Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Parallel translations
- WEB You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden.
- BSB You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
- NKJV “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
- NASB “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;
- NLT “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Disciples are the light of the world, like a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. It calls believers to visible, public witness.
Overview
Jesus, who is Himself the light of the world, here calls His people to reflect that light before others. Like a hilltop city, the community of disciples is meant to be seen, not concealed. Their visible godliness bears witness to God and draws attention to Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Phil 2:15That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
- John 8:12Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
- Eph 5:8–14For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
- 1 Th 5:5Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
- Prov 4:18But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
- John 12:36While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.
- Rom 2:19–20And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
- 2 Cor 6:14Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
- John 5:35He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
- Rev 21:14–27And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
- Rev 1:20The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
- Gen 11:4–8And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 5:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.