Biblion Bible Commentary
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Turn the Other Cheek
Matthew 5:38-42
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ · WEB
The fifth: a courtroom limit on revenge is taken out of the court and into the disciple's own conduct, with four small examples.
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth'" Matthew 5:38.
The quoted rule is judicial and it was a mercy when it was given Exodus 21:24 Leviticus 24:20. In a world of blood feuds, where an injury was answered by killing a family, the law capped the penalty at the value of the loss — a limit on retaliation rather than a licence for it. What had happened by this period was that a rule written for judges was being carried around by individuals as a right.
"But I tell you, don't resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also" Matthew 5:39.
The four examples are all small and specific, and it matters that none of them involves defending somebody else. A blow to the right cheek from a right-handed man is a backhanded slap — the insult given to an inferior, an affront rather than an assault. Turning the other refuses both the injury and the retaliation, and leaves the striker facing a person who has not been reduced.
"If anyone sues you to take away your coat, let him have your cloak also" Matthew 5:40.
The second is a lawsuit over an inner garment, and the response gives up the outer cloak too — which the law would not let a creditor keep overnight, since a poor man slept in it Exodus 22:26–27. The instruction hands over the one thing the law protected.
"Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two" Matthew 5:41.
The third is the occupying army's right of impressment: a soldier could require a civilian to carry his pack a fixed distance. Walking the second mile turns a humiliation into something freely done, which is the only power the compelled person has left and a real one.
"Give to him who asks you, and don't turn away him who desires to borrow from you" Matthew 5:42.
The fourth moves from injury to open-handedness, which is where the paragraph has been going. These are illustrations of a disposition rather than statutes to be applied literally in every case — Jesus himself answers a wrongful blow with a question rather than the other cheek John 18:22–23, and Paul invokes his legal rights more than once. What the paragraph forbids is the settled instinct to answer damage with damage, which no amount of legal justification makes into the kingdom's way.
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