The Eye is the Lamp of the Body

This excurses deals with the sentences in Matthew 6:22-23:

  ÔO lu/cnoß touv sw¿mato/ß e˙stin oJ ojfqalmo/ß. e˙a»n ou™n hØ™ oJ ojfqalmo/ß sou aJplouvß, o¢lon to\ sw◊ma¿ sou fwteino\n e¶stai:  e˙a»n de« oJ ojfqalmo/ß sou ponhro\ß hØ™, o¢lon to\ sw◊ma¿ sou skoteino\n e¶stai. ei˙ ou™n to\ fw◊ß to\ e˙n soi« sko/toß e˙sti÷n, to\ sko/toß po/son.  

[The light of the body is the eye.  If then your eye is healthy, the whole of your body shall be light.  But if your eye is wicked, the whole of your body shall be darkness.  If then the light which is in you is darkness, that darkness is immense.]

What does it mean?  What relation is this suggesting the eye has to the body, and thus to light and dark?  Bock notes several Jewish parallels: in the Testament of Job (18.3) we read: “my eyes, acting as lamps, searched out.”  In Daniel 10:6 the eyes of the heavenly figure are like “flaming torches,” and in Zech. 4 the lamps “are the eyes of the lord roaming the earth.” (Bock, Matthew 143).  Davies and Allison (Matthew, 635-636) note that without fail these images represent light, not coming into the person, but out of the eye.  We also get some interesting parallels in Matthew itself.  One immediately after in 7:22:

h£ pw◊ß e˙rei√ß twˆ◊ aÓdelfwˆ◊ sou: a‡feß e˙kba¿lw to\ ka¿rfoß e˙k touv ojfqalmouv sou, kai« i˙dou\ hJ doko\ß e˙n twˆ◊ ojfqalmwˆ◊ souv;  uJpokrita¿, e¶kbale prw◊ton e˙k touv ojfqalmouv souv th\n doko/n, kai« to/te diable÷yeiß e˙kbalei√n to\ ka¿rfoß e˙k touv ojfqalmouv touv aÓdelfouv sou.

[Or how shall you say to your brother "Permit me to cast out the splinter from your eye"? Yet look! there is a plank in your own eye.  Hypocrite, cast the plank out from your eye first, and then see to dislodging the splinter from the eye of your brother.]

Here the concept of blocked eyes are used to underline hypocrisy.  The eye affects not just sight but deed: because things are being improperly perceived, improper action results. 

A similar idea also arises in 20:15: [h£] oujk e¶xesti÷n moi o§ qe÷lw poihvsai e˙n toi√ß e˙moi√ß; h£ oJ ojfqalmo/ß sou ponhro/ß e˙stin o¢ti e˙gw» aÓgaqo/ß ei˙mi;  [Is it not permitted for me to do that which I desire with what is my own? Or are your eyes evil because I am good?] The phrase oJ ojfqalmo/ß sou ponhro/ß is a verbatim parallel to 6:23.  In context the tenants who have the “evil eye” see the just deeds of the land owner in an evil light.  Much like the hypocrisy of those who would take a speck from their brother’s eye while being ignorant of the log in their own, here the eye’s of the tenants too are deceiving them on the way things really are, and leading them to improper action and response (grumbling, greed, etc…).  Thus a picture begins to emerge that the image “lamp of the body” speaks of the eye as metonymic for whole-hearted commitment to God (Christopher Brian, “Sermon on the Mount,” Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, 739).  Or more precisely it is describing a type of sapiential "viewing-as": things are what they are only when they are being interpreted properly.  And proper interpretation requires Godliness (while conversely, Godliness requires proper interpretation).  The world of deeds, it seems, has incised on its surface texts which can be read if the proper cryptographic key is obtained.

A clue that this is so emerges also from the use of aJplouvß, in 6:22.  BDAG notes that the term implies “being motivated by singleness of purpose as to be open and aboveboard,” and thus can be translated as single, or without guile, or sincere, or straightforward (BDAG, 104).   The word can also take on the meaning of “health” in Aristotle (BDAG, 104).  In later Apologist and Patristic writing, aJplouvß is used to signify God’s “simplicity,” i.e. the idea that God is not composed of parts or reducible to anything not-God (Ayers, Nicaea and Its Legacy, 340; c.f. Andrew Radde-Gallwitze, The Transformation of Divine Simplicity). In this instance single probably preserves some of the sense, as the “lamp of the body,” occurs right before a discourse where one cannot serve two masters (6:24).

The single light of  the body in the eye is in some sense contrasted to the double-ness of masters that no one can serve simultaneously.  When the eye is “healthy” it does not, so to speak, have double-vision.  Yet the English word “single” does not communicate much (and given that we generally associate eyes with “two” it may confuse), and while “healthy” is certainly contained within the image, the English word could possibly lose much of the spiritual overtones present. Perhaps “sincere” should be used, even if the possible single/double thematic is then lost in translation (though sincerity is also a fairly bland translation, and itself open to a lot of “existentialist” misunderstandings).  It does not appear like we have a single adequate word that conveys the sense of aJplouvß.

Nonetheless, given this context, with additional nuances such as being the “light of the world,” (5:21) or putting treasures in heaven, for their hearts will be there also (6:21) both help add nuance: the light of the world is God’s own light, and the heart as the inward part of man, would also carry over in context to be the inner source of light shining through the eye.  In both instances that the eye is the lamp of the body appears to carry the metonymic weight of being entirely, inwardly and outwardly, devoted and cognizant of God’s purposes and legislation.


What we seem to have, in conclusion, is a sort of tantalizing (if somewhat obscure) linkage between orthopraxis and orthodoxy (to put it anachronistically).  That is to say, correct action is united with a correct seeing.  The "evil" or "sick" eye misperceives and so acts with impropriety and hypocrisy.  The "simple" or "unified" eye therefore is the lamp of the body because it illuminates a path before it, where one can move without stumbling.  Yet this "orthopraxis" is itself ontological: the light which is the light of the body is God's light.  This process of sapiential interpretation and proper, God-centered (Christ-centered) action is a movement where we more and more reflect God.  Much like Moses' face coming down the mountainside, the "shining" in proper action illuminated by the healthy eye is a furthering of our participation in God by being in Christ.