Complete textual-variant dossier
No adverse entailment · agrees with the received text
Sections distinguish readings, edition history, evidence, theological consequences, and the Research Center's evaluation. CBGM is an analytical tool; editorial committees—not the software—make textual decisions.
1Passage and issue
Passage
Issue
The principal received and critical texts agree on Luke’s present imperative “keep giving” and the phrase “day by day.” The main difficulty is the rare adjective translated “daily,” not a substantive TR–critical omission.
Variant class
Punctuation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
“Keep giving us each day our ἐπιούσιος bread.”
Authorized Version
“Give us day by day our daily bread.” — Luke 11:3
Edition note
The Research Center uses the received Greek text underlying the Authorized Version as its baseline; edition-specific differences are recorded when the variation unit requires them.
3NA28 baseline and critical-text rationale
NA28 baseline reading
No principal rival reading; translations differ over “daily,” “for the coming day,” or “necessary” bread.
Translation or explanation
No principal rival reading; translations differ over “daily,” “for the coming day,” or “necessary” bread.
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
No passage-specific Metzger synopsis has yet passed editorial verification for this record.
ECM / CBGM evidence and editors
No passage-specific ECM/CBGM editorial explanation is attached to this record. Official method sources describe the CBGM as a set of coherence procedures, not a decision-maker: editors define variation units and local stemmata and evaluate pre-genealogical, genealogical, and stemmatic coherence together with transcriptional, intrinsic, and other philological evidence.
4UBS6 and intended NA29 revision
UBS6 retains the NA28 / UBS5 Greek main-text wording in Luke, so no main-text change is shown for this passage. The separate project ledger covers Acts, Mark, and Revelation.
No change row is attached to this passage.
UBS6 is published, and the German Bible Society identifies its Greek main text as identical to the intended NA29 main text. The complete NA29 volume and its apparatus remain forthcoming. Project-ledger rows retain their source and verification statements until they are checked against the published UBS6 text and, when available, the NA29 apparatus.
5Doctrinal and four-point analysis
Effect class
Exegetical or interpretive consequence
Exact proposition affected
No single doctrinal proposition is directly changed; the principal consequence is exegetical, historical, or cumulative.
Doctrinal analysis
Exegetical or interpretive consequence. The record does not establish that the variant by itself removes an entire Christian doctrine; explicit wording, exegesis, and cumulative testimony must be distinguished.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Luke 11:3, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. Scrivener’s received text and the principal critical text agree. Editors may print the same Greek letters and still choose “daily,” “needed,” or “for the coming day.”
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Luke 11:3 must be applied to comparable readings as well. A principle such as age, difficulty, brevity, or coherence cannot be decisive here and quietly reversed elsewhere merely to escape a historical, grammatical, or theological difficulty.
Consequences
Exegetical or interpretive consequence: No single doctrinal proposition is directly changed; the principal consequence is exegetical, historical, or cumulative.
Preconditions of intelligibility
The argument presupposes stable authorship, meaningful language, objective logical norms, transmissible evidence, and a coherent account of how Scripture can be received and identified by the church. The analysis tests whether the method can make those conditions intelligible without reducing the text to an indefinitely revisable editorial construct.
This framework examines an argument and its conditions; it does not claim to read an editor's private motives.
6Argument for the received reading
External and historical evidence
Variant lists sometimes treat every difference among English versions as a manuscript difference. Research Center evidence must label the dispute as lexical and translational unless a particular manuscript subreading is actually under review. The Authorized Version remains apt.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
A source-level internal and transcriptional synopsis remains open; consult the full essay.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
Scrivener’s received text and the principal critical text agree. The uncertainty lies in the adjective epiousios, traditionally rendered “daily.”
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Luke 11:3. It supplies the confessional context in which manuscript transmission, broad reception, and the church's actual possession of Scripture are evaluated together.
Canonical coherence with the rest of Scripture
Canonical coherence remains an explicit test: a proposed reading must make grammatical and theological sense within the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. No conflict is asserted merely because two editions differ; the claimed incoherence must be demonstrated at this passage.
Canonical-coherence verdict
The Authorized Version is retained where its representation of the TR forms a coherent reading within the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. Any competing form must demonstrate an equal or better canonical fit rather than merely invoke an edition or method label.
Response to the principal critical argument
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. Scrivener’s received text and the principal critical text agree. Editors may print the same Greek letters and still choose “daily,” “needed,” or “for the coming day.”
Conclusion
Spiritual applications are legitimate if they do not erase the bodily request. Luke’s Gospel pays close attention to meals, poverty, generosity, and the danger of riches. The same Lord who gives himself also teaches his people to ask for food.
