a needless repetition of the word "day," which there is not in the original. It should be, "Give us to-day our sufficient [or our needful] bread."
Let us now consider the meaning of the term "bread." By "bread," in a natural sense, is signified food in general, all that sustains the bodily life.[1] But, in a spiritual sense, it signifies all mental food, all that supports the spiritual life or life of the soul. Thus it signifies all goodness and truth, or love and wisdom; for these sustain the soul's life: this is the food of angels, and also the food of our spirits even now, while we are preparing to become angels; it is the food that nourishes us to life everlasting; and according to our reception of which we are growing inwardly into angelic form and beauty. In this sense, the Lord calls himself "Bread:" "I am," he says, "the living Bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever."[2] The Lord calls himself "Bread," as being essential Goodness and Truth, the veriest food and life of the soul.
Now, the petition is, "Give us this day our needful bread:" Give us this day, this hour, this moment, all we need for our bodies and our spirits. Let us consider the petition first in its natural sense, and afterwards in its spiritual.
When we kneel down, and offer up this prayer, as
- ↑ See Judges xiii. 15, 16, where a kid is called bread.
- ↑ John vi. 51.
