φωτίζῃ σε. The verse may be rendered literally, ‘If then thy body be wholly illumined … it shall be illumined wholly as when the lamp with its bright shining illumines thee.’ The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. “God will light my candle,” Psalms 18:28. “Thy word is a lantern unto my feet.” In these words we catch an echo of those thoughts on the diffusiveness and divineness of light which are so fully developed in St John’s Gospel (Luke 8:12).

“Wär nicht das Auge sonnenhaft,
Wie könnten wir das Licht erblicken?”

GOETHE.

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Old Testament