Many theists and students of theology are well aware of potential mistranslations in holy books across the world.
Given how long ago books such as the Christian Bible, the Torah, and the Quran were originally written, it’s not shocking that certain things have gotten lost in translation as thousands of years have gone by.
However, you would probably think the more common phrases, passages, and prayers would be pretty accurate, given how prominently used they can sometimes be. That’s why many are shocked to learn that one of the most famous and frequently used prayers in all of Christianity is actually mistranslated.
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I'm talking about The Lord’s Prayer, commonly known as the Our Father, which is one of the first prayers you learn in the church of Christianity and is believed to be originally taught by Jesus Christ himself.
The thing is, as many of us know, the origins of Christianity were not written or spoken in English but rather in Greek and Latin.
And, when looking at the original Greek writing, one Redditor mentioned that something rather significant was mistranslated.
Instead of the modern English interpretation, which reads, 'Give us today our daily bread' or something similar, the original Greek text reads something more akin to, 'Give us today our epiousion bread' instead.
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The word epiousion is one without a clear meaning in English, making it difficult to translate practically as is. However, many believe the term’s translation is far from that of the word daily, which takes its place in the English version of the prayer.
Rather, many people - including the Redditor who brought the topic up - believe that epiousion means 'supersubstantial', a word to describe something as either heavenly or generally transcendent.
While many were amazed to learn this fact, others were deeply confused as to what the prayer - both its modern iteration and its original - truly means with this additional context.
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One commenter noted that they believe they have a better translation in mind for what the original Greek text was attempting to get across.
“Spiritual bread - spiritual nourishment,” the Redditor suggested, “Why would they choose to translate it as ‘daily’ instead of ‘spiritual’?”
Meanwhile, another commenter posed an oppositional point of view, saying that 'epiousion' being translated into 'daily' makes sense in certain contexts.
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“It’s amazing how often ambiguity arises,” the commenter says, “The word in question can be translated as ‘spiritual’, to kind of mean ethereal, omnipresent, ever-present.”
“But a term like ‘ever-present’ can also be applied slightly differently to kind of mean always, constant, or daily.”
Generally speaking, many are not surprised by the mistranslation, given how much time has passed since the words were initially penned. Furthermore, given that the word epiousion has a meaning that remains difficult to pin down to this very day, some question whether or not it is truly a mistranslation after all.
Another commenter pondered this point itself, saying: “You can't say something is mistranslated if no one knows for sure what the word means, right?”
Dylan Murray