Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof

Under a railway bridge across the Weavers' Way.

"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" is an aphorism which appears in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew — Matthew 6:34.[1] Its meaning is the philosophy that one should live in the present, without a care for tomorrow.[2] The same words, in Hebrew, are used to express the same thought in the Rabbinic Jewish saying dyya l'tzara b'shaata (דיה לצרה בשעתה), "the suffering of the (present) hour is enough for it".[3] It is also similar to the Epicurean advice of writers such as Anacreon and Horace — quid sit futurum cras, fuge quaerere (avoid asking what the future will bring) — but Jesus' point was that God knew the worldly needs of men and so it was more important to seek his kingdom.[4]

Alternative translations include:[5]

Sermons

Dr Thomas Sheridan wrote an eloquent sermon upon this text on the occasion of the death of Queen Anne. He absent-mindedly reused it for the anniversary of the accession of King George I and was, on this account, suspected of being a Jacobite and lost his chaplaincy.[6]

In art, literature and television

The phrase has been alluded to by many authors. John Galsworthy refers to it in The Patrician. Anthony Trollope uses the phrase in Barchester Towers. D. H. Lawrence uses it in Lady Chatterley's Lover. The phrase is often referred to by Diana Gabaldon in her Outlander series. Aldous Huxley says in Eyeless in Gaza that the phrase has a secular meaning: that the ideal personality should take life as it comes, without thought for tomorrow.[7] In Michael Collins, the phrase is used by British MI5 agent Soames, played by Charles Dance, in a retort to the character of Ned Broy. In season 4, episode 12 "Farewell Daddy Blues" of Boardwalk Empire, Dr. Valentin Narcisse, played by Jeffrey Wright, utters this phrase. In the film Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) the character played by Eddie Bracken says this to his beloved with great tenderness. In Linda Medley's graphic novel Castle Waiting the Solicitine nuns use the phrase as a mantra. Charlaine Harris refers to the phrase several times in her "Southern Vampire Mysteries" series, as being a favorite phrase of Adele Stackhouse.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Thomas Curtis (1829), The London encyclopaedia 21
  2. ↑ Sandra Wolfe, Larry Leonard (2010), What Dogs Teach Us about the Kingdom of Heaven
  3. ↑ Tr. Berakhot 9b
  4. ↑ John Albert Broadus (1886), Commentary on Matthew, p. 151, ISBN 978-0-8254-2283-6
  5. ↑ J Frank (1971), The Use of Modern Translations and Their Effect in Replacing the King James Version
  6. ↑ "An Irish Bull", The Victoria history of England, Routledge, Warne & Routledge, 1865
  7. ↑ David Jeffrey (1999), The Great Sayings of Jesus