The 'Good Eye' is a Metaphor for Generosity

In my last blog post I discussed the very serious translation issues of most NT versions that resulted from not making use of the significant quantity of scrolls found in recent times. In part, I noted that: "Dr Ann Nyland  the author of The Source NT  comments that: "For centuries, the meanings of numerous New Testament words remained unknown. Bible lexicographers, that is, people who compose dictionaries of word meaning, look at the occurrences of a particular word. Many words which appeared in the New Testament were not found anywhere else, which made grasping their meaning difficult. However, when the papyri and inscriptions (written at the time of the New Testament) were unearthed, many of these words appeared commonly in all sorts of different contexts, and thus their meaning became apparent. Some papyri and inscriptions were discovered in the late 1880s but a huge number after the mid 1970s. Yet nearly every New Testament translation of today follows the traditional Bible translations of the earlier versions, which were published centuries before the evidence from the papyri and inscriptions revealed to us the meanings of numerous New Testament words. … [In 1976 alone], fifteen volumes of new papyri were published."

Nyland makes a very significant point here as the great majority of New Testament translations have NOT made use of these findings and thus have a great many mis-translations as they have misunderstood and misappropriated the meanings of a great many words. And even though a many translations have been edited since 1976 there appears to be very limited changes in these versions that have taken all these new word meanings into account." - See https://luke443.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-source-new-testament.html But, sadly Dr Nyland seems seriously il-informed about the great many semitisms within the New Testament, that also greatly impact the contextual and historical understanding of the NT writings. Dr Nyland thinks that the NT contains few semitisms, and it appears that this is because she allocates a great many of the metaphors and 'figures of speech' to Greek origins and not Hebraic. I am unsure of why she does this, and assuming that it is a sincere error, it may just be further evidence of how we can make errors as a result of our limited sphere of understanding coupled with the problem of confirmation bias.

An excellent example is the NT use of 'eye' as a metaphor, with 'good eye' meaning generosity and 'bad eye' meaning stingy. This metaphor is used in a number of places in the NT such as Matthew 6:22-23 and Luke 11:34.

In her footnote on Matt 6:22 she states that 'Eye' was a Greek metaphor for 'generosity' and quotes a couple of Greek sources. But even if these sources can be traced all the way back to Homer (750 BCE), they are still at least 200 years later than the use of this metaphor in the Hebrew Bible and in particular in the Proverbs of Solomon (around 950 BCE). But more relevant is the reality of how 'eye' became a metaphor of generosity, etc. Here the evidence is very strongly in favour of a Hebraic origin as it comes out of the Hebrew alphabet and particularly paleo-Hebrew which dates to at least as ancient as 1000 BCE. Here is some fascinating detail on this from this site: http://www.havdalahdrasha.org/page_drasha_study_bad_eye__ayin.html "… As we examine the word eye we find that in the Hebrew alphabet the sixteenth letter is Ayin (pronounced Ah-yeen) which in Gematria represents the number 70 and in Ancient pictographs was an eye.

Notice how the letter almost looks like two eyes looking out at you. Examination of other Hebrew words that begin with Ayin we find Ayin Hara which is the evil eye and represents the left eye or the left part of this letter as seen here. Ayin Hara represents stinginess. Ayin Tovah is the Good Eye which is the right eye and means generosity or good will. Ayin is sometimes described as having two eyes that connect to a common “optic nerve” that leads to the brain. The two eyes represent choice or the actions of the will (i.e., the heart). We can choose whether to use the good eye or the evil eye to perceive things; we can choose to see the glass as half full rather than half empty. When the eye is evil (ayin hara), it becomes a slave to the purposes of sin and the yetzer hara (the evil impulse). According to the Talmud (Shabbat 104a), the good eye of Ayin looks toward Samekh which is the letter just before it in the alphabet and stands for the acronym semokh (“support”) anaiyim (“the poor”). That is, the ayin tovah (“good eye”) will manifest itself in benevolence and charity toward others. On the other hand, the ayin hara (“evil eye”) will look to the letter Pey which is the next letter in the alphabet and means (mouth), considering how it might consume for itself in greed and envy. Ayin (like the letter Aleph) is a silent letter. " As I have already intimated, 'good eye' was used in Proverbs 22:9 (circa 900 BCE) where the Hebrew meaning 'good eye' ןיע־בוּט is actually translated as 'a generous man' in the NIV and as 'generous eye' In the NKJV. - see https://www.studylight.org/language-studies/difficult-sayings.html?article=505 So the evidence is very strong that the use of 'eye' as a metaphor for generous in the New testament is not of Greek origin at all, as assumed by Dr Nyland. This is just one of a number of instances in The Source New Testament where Nyland assumes a Greek origin for idioms and metaphors. While her understanding of this use of 'eye' is correct, it does mean that in failing to appreciate the use of Hebraic idioms and metaphors she is seriously missing the foundational underpinnings of the New Testament such at the centrality of Torah. Having noted this though, I would still suggest that her translation appears superior to the great majority of English translations of the NT. I do think this error though should act as a cautionary tale to take heed of and therefore not to be too reliant on her translation.