No editorial victory should be claimed where the Greek editions agree. The verse’s difficulty belongs to language, not documentary loss. Its command is clear enough even where the adjective remains debated: the household of faith lives from an open hand, asking the Father to continue giving what each day requires.
Logical entailment
The Authorized Version serves as the faithful English representation. The preservation claim applies immediately to the authentic Hebrew and Greek texts—not to an English translation as though it were the inspired source.
No adverse entailment: agrees with the received text.
Necessary reasoning chain
- The current critical main-text reading assessed at Luke 11:3 agrees with the received Hebrew/Greek reading at the variation unit governed by this card.
- An adverse preservation entailment at this locus would require the current critical form to displace a different received reading.
- Because no such displacement occurs at the assessed locus, no adverse preservation consequence follows here.
Sources
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)Chapter 1, section 8 — Governing confessional preservation claim
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text followed in the Authorized VersionReceived Greek reading
- German Bible Society — UBS6 publications and relation to NA29Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- German Bible Society — The Sixth Edition of the Greek New TestamentCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- INTF — Online Tools for the ECMCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: Luke 11:3
Received reading: “Keep giving us each day our ἐπιούσιος bread.”
Principal competing reading: No principal rival reading; translations differ over “daily,” “for the coming day,” or “necessary” bread.
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Luke’s bread petition contains two expressions of continuance. The verb is a present imperative—“keep giving”—and the time phrase says “day by day.” Scrivener’s received text and the principal critical text agree. The uncertainty lies in the adjective epiousios, traditionally rendered “daily.”
“Give us day by day our daily bread.” — Luke 11:3
The word is famously rare. Suggested senses include bread necessary for existence, bread for the coming day, bread belonging to the present day, and—especially in early Christian interpretation—a spiritual or eucharistic bread. Etymology alone cannot decide among them because the term’s formation itself is disputed.
Luke supplies help that Matthew’s shorter temporal form does not. “Day by day” directs the prayer toward continuing dependence. It echoes Israel’s manna, which could not be stockpiled as security against obedience. The request is neither anxious hoarding nor contempt for ordinary food.
Variant lists sometimes treat every difference among English versions as a manuscript difference. That would be false here. Editors may print the same Greek letters and still choose “daily,” “needed,” or “for the coming day.” Research Center evidence must label the dispute as lexical and translational unless a particular manuscript subreading is actually under review.
The Authorized Version remains apt. “Daily bread” has acquired familiarity, but it is not empty religious language. Joined to “day by day,” it asks the Father for the provision appointed to each recurring need. The plural “us” prevents the prayer from becoming private subsistence; bread received from the Father implicates the disciple in the hunger of neighbors.
Spiritual applications are legitimate if they do not erase the bodily request. Luke’s Gospel pays close attention to meals, poverty, generosity, and the danger of riches. The same Lord who gives himself also teaches his people to ask for food.
No editorial victory should be claimed where the Greek editions agree. The verse’s difficulty belongs to language, not documentary loss. Its command is clear enough even where the adjective remains debated: the household of faith lives from an open hand, asking the Father to continue giving what each day requires.
Sources and further reading
- Exodus 16:1–36; Matthew 6:11, 25–34; Luke 11:1–13; 12:22–34.
- A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, entry ἐπιούσιος.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2099
- Status
- Preliminary
- Version
- 1.1-dossier
- Review
- Level B — Editorial synthesis
- Editor
- Chris Thomas
- Reviewer
- Independent reviewer pending assignment
- First date
- 1st century · Date Range
- Last revised
- 2026-07-22
Evidence and editorial controls
- Verification
- Passage, principal readings, and stated editorial comparison checked against Scrivener’s received Greek text and the SBLGNT text and apparatus; exhaustive manuscript collation remains open. Metzger commentary entries were matched by exact passage where present; ECM/CBGM rationale is passage-specific only when an official editorial explanation is cited. Ledger rows are identified as UBS6 / intended NA29 data but retain their row-level verification caveats pending direct collation.
- Rights and access
- Original editorial synthesis. Biblical readings are short scholarly quotations; cited editions and digital witnesses retain their stated rights and access conditions.
- Known limitations
- The principal Greek texts agree; the record concerns the semantics of a rare adjective and Luke’s present imperative.
Links from this record
No public outgoing links are recorded.
Records that cite or connect here
No public backlinks are recorded.
Corrections and evidence submissions
No correction submission is presently attached to this record. Submit evidence or read the correction policy.
Chris Thomas, “Luke 11:3 — Daily Bread “Day by Day”: The Verb and the Continuing Petition,” VAR-2099, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas