Matthew 5:29 (WEB)
If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.
Catechism · 3
"I Believe in Life Everlasting"
“Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost.” — Catechism footnote: Cf. Mt 5:22, 29; 10:28; 13:42, 50; Mk 9:43-48.
I Believe in God
“My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.” — Catechism footnote: St. Nicholas of Flue; cf. Mt 5:29-30; 16:24-26.
The Fifth Commandment
“Going further, Christ asks his disciples to turn the other cheek, to love their enemies.” — Catechism footnote: Cf. Mt 5:22-39; 5:44.
Fathers and councils · 17
Theodoret of Cyrus
“…deposed him from the order of the presbytery, for he heard the law of God loudly declaring, “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee.”” — editor's note: ἐὰν…σκανδαλιζῃ, St. Matt. v. 29 and xviii. 9; εἰ…σκανδαλίζει, cf. Mark ix. 43
Read the whole comment“…to Lot, “Escape for thy life”; and further the law of the gospel which plainly ordains “if thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee.”” — editor's note: Matt. v. 29
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John Chrysostom
“Wherefore It saith, “If thine eye offend thee, smite it out, if thy foot, cut it off.” ( Matt. v. 29, and xviii. 8.)” — the author cites it
Read the whole comment““If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee.”” — editor's note: Matt. v. 29. [R.V., “If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble,” and so, everywhere in rendering σκανδαλζειν .—R.]
Read the whole comment“Hear also Christ saying to them, “Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones,” and, “every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or father, or mother, shall receive an hundredfold in this world, and shall inherit everlasting life.”” — editor's note: Matt. v. 29; compare Mark x. 30, Luke viii. 30.
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Clement of Alexandria
“Accordingly, the Lord very summarily cures this malady: “If thine eye offend thee, cut it out,” He says, dragging lust up from the foundation.” — editor's note: Quoting from memory, he has substituted ἔκκοψον for ἔξελε (Matt. v. 29).
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Catena Aurea on Matthew
- Glossa OrdinariaCatena Aurea on Matthew
Because we ought not only to avoid actual sin, but even put away every occasion of sin, therefore having taught that adultery is to be avoided not in deed only, but in heart, He next teaches us to cut off the…
Read the whole comment - Pseudo-ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
But if according to that of the Prophet, “there is no whole part in our body,” [Ps 38:3] it is needful that we cut off every limb that we have that the punishment may be equal to the depravity of the flesh. Is it…
Read the whole comment - JeromeCatena Aurea on Matthew
Therefore by the right eye and the right hand we must understand the love of brethren, husbands and wives, parents and kinsfolk; which if we find to hinder our view of the true light, we ought to sever from us.
Read the whole comment - Augustine of HippoCatena Aurea on Matthew
As the eye denotes contemplation, so the hand aptly denotes action. By the eye we must understand our most cherished friend, as they are wont to say who would express ardent affection, ‘I love him as my own eye.’ And…
Read the whole comment - Pseudo-ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
Otherwise; Christ would have us careful not only of our own sin, but likewise that even they who pertain to us should keep themselves from evil. Have you any friend who looks to your matters as your own eye, or…
Read the whole comment - Hilary of PoitiersCatena Aurea on Matthew
Thus a more lofty step of innocence is appointed us, in that we are admonished to keep free, not only from sin ourselves, but from such as might touch us from without.
Read the whole comment - JeromeCatena Aurea on Matthew
Otherwise; As above He had placed lust in the looking on a woman, so now the thought and sense straying hither and thither He calls ‘the eye.’ By the right hand and the other parts of the body, He means the initial…
Read the whole comment - Pseudo-ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
The eye of flesh is the mirror of the inward eye. The body also has its own sense, that is, the left eye, and its own appetite, that is, the left hand. But the parts of the soul are called right, for the soul was…
Read the whole comment - Glossa OrdinariaCatena Aurea on Matthew
Or, the “right eye” is the contemplative life which offends by being the cause of indolence or self-conceit, or in our weakness that we are not able to support it unmixed. The “right hand” is good works, or the…
Read the whole comment - Remigius of AuxerreCatena Aurea on Matthew
The reason why the right eye and the right hand are to be cast away is subjoined in that, “For it is better, &c.”
Read the whole comment - Pseudo-ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
For as we are every one members one of another, it is better that we should be saved without some one of these members, than that we perish together with them. Or, it is better that we should be saved without one…
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Cross-references · 19
Parallel passages
Matthew 5:29 and Mark 9:45 share the same wording (9 words).
Matthew 5:29 and Mark 9:47 share the same wording (9 words).
Cited together with
Cited together in Catechism §1034.
Cited together in Catechism §1034.
Cited together in Catechism §1034.
Cited together in Catechism §1034.
Cited together in Catechism §226.
Cited together in Catechism §226.
Cited together in Catechism §226.
Cited together in Catechism §1034.
Cited together in Catechism §1034 and 1 other place.
Cited together in Catechism §1034.
Cited together in Catechism §1034.
Cited together in Catechism §1034.
Cited together in Catechism §1034.
Cited together in Catechism §1034.
Cited together in Ecclesiastical History I.2.
Cited together in Ecclesiastical History II.27.
Cited together in Pseudo-Chrysostom on Matthew 5:29–30 (Catena Aurea).
