29If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
The Greek that is translated in English versions as “hell” (or “Gehenna”) is translated (1) by borrowing a term from a trade or national language (this is done in a number of Indian languages in Latin America, which have borrowed Spanishinfierno — from Latininfernus: “of the lower regions”), (2) by using an expression denoting judgment or punishment, e.g. “place of punishment” (Loma), “place of suffering” (Highland Totonac, San Blas Kuna) and (3) by describing a significant characteristic: (a) the presence of fire or burning, e.g. “place of fire” (Kipsigis, Mossi), “the large bonfire” (Shipibo-Conibo), or (b) the traditionally presumed location, e.g. “the lowest place” (a well-known term in Ngäbere), “the place inside” long used to designate hell, as a place inside the earth (Aymara). (Source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
In Noongar it is translated as Djinbaminyap or “Punishing place” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang) and in Tagbanwa as “the fire which had no dying down” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
The Mandarin Chinesedìyù (地獄 / 地狱), literally “(under) earth prison,” is a term that was adopted from Buddhist sources into early Catholic writings and later also by Protestant translators. (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 32)
“The word ‘offend’ as a translation of the Greek skandalizó seems to cause all sorts of trouble for translators. The difficulty is that the meaning of this word covers such a wide area. The basic meaning of the Greek is ‘to cause to stumble by putting some impediment in the way.’ The present central meaning of English ‘offend’ is often quite different. In some languages there is no metaphorical value in a translation ‘to cause someone to stumble.’ If the language permits no such metaphor, the translator should not attempt to force it. In Highland Totonac, the metaphor ‘to show the wrong road to’ is used in a manner almost exactly parallel to the Greek idiom.” (Source: Nida 1947)
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 5:29:
Uma: “So if for example our (incl.) right eye causes [lit., carries] us (incl.) to sin, scoop it out and throw it away. It is far better that one of our (incl.) eyes is lost, than our (incl.) whole body be thrown into hell.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “If your right eye influences you to sin, leave that sin of yours. Figuratively as if you dig out your eye and throw it away. It is better if you no longer have one of your eyes than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And if it is your right eye that causes you to sin, dig it out and throw it away. It is better if you have no eye rather than your being thrown into the fire of hell with your whole body.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Therefore if your (sing.) right eye is the cause-of-your (sing.) -sinning, extract it to throw it away. Because it’s-preferable if your (sing.) body has a part taken-from-it (root word: lack) than that your (sing.) body have no lack and you (sing.) be thrown into hell.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Therefore if your (sing.) eye is the source of what causes you to sin, just pluck it out and throw it away. Because it’s better if there’s a part of your body subtracted, rather than still having a complete body which will be thrown into the fire that doesn’t die down, which is punishment by God.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “So now, if you say that it is the fault of your eye, the right one, that you commit sin, then pluck out your eye and throw it away. It is better that you have lost an eye rather than you go to hell with all your body.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Martu Wangka: “Jesus said to them another talk like this, ‘If you see with your eye, and think about doing bad, if you have thought like that with the intention of doing bad, then you should dig out your eye and throw it away. If you think and do like that, You will sit well with one eye without doing bad so that you won’t be sent to the fire if you should do bad.'” (Source: Carl Gross)
Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Matthew 5:27-32:
The Bible says, “Be faithful in marriage.”
But I tell you to rid your mind of those lustful thoughts
that entice you to become unfaithful.
Poke out your staring eye and chop off your grabby hand —
better this, than for your whole body to burn in hell!
Thinking about divorce, just because it’s legal? Forget it!
Shy away from divorce, except as a last recourse,
and then only if your spouse has been terribly unfaithful.
When you divorce, you declare your partner an adulterer,
as well as anyone who marries your ex.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
This and the following verse are applications of the statement regarding adultery. Even if a man’s eye, which should keep him from stumbling, causes him to sin, it should be taken out and thrown away! Commentators agree that the right eye is chosen as an illustration on the analogy of the “right hand” (verse 30), which is generally regarded as more useful than the left. Quite often translators find it odd to speak of one particular eye causing sin, since we see with both. Therefore some say “your eye” or “your eyes.”
Causes … to sin translates a verb frequently used in Matthew’s Gospel (5.30; 11.6; 13.21, 57; 15.12; 17.27; 18.6, 8, 9; 24.10; 26.31, 33). The root meaning is “cause to stumble,” and the specific nature of the “stumbling,” whether physical or otherwise, is determined by the context. In Matthew the focus is generally upon the doing of something that may lead another to give up his faith. Causes … to sin can be translated as “causes you to do wrong,” “makes you sin,” or “makes you think about doing wrong so that you sin.”
