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22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is healthy,[a] your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is diseased,[b] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 6:22 tn Or “sound” (so L&N 23.132 and most scholars). A few scholars take this word to mean something like “generous” here (L&N 57.107). partly due to the immediate context concerning money, in which case the “eye” is a metonymy for the entire person (“if you are generous”).
  2. Matthew 6:23 tn Or “if your eye is sick” (L&N 23.149). sn There may be a slight wordplay here, as this term can also mean “evil,” so the figure uses a term that points to the real meaning of being careful as to what one pays attention to or looks at. Ancient understanding of vision involved light coming into the body from outside, and “light” thus easily becomes a metaphor for teaching. As a “diseased” eye would hinder the passage of light, so in the metaphor Jesus’ teaching would be blocked from being internalized in the hearer.

22  The ho lamp lychnos of the ho body sōma is eimi the ho eye ophthalmos. If ean then oun your sy eye ophthalmos is eimi · ho healthy haplous, your sy whole holos · ho body sōma will be eimi filled with light phōteinos; 23 but de if ean · ho your sy eye ophthalmos is eimi evil ponēros, your sy whole holos · ho body sōma will be eimi filled with darkness skoteinos. If ei then oun the ho light phōs that ho is in en you sy is eimi darkness skotos, how great posos is that ho darkness skotos!

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