Matthew 6:22

King James Version

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
"The only source of light for the body is the eye. If you look at people and want to help them, you will be full of light.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
The light of the body is thyne eye. Wher fore if thyne eye besyngle all thy body shalbe full of light.

International Standard Version
"The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.Luke 11:34,36;">[xr]

New American Standard Bible
"The eye is the lamp of the body; so then, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

New Century Version
"The eye is a light for the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.

Update Bible Version
The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye is single, your whole body shall be full of light.

Webster's Bible Translation
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thy eye be single, thy whole body will be full of light.

Amplified Bible
"The eye is the lamp of the body; so if your eye is clear [spiritually perceptive], your whole body will be full of light [benefiting from God's precepts].

English Standard Version
"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,

World English Bible
The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
The eye is the light of the body: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Weymouth's New Testament
"The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eyesight is good, your whole body will be well lighted;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The lanterne of thi bodi is thin iye; if thin iye be symple, al thi bodi shal be liytful;

English Revised Version
The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Berean Standard Bible
The eye is the lamp of the body. If your vision is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

Contemporary English Version
Your eyes are like a window for your body. When they are good, you have all the light you need.

American Standard Version
The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Bible in Basic English
The light of the body is the eye; if then your eye is true, all your body will be full of light.

Complete Jewish Bible
‘The eye is the lamp of the body.' So if you have a ‘good eye' [that is, if you are generous] your whole body will be full of light;

Darby Translation
The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body will be light:

Etheridge Translation
The lamp of the body is the eye: if thine eye therefore be perfect, thy whole body will be illuminated;

Murdock Translation
The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore thy eye shall be sound, thy whole body will be luminous.

King James Version (1611)
The light of the body is the eye: If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shalbe full of light.

New Living Translation
"Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light.

New Life Bible
The eye is the light of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.

New Revised Standard
"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light;

Geneva Bible (1587)
The light of the body is the eye: if then thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be light.

George Lamsa Translation
The eye is the lamp of the body; if therefore your eye be clear, your whole body is also lighted.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
The lamp of the body, is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body, shall be, lighted up;

Douay-Rheims Bible
The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome.

Revised Standard Version
"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light;

Bishop's Bible (1568)
The lyght of the body, is the eye. Wherfore, yf thyne eye be single, all thy body shalbe full of lyght.

Good News Translation
"The eyes are like a lamp for the body. If your eyes are sound, your whole body will be full of light;

Christian Standard Bible®
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

Hebrew Names Version
"The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light.

Lexham English Bible
"The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore if your eye is sincere, your whole body will be full of light.

Literal Translation
The lamp of the body is the eye. Then if your eye is sound, all your body is light.

Young's Literal Translation
`The lamp of the body is the eye, if, therefore, thine eye may be perfect, all thy body shall be enlightened,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The eye is the light of the body. Yf thyne eye then be syngle, all thy body shalbe ful of light:

Mace New Testament (1729)
the eye is the light of the body: now if your eye be clear, your whole body will be enlightned.

THE MESSAGE
"Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!

New English Translation
"The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

New King James Version
Luke 11:34-36">[xr] "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.

Simplified Cowboy Version
"Your eye is like the lantern of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body (or the barn in this case) is filled with light.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

Legacy Standard Bible
"The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

Contextual Overview

¹⁹ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: ²⁰ But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: ²¹ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. ²² The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. ²³ But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! ²⁴ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

light of: Luke 11:34-36

single: Acts 2:46, 2 Corinthians 11:3, Ephesians 6:5, Colossians 3:22

Reciprocal: Psalms 86:11 - unite Proverbs 4:25 - General Proverbs 14:6 - scorner Luke 6:42 - see John 7:17 - General Acts 8:21 - for Acts 26:18 - and to Hebrews 5:14 - their James 1:8 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 6:3
And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

Genesis 6:4
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

Genesis 6:7
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Genesis 6:8
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord .

Genesis 7:5
And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.

Genesis 7:9
There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

Genesis 7:16
And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in.

Genesis 17:23
And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.

Exodus 40:16
Thus did Moses: according to all that the Lord commanded him, so did he.

Exodus 40:19
And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it; as the Lord commanded Moses.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The light of the body is the eye,.... Or, the "candle of the body is the eye"; for the eye is that in the body, as a candle is in the house; by the light of it, the several members of the body perform their office; and what is said of the eye of the body, is transferred to the eye of the mind:

if therefore thine eye be single: that is, if thy mind be liberal, generous, and bountiful: for Christ is still upon the same subject of liberality, and against covetousness; and here speaks entirely in the language of the Jews, who could easily understand him; in whose writings we read of three sorts of eyes; a good eye, a middling one, and an evil one; so in the offerings of the first fruits s,

"hpy Nye, "a good eye" gave the fortieth, the house Shammai say, the thirtieth part; a middling one, the fiftieth; and an evil one, the sixtieth part.''