The phrase needs to be restructured in many languages, as in “if, because of what your eye has seen, you sin” or “if you are led to do sin because of your eyes (or, because of what you have seen with your eyes).”
If translators have used the plural “your eyes,” then they will say “pluck them out” rather than pluck it out.
Of course, Jesus is using very exaggerated language to impress on his hearers the seriousness of what he is saying. There have been translators that have wanted to tone it down, or to make the application clear in the translation, as in “You must not let anything prevent you from entering the kingdom and send you to hell instead. Even your vision is less important.” But translators should retain the language of Jesus at this point.
One of your members means “one part of your body.” Some translations make it clear that the eye is the part of the body being spoken of here, as in “your eye, which is only one part of your body.”
Lose means “deprived of.” The sentence can be “It is better not to have one of the parts of the body” or “It is better to have one of the parts of your body missing.” “Lose” in the sense of “not able to find” would be wrong in this context.
Hell is the rendering of most modern translations (New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Barclay, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Bible en français courant, Bijbel in Gewone Taal). An American Translation translates “the pit!” and Phillips “the rubbish-heap.” Revised Standard Version follows the translation hell with a note “Greek Gehenna”; both Moffatt and New American Bible translate “Gehenna.” The word “Gehenna” is merely a transliteration of the Greek, which itself is a Grecized form of the Hebrew. See comments at verse 22, where the word is first used.
The phrase thrown into hell is a passive construction. Many translations use an impersonal construction such as “they throw your body into hell” or “they force you to go to hell.” Others make God the indirect agent, as in “God has your body thrown.” Another way would be to say simply that you “go to hell.”
Some translations use a sentence with “worse” rather than “better,” as in “It is bad to lose a part of your body, but it is worse if the whole body gets thrown into hell.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
In these verses, Jesus used two figurative examples to show that sinning is to be strongly avoided. They are also called examples of hyperbole or exaggeration. Jesus used these examples in order to emphasize a truth. A literal eye or hand cannot cause a person to sin. The only things that cause sin are wrong attitudes, desires, and thoughts that come from the heart. These examples show that it is very important to remove from one’s heart the nonphysical things which cause sin.
Throughout 5:29–30, in the Greek text, the pronouns for “you” or “your” are all singular.
5:29a–b
If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away: In this context, the right eye is a figure of speech. The right eye represents sins that a person commits with his eyes.
Here is another way to express this figure of speech:
If you are tempted to sin with/using your right eye, gouge it out
If people in your area will think that this verse is literally commanding someone to remove his eye, you may want to:
• Indicate that this is a figurative example:
If ⌊for a figurative example⌋ your right eye causes you to sin
• Include the non-figurative meaning and also make the figurative example into a simile:
⌊Remove and throw away any cause of sin! Remove it as completely as⌋ if you were removing your right eye that causes you to sin.
• Include a footnote to explain. Here is a sample footnote:
In this verse and the next verse Jesus talked about parts of the body that we use when we sin. He used the right eye and the right hand as symbols that stand for what we look at and what we do. When he said that we should remove our right eye or right hand, he meant that we should do everything possible to keep ourselves from sinning
5:29b
gouge it out and throw it away: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as gouge…out means “take/pull out.” This verse part continues the exaggeration in 5:29a.
Here are some other ways to translate gouge it out:
take it out (Good News Translation)
-or-
tear it out (English Standard Version)
-or-
pluck it out (Revised Standard Version)
5:29c–d
It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell: This sentence is a comparison. The two events here are both bad. But to lose one part of your body is not as bad as your whole body being thrown into hell. In that way the first clause is better than the second clause.
Here are some other ways to translate this comparison:
To lose one part of your body is not as bad as your whole body being thrown into hell
-or-
Losing one part of your body is good compared to your whole body being thrown into hell
-or-
Losing one part of your body is good. Having your whole body thrown into hell is bad.
5:29c
The Greek of 5:29c begins with a conjunction that is often translated as “for.” it indicates that 5:29c is the basis for the command to tear out your eye in 5:29b. Many English versions like the Berean Standard Bible do not translate this conjunction. In some languages, it will not be necessary to translate this conjunction either.
lose one part of your body: The clause lose one part of your body refers specifically to losing your right eye. It also refers to losing that eye while still living. It may be more natural in some languages to make some of this information explicit. For example:
It is better to lose one part of your body ⌊while living⌋
-or-
Losing your right eye is better
5:29d
your whole body to be thrown into hell: The verb be thrown is passive.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
• Use a passive verb as the Berean Standard Bible.
• Use an active verb. For example:
God will throw your whole body into hell.
hell: The word hell refers to the place of eternal punishment where unbelievers will go after the final judgment. The devil and his angels will also go there.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
place of eternal punishment
-or-
place of unending fire
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