"sound eye" (Weymouth, Philipps, NEB, Williams, Amplified, GNB, NAB).
"clear/diseased eye" (Knox, NASB [clear/bad]).
"single eye" (KJV, Bagsters, Tyndale, Rheims) - literally correct.
"healthy eye" (Beck, NRSV).
"good eye" (NKJV, NIV) - Hebraically correct.
Only the Paraphrases of Moffatt and Barclay are correct with their idiomatic 'generous eye': "generous /
selfish eye" (Moffatt, Barclay).
For the phrase is indeed a Hebrew idiom for generosity, as 'evil eye' is for 'selfishness'. The Hebrew phrase
(tôwbh-`ayîn), 'good eye' is used in Prov 22:9 where it is sometimes translated "a generous man". A good
eye 'sees' a need and meets it. In Modern English idiom, one might use "open handed" and "tight fisted".
Other Hebrew sources such as the Jewish Mishnah and Talmud speak of 'good, middling and evil' eyes. For
example, in the offerings of the first fruits: "'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‖. (Mishnah, Trumot, 4.3)
Upon which the Jewish commentators say: a 'good eye' means one that is liberal, and an 'evil eye' the
contrary. Elsewhere, one reads of 'trading, dedicating' and 'giving with a good' or 'an evil eye'; that is, either
generously, liberally, or in a niggardly and grudging manner. "A good eye and a humble spirit and a lowly
soul, those who have these are disciples of Abraham our Father" (Mishnah, Abôth, 5.19)
Thus, Y‘shua‘s meaning is that if a man is not covetous but is generous he will be blessed and righteous in
all areas of life. ―Your whole body" is simply a Hebrew metaphor for 'your whole person', 'you yourself'.
6:24 Ye cannot serve God and mammon
―(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‖. (Mat 6:24)
―Jesus goes on to say, ̳You cannot serve God and mamon‘. The correct spelling is with one m. Mamon was
a Hebrew word for material possessions. Originally it was not a bad word at all. The Rabbis, for instance,
had a saying, ―Let the mamon of thy neighbour be as dear to thee as thine own‖. That is to say, a man
should regard his neighbour‘s material possessions as being as sacrosanct as his own. But the word mamon
had a most curious and a most revealing history. It comes from a root, which means to entrust; and mamon
was that which a man entrusted to a banker or to a safe deposit of some kind. Mamon was the wealth, which
a man entrusted to someone to keep safe for him. But as the years went on mamon came to mean, not that
which is entrusted, but that in which a man puts his trust. The end of the process was that mamon came to
be spelled with a capital M and came to be regarded as nothing less than a god‖. William Barclay, The
Gospel of Matthew (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1963), I, p. 252.
Put in its simplest form, the principle could be stated: ̳Money is either your slave or your master‖. Money is
like the flesh (our bodily appetites). Either we will master it, or it will be our master. One may try to deceive
himself into believing that he can pursue both goals simultaneously, YHWH and money. But Y‘shua said only
one will be our Master.
It is difficult for the Western mind to grasp the meaning of Y‘shua‘s words. Many of us have second jobs. We
may leave one job in the evening and go on to another at night. A man may work in a factory to earn a living
and find his real fulfillment in playing in an orchestra. But the language Y‘shua used was that of slave and
master. A slave was the exclusive property of his (one) master. He had no ̳time of his own‘. His master could
dispose of him as he wished.
Perhaps an analogy which might be easier to grasp is that of drug addiction. Materialism is very similar to
dependence upon drugs. At first, a man begins to use drugs but eventually they use him. His body builds up
a tolerance for a certain quantity of a drug and he finds he must have more and more. Finally, the drug is his
master and he is its slave. The more money one gets, the more one desires. The more one is dominated by
a desire for money, the more one is mastered by it and is its slave. This is what Y‘shua is saying. Materialism
is dangerous, indeed destructive; because like communism, it is not content until its control over men is total.
―Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God‖ (Luke 6:20).
Job‘s friends immediately concluded that it must have been sin that led to his disaster (Job 4:7). Suffering
and poverty were thought to be the immediate result of sin.