"The Light of the World" is an allegorical painting representing the figure of Jesus preparing to knock on an overgrown and long-unopened door. The original is said to have been painted at night in a makeshift hut at Worcester Park Farm in Surrey where Hunt found the dawn light he needed.

The closed door was the obstinately shut mind (has no handle, representing the human soul, which cannot be opened from the outside), the weeds the cumber of daily neglect, the accumulated hindrances of sloth; the orchard the garden of delectable fruit for the dainty feast of the soul. The music of the still small voice was the summons to the sluggard to awaken and become a zealous labourer under the Divine Master; the bat flitting about only in darkness was a natural symbol of ignorance; the kingly and priestly dress of Christ, the sign of His reign over the body and the soul, to them who could give their allegiance to Him and acknowledge God's overrule. In making it a night scene, lit mainly by the lantern carried by Christ, I had followed metaphorical explanation in the Psalms, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path," with also the accordant allusions by St. Paul to the sleeping soul, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." (Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, 1905, pg.350-351)

The original resides in a side chapel off the large chapel at Keble College, Oxford. The painting was donated to Keble College by Mrs. Marth Combe in 1872; following the death of her husband, Thomas Combe. He was Printer to the University of Oxford, Tractarian and a patron of the Pre-Raphaelites.