Upon which the commentators say t, a "good eye" means one that is liberal, and an "evil eye" the contrary: hence you often read u of "trading, dedicating", and "giving with a good" or "an evil eye"; that is, either generously, liberally, or in a niggardly and grudging manner; which may help us to the sense of our Lord in these words; whose meaning is, that if a man is not covetous, but his mind is disposed to generosity and liberality; if this be the case, as if he should say,

thy whole body shall be full of light: all thy actions will be influenced by this noble principle; thy whole life will be illuminated, guided and governed by it; thy mind will be cheerful and pleasant, and thy estate and condition will be prosperous and successful.

s Misn. Trumot, c. 4. sect. 3. t Maimon. Bartenora & Ez. Chayim in ib. u T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 37. 2. & 71. 1. & 72. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The light of the body ... - The sentiment stated in the preceding verses - the duty of fixing the affections on heavenly things - Jesus proceeds to illustrate by a reference to the “eye.” When the eye is directed steadily toward an object, and is in health, or is single, everything is clear and plain. If it vibrates, flies to different objects, is fixed on no one singly, or is diseased, nothing is seen clearly. Everything is dim and confused. The man, therefore, is unsteady. The eye regulates the motion of the body. To have an object distinctly in view is necessary in order to correct and regulate action. Rope-dancers, that they may steady themselves, fix the eye on some object on the wall, and look steadily at that. If they should look down on the rope or the people, they might become dizzy and fall. A man crossing a stream on a log, if he will look across at some object steadily, will be in little danger. If he looks down on the dashing and rolling waters, he will become dizzy, and fall. So Jesus says, in order that the conduct may be right, it is important to fix the affections on heaven. Having the affections there - having the eye of faith single, steady, unwavering - all the conduct will be correspondent.

Single - Steady, directed to one object. Not confused, as persons’ eyes are when they see double.

Thy body shall be full of light - Your conduct will be regular and steady. All that is needful to direct the body is that the eye be fixed right. No other light is required. So all that is needful to direct the soul and the conduct is, that the eye of faith be fixed on heaven; that the affections be there.

If, therefore, the light that is in thee ... - The word “light,” here, signifies “the mind,” or principles of the soul. If this is dark, how great is that darkness! The meaning of this passage may be thus expressed: The light of the body, the guide and director, is the eye. All know how calamitous it is when that light is irregular or extinguished, as when the eye is diseased or lost. So the light that is in us is the soul. If that soul is debased by attending exclusively to earthly objects - if it is diseased, and not fixed on heaven how much darker and more dreadful will it be than any darkness of the eye! Avarice darkens the mind, obscures the view, and brings in a dreadful and gloomy night over all the faculties.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Matthew 6:22. The light of the body is the eye — That is, the eye is to the body what the sun is to the universe in the day time, or a lamp or candle to a house at night.

If-thine eye be single — απλους, simple, uncompounded; i.e. so perfect in its structure as to see objects distinctly and clearly, and not confusedly, or in different places to what they are, as is often the case in certain disorders of the eye; one object appearing two or more-or else in a different situation, and of a different colour to what it really is. This state of the eye is termed, Matthew 6:23, πονηρος evil, i.e. diseased or defective. An evil eye was a phrase in use, among the ancient Jews, to denote an envious, covetous man or disposition; a man who repined at his neighbour's prosperity, loved his own money, and would do nothing in the way of charity for God's sake. Our blessed Lord, however, extends and sublimes this meaning, and uses the sound eye as a metaphor to point out that simplicity of intention, and purity of affection with which men should pursue the supreme good. We cannot draw more than one straight line between two indivisible points. We aim at happiness: it is found only in one thing, the indivisible and eternal GOD. It the line of simple intention be drawn straight to him, and the soul walk by it, with purity of affection, the whole man shall be light in the Lord; the rays of that excellent glory shall irradiate the mind, and through the whole spirit shall the Divine nature be transfused. But if a person who enjoyed this heavenly treasure permit his simplicity of intention to deviate from heavenly to earthly good; and his purity of affection to be contaminated by worldly ambition, secular profits, and animal gratifications; then, the light which was in him becomes darkness, i.e. his spiritual discernment departs, and his union with God is destroyed: all is only a palpable obscure; and, like a man who has totally lost his sight, he walks without direction, certainty, or comfort. This state is most forcibly intimated in our Lord's exclamation, How great a darkness! Who can adequately describe the misery and wretchedness of that soul which has lost its union with the fountain of all good, and, in losing this, has lost the possibility of happiness till the simple eye be once more given, and the straight line once more drawn.