Lost In Translation: Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Note: This article is part of a series explaining the secrets hidden in Greek for some of Jesus’s most popular verses. See this article for the beginning of this series.)
This verse is from the Sermon on the Mount. It is set up by two earlier verses where Jesus tells everyone that they are the light of this world (Matthew 5:14) and not to hide their light but to illuminate the whole household (Matthew 5:15). Jesus then says in Matthew 5:16:
NIV: In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
A common problem with English translation is that several different Greek words are translated into the same English word, muddying Jesus’s meaning. Here, the key words, “shine,” “see,” and “good” are confused with other Greek words translated into English in the same way. Confusion about the kind of “good” that Jesus is talking about is especially damaging to understanding this verse. It reduces Jesus’s interesting message into the same old boring stuff about “good” and “evil.” The word Jesus uses here has nothing to do with “not sinning.” He means something else entirely.
Nor does this “glorify” God. The word translated as “glorify” means different than how its religious sense. The meaning of the Greek word is much easier to understand, but not if we don’t know what Jesus means by “good.”
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