Single Eye
Single Eye
is a phrase used in the A.V. (Mat 6:29; Luk 11:34) for , an unclouded vision, rather than a single aim. See the commentators ad loc., and the monographs of Zorn in the Miscell. Duisb. 2, 240; and Sommel (Lond. and Goth. 1787).
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Single Eye
sing’l : Mat 6:22 f parallel Luk 11:34 : If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. Single and evil here represent , haplous, and , poneros. Poneros elsewhere in the New Testament means wicked; haplous occurs only here in the New Testament, but is very common in ordinary Greek and always has the meaning simple. But in view of the context, most commentators take haplous here as meaning normal, healthy, and poneros as diseased, so rendering Just as physical enlightenment depends on the condition of the eye, so does spiritual enlightenment depend on the condition of the heart. This is natural enough, but it is not satisfactory, as it gives to haplous a unique sense and to poneros a sense unique in the 73 New Testament examples of the word. Moreover, the same expression, evil eye, is found also in Mat 20:15; Mar 7:22, where it means jealousy or covetousness. With poneros = covetous haplous would = generous; and this rendition gives excellent sense in Matthew, where the further context deals with love of money. Yet in Luke it is meaningless, where the context is of a different sort, a fact perhaps indicating that Luke has placed the saying in a bad context. Or the Greek translation of Christ’s words used by Matthew and Luke may have taken the moral terms haplous and poneros to translate physical terms (healthy and diseased?) employed in the original Aramaic. The Sinaitic Syriac version of Luk 11:36 may perhaps contain a trace of an older rendering. See Julicher, Die Gleichnisreden Jesu, II, 98-108.