The Eye Is The Lamp Of The Body
The lamp of the body is the eye.
The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light. Sandwiched between the command to lay up treasures in heaven 6 19 21 and the warning that you can t serve god and money 6 24 are the strange words about the eye being the lamp of the body. But if the eye is bad the body will be full of darkness. The eye is the lamp of the body.
What did jesus mean when he said the eye is the lamp of the body matthew 6 22 answer. Alternatively the lamp might not be meant as a source of light but rather as a guide through darkness just as the eye is a guide through life. Jesus said the eye is the lamp of the body. The light or lamp rather as ο λυχνος should be translated of the body is the eye that is it is by the eye that a person has light to direct him in his bodily motions and in the use of his bodily members.
And then comes the warning. We answer that question in this week s episode. Then if your eye is clear your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness and if the light that is in you is darkness how great is the darkness. Be on the watch that what you take in is light not darkness.
The light of the body is the eye etc. 36 points to luke having preserved on the whole the more original form of the saying. If your eyes are good your whole body will be full of light matthew 6 22. But when your eye is bad your body also is full of darkness luke 11 34.
Here our lord describes the eye as a lamp which lights the entire body. Jesus left no confusion about how to identify whether a person was filled with darkness or with light. So both chrysostom and theophylact understand. But if your eye is unhealthy your whole body will be full of darkness.
What did jesus mean when he said the eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore when your eye is good your whole body also is full of light. If the eye is good literally. The eye being the lamp of the body is not based on a scientific framework of how the eye works but rather it is based on a moral ethical framework.
In this case the verse is almost certainly speaking of a spiritual eye rather than the literal organ. Watch out that the light in you may not be darkness. If therefore thine eye be single απλους simple not mixed with noxious humours but clear and sound. But it seems quite impossible to say which is its more original position.
The eye is the lamp of the body. Luke 11 34 36 where it immediately follows the illustration of putting a lamp under the bushel matthew 5 15 the excessive difficulty of luke s ver. Single the whole body will be full of light. Western commentary typically suggests that the problem being addressed is an eye that is not open to the clear light of god.