Matthew 5:14

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
Ye	ὑμεῖς hymeîs	G5210	you (as subjective of verb)
are	ἐστέ esté	G2075	ye are
the light	φῶς phōs	G5457	compare G5316 (φαίνω) · noun — nominative singular neuter
of the world	κόσμου· kosmou	G2889	orderly arrangement · noun — genitive singular masculine
A city	πόλις polis	G4172	a town (properly · noun — nominative singular feminine
that is set	κειμένη· keimenē	G2749	to lie outstretched (literally or figuratively) · verb — present middle or passive deponent participle, nominative singular feminine
on	ἐπάνω epanō	G1883	up above · preposition
an hill	ὄρους orous	G3735	perhaps akin to G142 (αἴρω) · noun — genitive singular neuter
cannot	δύναται dunatai	G1410	to be able or possible · verb — present middle or passive deponent indicative, 3rd person singular
be hid	κρυβῆναι krubēnai	G2928	to conceal (properly · verb — second aorist passive infinitive

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Philippians 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine a…
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the l…
Ephesians 5:8-14 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
1 Thessalonians 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
John 12:36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himsel…
Romans 2:19-20 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
2 Corinthians 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath li…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Matthew 5:13-16

Christ had lately called his disciples, and told them that they should be fishers of men; here he tells them further what he designed them to be - the salt of the earth, and lights of the world, that they might be indeed what it was expected they should be. I. Ye are the salt of the earth. This would encourage and support them under their sufferings, that, though they should be treated with contempt, yet they should really be blessings to the world, and the more so for their suffering thus. The prophets, who went before them, were the salt of the land of Canaan; but the apostles were the salt of the whole earth, for they must go into all the world to preach the gospel. It was a discouragemen…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Matthew 5:14

Ye are the light of the world--This being the distinctive title which our Lord appropriates to Himself (Joh 8:12; Joh 9:5; and see Joh 1:4, Joh 1:9; Joh 3:19; Joh 12:35-36) --a title expressly said to be unsuitable even to the highest of all the prophets (Joh 1:8) --it must be applied here by our Lord to His disciples only as they shine with His light upon the world, in virtue of His Spirit dwelling in them, and the same mind being in them which was also in Christ Jesus. Nor are Christians anywhere else so called. Nay, as if to avoid the august title which the Master has appropriated to Himself, Christians are said to "shine"--not as "lights," as our translators render it, but--"as luminarie…

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John Gill on Matthew 5:14

Ye are the light of the world,.... What the luminaries, the sun and moon, are in the heavens, with respect to corporal light, that the apostles were in the world with regard to spiritual light; carrying and spreading the light of the Gospel not only in Judea, but all over the world, which was in great darkness of ignorance and error; and through a divine blessing attending their ministry, many were turned from the darkness of Judaism and Gentilism, of sin and infidelity, to the marvellous light of divine grace. The Jews were wont to say, that of the Israelites in general, and particularly of their sanhedrim, and of their learned doctors, what Christ more truly applies here to his apostles; t…

The Church Fathers

You are a light of the world, and a tree ever green.
— Tertullian, On Idolatry

For as the sun sends forth his beams, so the Lord, the Sun of righteousness, sent forth his Apostles to dispel the night of the human race.
— Remigius of Rheims ((as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)), Catena Aurea by Aquinas

(non occ.) And therefore let none shut up his faith within the measure of the Law, but have recourse to the Church in which the grace of the sevenfold Spirit shines forth.
— Ambrose of Milan ((as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)), Catena Aurea by Aquinas

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Candle — Heb. ner, Job 18:6; 29:3; Ps. 18:28; Prov. 24:20, in all which places the Revised Version and margin of Authorized Version have “lamp,” by which the word is elsewhere frequently rendered. The Hebrew…
Light — The offspring of the divine command (Gen. 1:3). “All the more joyous emotions of the mind, all the pleasing sensations of the frame, all the happy hours of domestic intercourse were habitually…
Sermon on the mount — After spending a night in solemn meditation and prayer in the lonely mountain-range to the west of the Lake of Galilee (Luke 6:12), on the following morning our Lord called to him his disciples, and…
Agency · IN SALVATION OF MEN — IN SALVATION OF MEN
Blindness, Spiritual · Christ’s ministers are lights to remove — Christ’s ministers are lights to remove
Candlestick · Illustrative Of: Ministers — Illustrative Of: Ministers
Cities · Built: On hills — Built: On hills
Influence · GOOD — GOOD
Light · FIGURATIVE AND SYMBOLI — FIGURATIVE AND SYMBOLI
Religion · TRUE — TRUE
Righteous · .Lights — .Lights
Saints, Compared To · Lights — Lights
Titles And Names Of Saints · Lights of the world

Matthew 5:14

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Matthew 5:13-16

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Matthew 5:14

John Gill on Matthew 5:14

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Matthew 5:14

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Matthew 5:13-16

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Matthew 5:14

John Gill on Matthew 5:14

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Matthew 5:13-16

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Matthew 5:14