Comments on: New Testament Greek (and Hebrew) Idioms

By: mgg

mgg — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 01:21:07 +0000

In reply to Brother Richard. Thank you, Brother Richard!

By: Brother Richard

Brother Richard — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 05:25:44 +0000

If I may I would like to share my thoughts on what the Lord meant concerning the good eye and the evil (bad) eye of Luke 11;34. The eye is the member of the body that provides the rest of the body with guidance and direction. When the eye is good it will give the rest of the body proper guidance and direction but if the eye is bad it will cause the body to go off course, stumble and fall. Christ himself is the eye that is good and gives light unto the people and when they walk in the light of his teaching the whole nation (body) benefits from the glorious light of the truth of the Gospel. Then he warns the people against ‘dark light’ which I believe to be BAD TEACHING! Such as the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who rob the houses of widows then for a pretense pray long prayers and who create heavy burdens for the people and touch not the load with the least of their fingers or who taught to dishonor father and mother instead of honor and that a man could put away his wife for any reason. These were they who had logs in their eyes yet they went about to remove specks from the eyes of the their brothers. They were blind guides or ‘dark light!’

By: mgg

mgg — Sat, 03 Feb 2024 18:02:47 +0000

In reply to Aprile. Glad you stopped by, Aprile! Happy to hear that you're enjoying it.

By: Aprile

Aprile — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 19:15:49 +0000

This is my first visit here. Thank you for sharing all of this. It’s been very enlightening and encouraging!

By: Alan Haungs

Alan Haungs — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 12:21:09 +0000

In reply to mgg. To think that God has incorporated common language, casual and typical expressions to covey His mind to man says something about God's character.

By: mgg

mgg — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 08:18:31 +0000

In reply to Παῦλος Κ.. Thanks, my mistake. :)

By: Παῦλος Κ.

Παῦλος Κ. — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 10:09:25 +0000

χαίρε, Ματθαίε!
use the vocative

By: mgg

mgg — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 15:58:47 +0000

In reply to Ματθαῖος.

χαίρε, Ματθαῖος!
Thanks! Most of my thoughts on Matt. 6:22-23 were based on the article by Jim Myers that I linked to in that discussion; maybe I should make that a little more clear in the post. 🙂

You’ve raised an excellent question about Luke 11:34! I’m not sure I have an answer for that one. I’m inclined to think that Jesus was creating a bit of a play on words using the same idiom to mean something slightly different. I don’t think that the two passages (or “meanings” of the idiom in the two passages) are mutually exclusive though, because our actions (generosity/miserliness) most certainly will affect our spiritual condition (light/darkness). (cf. Matt. 25:31-46)

The context of Luke 11:34 is that the “evil generation” was looking for a sign from Jesus to prove his divine authority. But Jesus, κατὰ τὸ εἰωθὸς αὐτῷ, didn’t give them what they asked for; instead he rebuked them for ignoring the obvious light shining right in their eyes, and persisting in asking for further “proof” of his authority. If I could paraphrase the passage, I think it might go something like this:

“I (Jesus) am the Light that came into the world. I came to shine, so you won’t find me hiding my light under a bushel, but instead I shine out from the lampstand for everyone to see. If your eyes were good/healthy, you’d be able to see that I AM who I say I am. Since you obviously can’t see very well, (and keep asking for more “signs”) you’d better check whether your eyes are OK, because if your eyes are bad, your whole body/life is going to be negatively affected. Even the GENTILES (Ninevites and “the queen of the south”) could recognize God at work, and repent; while you, the evil generation, do not!”

Perhaps this was a bit of a “slam” at the Pharisees who did surely “give alms” as all good Jews did, (a good eye), but were intent on killing Jesus, who was their promised Messiah (proof that the “light in them” was actually darkness)!

John 9:39-41 has some similar imagery about eyes/sight and spiritual condition too. Here’s the NET note #110 sn on Jn. 9:41:

Because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains. The blind man received sight physically, and this led him to see spiritually as well. But the Pharisees, who claimed to possess spiritual sight, were spiritually blinded. The reader might recall Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in 3:10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and don’t understand these things?” In other words, to receive Jesus was to receive the light of the world, to reject him was to reject the light, close one’s eyes, and become blind. This is the serious sin of which Jesus had warned before (8:21-24). The blindness of such people was incurable since they had rejected the only cure that exists (cf. 12:39-41).

By: Ματθαῖος

Ματθαῖος — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 12:15:13 +0000

Interesting post, fellow Greek Geek!
You did well to explain Matthew 6:22-23 in light of Proverbs 22:9 and Deut. 15:9. Proverbs 28:22 is similar. Furthermore, understanding Matthew 6:22-23 to be talking about generosity and stinginess fits perfectly with the context, which is about money. Previously in Matthew 6, Jesus taught about laying up treasure in heaven and not on earth, and right afterward He talked about not being able to serve both God and Mammon (riches). All nice and tidy… Until we come to Luke 11:34.
Luke 11:34 is not in the context if money, but in the context of light and lighting. Why did Jesus talk about stinginess and generosity in that context? (Or were there additional meanings for the idiom and a different meaning is intended in Luke? Jesus no doubt said similar things at different times, like any good teacher, and this was probably a different audience.) Any thoughts about what is meant in Luke?