6:22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is healthy, 1 your whole body will be full of light. 6:23 But if your eye is diseased, 2 your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
1 tn Or “sound” (so L&N 23.132 and most scholars). A few scholars take this word to mean something like “generous” here (L&N 57.107). partly due to the immediate context concerning money, in which case the “eye” is a metonymy for the entire person (“if you are generous”).
2 tn Or “if your eye is sick” (L&N 23.149).
sn There may be a slight wordplay here, as this term can also mean “evil,” so the figure uses a term that points to the real meaning of being careful as to what one pays attention to or looks at.
3 tn Grk “what you hear in the ear,” an idiom.
4 tn The expression “proclaim from the housetops” is an idiom for proclaiming something publicly (L&N 7.51). Roofs of many first century Jewish houses in Judea and Galilee were flat and had access either from outside or from within the house. Something shouted from atop a house would be heard by everyone in the street below.