Did Christ Teach Short-Term Thinking?

Mat 6:34 Therefore do not think about tomorrow: for tomorrow shall take care of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof.

In all my basic translations I try to stay close to the King James Version because it is the source book for all English translations and, for phrases like this, there are many phrasing, but in almost all, the idea is the same. Christ seems to be saying that we do not have to think long term. Is that really what Christ wants?

Let us look at the original Greek. the term translated in various version as "thinking," "taking care," and "worry" is merimnao , which means to be troubled with cares, caring for someone, to care about something, and to be careful.

However the term translated as "tomorrow," aurion, may be the closest Greek comes to "tomorrow," but it is not a noun. Instead, it is an adverb meaning something more like "until tomorrow," "until the morning" meaning "shortly" or "presently." Unlike the noun "tomorrow" in English, this adverb doesn't take in the entire future, just the opposite. I searched out the way it was used in several Greek classics and it always communicate this idea of "in a short time." The term indicates not now but the immediate future. So the meaning of this phrase is almost the opposite of the way it is translated. A better translation would be "Don't worry about the immediate future for it will shortly take care of itself." The way that this phrase is usually translated may be one of the most misleading abuses of Christ's words. Especially since it flies in the face of so much else of what Christ says.

This brings us to the second phrase which consists of four words in Greek: arketos (sufficient) hemera (day) kakia (evil) autos (itself).

Arketos means "sufficient," "enough," or, when applied to people, "satisfactory."

The first problem here is hemera, which doesn't mean today in the sense of now, this day. Hemera means "day" or (more precisely) "daybreak" or "daytime" and has the specific meaning of the 24-hour day, but it is used to refer to a stage of life as well. For example, the Greeks would refer to your old age as your "old days." So it is used to refer to time. What the term doesn't have the "nowness" that is indicated in the translation. It isn't used to contrast now with the future: today versus tomorrow. For example, you couldn't say "ten todays in December" because "today" indicates now. However, you can say "ten days in December," which is the sense of hemera. Hemera is used to indicate "today" but usually with the term meaning "this" so you are saying "this day" for "today." Notice, no such phrasing is used here.

Also interesting is the term for evil. The usual term that the Bible translates as "evil" is poneros, which we have explained, means "burden" like the burdens of life. However, kakia means plain old "badness" and "evil," specifically moral evil, character flaws and defects. It also means "ill-repute" and "cowardice." It also means the hurt or damage done by evil.

And finally, auto, means "himself," "herself," "itself," or "the same."

That is it: sufficient day evil itself. Without a verb and adverbs to tie this all together, we gravitate to the meaning we have always heard: This day offers enough of its own evils. However, it could also mean: Enough days are their own evil, which makes more sense if we put it together with a more accurate translation of the first line. "Don't worry about the immediate future for it will shortly take care of itself. Enough days offer their own evil."