Matthew:6:19-24

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rwp @Matthew:6:19 @{Lay not up for yourselves treasures } (\m ˆ th ˆsaurizete humin th ˆsaurous \). Do not have this habit (\m ˆ\ and the present imperative ). See on ¯Matthew:2:11 | for the word "treasure ." Here there is a play on the word , "treasure not for yourselves treasures ." Same play in verse 20 | with the cognate accusative . In both verses \humin \ is dative of personal interest and is not reflexive , but the ordinary personal pronoun . Wycliff has it : "Do not treasure to you treasures ." rwp @Matthew:6:19 @{Break through } (\diorussousin \). Literally "dig through ." Easy to do through the mud walls or sun-dried bricks . Today they can pierce steel safes that are no longer safe even if a foot thick . The Greeks called a burglar a "mud-digger " (\toichoruchos \). rwp @Matthew:6:20 @{Rust } (\br “sis \). Something that "eats " (\bibr “sk “\) or "gnaws " or "corrodes ." rwp @Matthew:6:22 @{Single } (\haplous \). Used of a marriage contract when the husband is to repay the dowry "pure and simple " (\t ˆn phern ˆn hapl ˆn \), if she is set free ; but in case he does not do so promptly , he is to add interest also (Moulton and Milligan 's _Vocabulary_ , etc .). There are various other instances of such usage . Here and in strkjv @Luke:11:34 | the eye is called "single " in a moral sense . The word means "without folds " like a piece of cloth unfolded , _simplex_ in Latin . Bruce considers this parable of the eye difficult . "The figure and the ethical meaning seem to be mixed up , moral attributes ascribed to the physical eye which with them still gives light to the body . This confusion may be due to the fact that the eye , besides being the organ of vision , is the seat of expression , revealing inward dispositions ." The "evil " eye (\pon ˆros \) may be diseased and is used of stinginess in the LXX and so \haplous \ may refer to liberality as Hatch argues ( _Essays in Biblical Greek_ , p . 80 ). The passage may be elliptical with something to be supplied . If our eyes are healthy we see clearly and with a single focus (without astigmatism ). If the eyes are diseased (bad , evil ), they may even be cross-eyed or cock-eyed . We see double and confuse our vision . We keep one eye on the hoarded treasures of earth and roll the other proudly up to heaven . Seeing double is double-mindedness as is shown in verse 24 |. rwp @Matthew:6:24 @{No man can serve two masters } (\oudeis dunatai dusi kuriois douleuein \). Many try it , but failure awaits them all . Men even try "to be slaves to God and mammon " (\The “i douleuein kai mam “n ƒi \). Mammon is a Chaldee , Syriac , and Punic word like _Plutus_ for the money-god (or devil ). The slave of mammon will obey mammon while pretending to obey God . The United States has had a terrible revelation of the power of the money-god in public life in the Sinclair-Fall-Teapot-Air-Dome-Oil case . When the guide is blind and leads the blind , both fall into the ditch . The man who cannot tell road from ditch sees falsely as Ruskin shows in _Modern Painters_ . He will hold to one (\henos anthexetai \). The word means to line up face to face (\anti \) with one man and so against the other .

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