[dr_dshiv]

I agree.

Philo of Alexandria was the most influential Jewish-Greek theologian in the first century AD; it was he that originally introduced the idea that Logos is the son of the One god. (That, ostensibly, is how Apollos of Alexandria was able to preach accurately about the logos without knowing about Jesus, Acts 18:24-25)

In the Platonizing esoteric context of Philo, it seems straightforward to view epi-ousia as a kind of "soul" bread. That is, we should pray for the nourishment of our soul.

Soul, in the Platonizing context of Philo, is the noetic realm of mathematics and ideas—and typically placed above the material realm. The question of materialism vs epi-materialism is still a vibrant debate; Max Tegmark, Karl Popper and Roger Penrose for instance, advocate for the meaningful existence of non-material being. For instance, that the concept of a sphere exists universally, not merely through human conception.

Puts another spin on "soul food", too.

[gbh444g]

I'm not a linguist and I don't even know any greek (other than the alphabet I've memorized once), but if "epi" means "above" and "ousia" means "essense", then the meaning of "epiousios" trivially follows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ousia

[cratermoon]

The article addresses that, and suggests the problem is that in most contexts 'epi' loses the i in compound form, e.g. eponym.