Print version ISSN 0259-9422 Herv. teol. stud. vol.65 no.1
Pretoria 2009 Francois P. Viljoen School for Biblical Science
and Ancient Languages, North-West University, South Africa For
the modern reader the logion 'The eye is the lamp of the body'
is puzzling. While most scholars concur that it has something to
do with greed and envy, they often fail to explain this
correlation between inner attitudes and the physical eye. In
this article I argue that the meaning of this passage can only
be understood when read according to the ancient understanding
of vision. It is important to interpret the genitive in the
phrase as the ancient hearer or reader would have done.
Keywords: Gospel of Matthew; vision and the Bible; Sermon on the
Mount; lamp analogy; the eye as a lamp in the New Testament In
the Sermon on the Mount Jesus makes use of a masjal about the
eye as the lamp of the body: The eye is the lamp of the body. If
your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But
if your eyes are bad, your whole bo