Having A Single Eye
                 by Lois Tverberg

The light of the body is the eye: 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. Matthew 6:22-23 KJV

What does Jesus mean in the strange passage above in terms of having "a single eye"? The best way to understand it is to look at figures of speech in other documents from that time. Several idioms that spoke about the "eye" were about a person's attitude toward others. A person who had a "good eye" was generous toward others, and a person with a "bad eye" was stingy and self-centered. It has been suggested that Jesus was speaking of having a "good eye," but the Greek of the passage actually does not say "good" (kalos), rather it says "single" (haplous).

In fact, the idiom of being "single" is found in that time. Throughout the New Testament the idea of "singleness" (haplotes) is used to mean "sincere" or "undivided," often in exhortations to have a "single heart" (See 2 Cor. 1:12, 11:3, Eph. 6:5, Col. 3:22). Sincerity and lack of duplicity seems to be the idea of the following passage:

The good man has not an eye of darkness that cannot see; for he shows mercy to all men, sinners though they may be, and though they may plot his ruin.…His good mind will not let him speak with two tongues, one of blessing and one of cursing, one of insult and one of compliment, one of sorrow and one of joy, one of hypocrisy and one of truth, one of poverty and one of wealth; but it has a single disposition only, simple and pure, that says the same thing to everyone.¹

Here, the idea of "singleness" was associated with a freedom from envy of money. "Singleness" in this passage refers to a person of sincerity who does not have a secret agenda of self-advancement. This translates into a lack of covetousness and greed.

Now Jesus' words in Matthew 6:22-23 have more clarity in their context. Jesus seems to be talking about our attitude towards others. Do we have a simple desire to serve God by caring for the needs of others? Or are we insincere people who are self-centered and actually serving our own agenda? If all we can see are our own needs, we are blind indeed.

¹ Testament of Benjamin 4:2-3 The Testament of Benjamin is of the body of literature called the "pseudepigrapha" — Jewish writings from 200 B.C. to 200 A.D. that are not canonical, but are helpful for showing the cultural expressions and religious understandings of that time.

² Testament of Issachar, 3:4, 4:1-2, 5-6; 5:1 Also from the pseudepigrapha.

For more this, see the article, "If Your Eye Be Single" by Steven Notley at www.jerusalemperspective.com.