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The Greek Septuagint translation uses failing eyes for distress in Deuteronomy and Lamentations. This idiom may explain an obscure phrase about John's eyes in the Gospel of Thomas, if its Coptic language contains a copying error.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Deuteronomy 28:65
Septuagint
64 And the Lord your God shall scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other; and you shall there serve other gods, wood and stone, which you have not known, nor your fathers. 65 Moreover among those nations he will not give you quiet, neither by any means shall the sole of your foot have rest; and the Lord shall give you there a misgiving heart, and failing eyes, and a wasting soul. 66 And your life shall be in suspense before your eyes; and you shall be afraid by day and by night, and you shall have no assurance of your life.
LXX Lamentations 2:11
Septuagint
10 JOD. The elders of the daughter of Sion have sat upon the ground, they have kept silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have clothed themselves with sackcloths: they have brought down to the ground the chief virgins in Jerusalem. 11 CHAPH. My eyes have failed with tears, my heart is troubled, my glory is cast down to the ground, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; while the infant and suckling swoon in the streets of the city. 12 LAMED. They said to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? while they fainted like wounded men in the streets of the city, while their souls were poured out into their mothers' bosom.
Gospel of Thomas 46
Nag Hammadi
45 Jesus said, “Grapes are not harvested from thorn trees, nor are figs gathered from thistles; for they do not produce fruit. Good people bring forth good from their treasure; bad people bring forth evil from their evil treasure in their heart and say evil things. For out of the abundance of the heart they bring forth evil.” 46 Jesus said, “From Adam to John the Baptist, among those born of women, no one is greater than John the Baptist so that his eyes should not be averted. Yet I have said that whoever among you will become a child will know the kingdom and will become greater than John.” 47 Jesus said, “It is impossible for a man to mount two horses or to stretch two bows; and it is impossible for a servant to serve two masters, for he will honor the one and treat the other contemptuously. No person drinks old wine and immediately desires to drink new wine. New wine is not put into old wineskins, or they might burst; and old wine is not put into a new wineskin, or it might spoil. An old patch is not sewn onto a new garment, because it would tear.”
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Notes and References
“... The Coptic’s reference to John’s eyes literally breaking [...] is very peculiar. Plisch suggests textual corruption, and it may be that the better sense is ‘eyes failing’, a common biblical idiom referring to a state of being deeply troubled with no comfort: Among those nations you shall find no ease, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes (ἐκλείποντας ὀφθαλμούς), and a languishing spirit. (Deut. 28.65) My eyes fail from weeping (ἐξέλιπον ἐν δάκρυσιν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου), I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. (Lam. 2.11) This idiom may be suggested as a possible alternative. [...] An inner-Coptic scribal error would be quite comprehensible [...]. Examples of the biblical-Coptic idiom [...] (‘my eyes have failed’) can be seen in Ps. 68.3/4 and Ps. 119/118.82. It is nevertheless, like all conjectures, a speculation. ...”
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