The Lamp under a Bushel
Read the parable
- Mark 4:21-25 Primary account
- Matthew 5:14-16 Parallel account
- Luke 8:16-18 Parallel account
- Luke 11:33-36 Parallel account
Context
The one-roomed Palestinian house was lit by a single small clay oil lamp set on a stand where it served the whole household. A "bushel" was the household grain-measure; clapping it over the lamp, or shoving the lamp under the sleeping-bench, would be absurd — the saying was proverbial enough that Jesus applied it on several occasions: after the sower parable, in the Sermon on the Mount, and in his teaching on the light of the body.
Meaning
A lamp exists to give light, and what Jesus reveals is meant to shine, not be hidden: "there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested". In Mark and Luke 8 the saying urges hearers to take heed how they hear, since the light received must be passed on and what one does with it will be measured back. In Matthew it commissions disciples themselves as "the light of the world", whose visible good works lead others to glorify the Father. Truth received creates responsibility to live it openly.
Go deeper
Two free lessons walk through the parables as a whole: The Parables of Jesus and Interpreting the Parables.