Chronological timeline of texts tagged with Extramisssion Theory of Vision
About This Tag
The extramission theory of vision—the idea that the eyes emit rays or a form of light to perceive the world—was widely accepted in ancient thought and appears in various literary and philosophical traditions. Greek thinkers like Plato and Euclid supported versions of this theory, and it influenced medical and optical theories for centuries. In biblical texts, echoes of this concept can be found in passages that describe the eyes as sources of light or radiance.
Note: Dates shown in this timeline are approximate and based on scholarly estimates.
Back to TagTestament of Dan 2:4 / Matthew 6:23
100 B.C.E. - 100 C.E.
Testament of Dan 2:4
Pseudepigrapha
For whether it be a father or mother, he treats them as enemies; whether it be a brother, he no longer knows him; whether it is a prophet of the Lord, he disobeys him; whether a righteous man, he disregards him; whether a friend, he fails to acknowledge him. For the spirit of anger entangles him in a web of deceit, blinds his eyes, darkens his mind with falsehood, and forces upon him its own distorted vision. And how does it blind his eyes? By filling his heart with hatred, so that he grows envious of his own brother.
70-90 C.E.
Matthew 6:23
New Testament
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
77 C.E.
Pliny Natural History 5.2.16
Classical
16 Isogonus and Nymphodorus report that there are families in the same part of Africa that practise sorcery, whose praises cause meadows to dry up, trees to wither and infants to perish. Isogonus adds that there are people of the same kind among the Triballi and the Illyrians, who also bewitch with a glance and who kill those they stare at for a longer time, especially with a look of anger, and that their evil eye is most felt by adults; and that what is more remarkable is that they have two pupils in each eye. 17 Apollonides also reports women of this kind in Scythia, who are called the Bitiae, and Phylarchus also the Thibii tribe and many others of the same nature in Pontus, whose distinguishing marks he records as being a double pupil in one eye and the likeness of a horse in the other, and he also says that they are incapable of drowning, even when weighed down with clothing. Damon records a tribe not unlike these in Ethiopia, the Pharmaces, whose sweat relieves of diseases bodies touched by it.
54-55 C.E.
Galatians 3:1
New Testament
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has given you the evil eye?* Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified! 2 The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?