And if thy right eye offend thee
Or "cause thee to offend", to stumble, and fall into sin. Our
Lord has no regard here to near and dear relations seeking to
alienate us from God and Christ, and hinder us in the pursuit of
divine things; whose solicitations are to be rejected with the
utmost indignation, and they themselves to be parted with, and
forsaken, rather than complied with; which is the sense some give
of the words: for both in this, and the following verse, respect
is had only to the law of adultery; and to such members of the
body, which often are the means of leading persons on to the
breach of it; particularly the eye and hand. The eye is often the
instrument of ensnaring the heart this way: hence the Jews have a
F26 saying,
``whoever looks upon women, at the end comes into the hands of transgression.''Mention is only made of the right eye; not but that the left may be an occasion of sinning, as well as the right; but that being most dear and valuable, is instanced in, and ordered to be parted with:
pluck it out, and cast it from thee:
which is not to be understood literally; for no man is obliged to
mutilate any part of his body, to prevent sin, or on account of
the commission of it; this is no where required, and if done,
would be sinful, as in the case of Origen: but figuratively; and
the sense is, that persons should make a covenant with their
eyes, as Job did; and turn them away from beholding such objects,
which may tend to excite impure thoughts and desires; deny
themselves the gratification of the sense of seeing, or feeding
the eyes with such sights, as are graceful to the flesh; and with
indignation and contempt, reject, and avoid all opportunities and
occasions of sinning; which the eye may be the instrument of, and
lead unto:
for it is profitable for thee, that one of thy members
should
perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into
hell.
This is still a continuation of the figure here used; and the
meaning is, that it will turn to better account, to lose all the
carnal pleasures of the eye, or all those pleasing sights, which
are grateful to a carnal heart, than, by enjoying them, to expose
the whole man, body and soul, to everlasting destruction, in the
fire of hell.
F26 T. Bab. Nedarim, fol. 20. 1.
