Greco-Christian stream·Patrologia (Church Fathers)·On Matthew 6:22-23 — St. Gregory Thaumaturgus
Gregory Thaumaturgus — Homily on Matthew 6:22-23
Homily on the light of the body is the eye passage. Attributed to Gregory; preserved in the Caesarean exegetical tradition.
Source context
- Theme
- the single eye as organ of inner light — interpretation of Matthew 6:22-23 by Gregory Thaumaturgus
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Neoplatonism (Plotinus)Plotinus describes the soul's faculty of unitary vision (the 'eye of the intellect') as the condition under which the One can be apprehended, a structural parallel to Gregory's reading of the single eye as the seat of interior illumination.
- Vedanta (Advaita)The concept of the jñāna-cakṣu ('eye of knowledge') in Advaita sources identifies a non-sensory inner faculty whose unobstructed clarity is the precondition for direct apprehension of Brahman, exhibiting cross-tradition congruence with Gregory's exegesis of the haplous ophthalmos.
- Sufism (Ibn Arabi)Ibn Arabi's notion of the 'eye of the heart' (ʿayn al-qalb) as the faculty that receives divine self-disclosure in its undivided unity shows cross-tradition congruence with the patristic reading of Matthew 6:22 as a teaching on interior simplicity and spiritual receptivity.
On Matthew 6:22-23
St. Gregory Thaumaturgus · Saint
[Chapter 1 (¶1)] The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light. But it your eye be evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!
[Chapter 1 (¶2)] The single eye is the love unfeigned; for when the body is enlightened by it, it sets forth through the medium of the outer members only things which are perfectly correspondent with the inner thoughts. But the evil eye is the pretended love, which is also called hypocrisy, by which the whole body of the man is made darkness. We have to consider that deeds meet only for darkness may be within the man, while through the outer members he may produce words that seem to be of the light: for there are those who are in reality wolves, though they may be covered with sheep's clothing. Such are they who wash only the outside of the cup and platter, and do not understand that, unless the inside of these things is cleansed, the outside itself cannot be made pure. Wherefore, in manifest confutation of such persons, the Saviour says: If the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness! That is to say, if the love which seems to you to be light is really a work meet for darkness, by reason of some hypocrisy concealed in you, what must be your patent transgressions!
[Chapter 1 (¶3)] Source. Translated by S.D.F. Salmond. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0611.htm.
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