Jesus Christ · The Sermon on the Mount
Turn the Other Cheek
“An eye for an eye” sounds savage to modern ears, but it was never a license for private vengeance — it was a Torah limiton it, keeping retaliation in the courtroom and out of the blood feud. Jesus goes further still: not less retaliation, but none. And He does not stop at absorbing a blow — He hands His hearers the second mile, turning a soldier's forced labor into a gift no law could compel.
The Text
— Matthew 5:38–42You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also;The old limit named, and the new command that goes past it.
if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well; and if someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.Coat, cloak, mile, and the open hand — four cases of the same command.
This is the fifth of six “ye have heard… but I say unto you” contrasts in Matthew 5 — Jesus is not editing the Law of Moses, He is closing the loophole His hearers had built into it. “An eye for an eye” regulated judges; it never authorized a man to settle his own score.
The Five Cases
— Matthew 5:39–42 — five scenes, each further past the old limit- MATTHEW 5:39THE RIGHT CHEEK
“whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also”
- MATTHEW 5:40THE CLOAK ALSO
“if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also”
- MATTHEW 5:41THE SECOND MILE
“whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain”
the mile Rome could take by force (angareia) — the second was his own to give; see Matthew 27:32, the same word laid on Simon of Cyrene
- MATTHEW 5:42AGIVE TO HIM THAT ASKETH
“give to him that asketh thee”
- MATTHEW 5:42BTURN NOT AWAY THE BORROWER
“from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away”
What He Is Saying
— a courtroom limit, and a call past it“An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” (Exodus 21:24) was Israel's lex talionis— a ceiling on punishment, not a floor. It told a judge the penalty could not exceed the injury; it said nothing to a private citizen nursing a grudge. By Jesus's day the limit had been stretched into a license, and He answers it with four scenes, each escalating past what the Law could ever demand: take the blow without a second one landing, surrender the cloak the Law itself protected, carry the pack a second mile past the first, and open your hand to the one who asks.
“Compel” — the word Rome used on Simon of Cyrenethe mile, and who owned it
“Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile” translates a specific legal term — angareia— for the Roman practice of conscripting local civilians into unpaid, forced labor: carrying a soldier's pack, digging, hauling. It is the very word Matthew uses again just two chapters later, when the soldiers compelSimon of Cyrene to carry Jesus's cross (Matthew 27:32). A Roman mile of forced service was a daily, resented humiliation under occupation — no Galilean chose it. Jesus's command was not a metaphor for trying harder; it was scandalously specific. Walking a second mile, freely, turned an act Rome could compel by force into a gift Rome could never have extracted — and put the moral high ground back in the conscripted man's hands.
The backhand and the cloakstatus, shame, and Exodus 22
A strike “on thy right cheek” from an assailant facing you is most naturally a backhand — in an honor-shame culture, not an act of injury so much as an act of insult, the way a superior struck an inferior. Turning the other cheek denied the striker a second backhand and forced him either to stop or to strike as an equal, open-handed — an act with its own social cost. The cloak carries the same reversal: when sued for the inner garment (the “coat”), Torah itself protected the outer cloak from being kept overnight, since the poor slept in it (Exodus 22:26–27). Handing it over too did not surrender dignity — it exposed the greed of a creditor demanding more than the Law allowed him to keep.
Two positions have stood in the church on how far “resist not evil” reaches. The majority historic position — Protestant and Catholic alike — reads it as a personal ethic, not a rule for civil justice: government still carries “the sword” of Romans 13, while the individual disciple forgoes private vengeance. A minority position, held historically by the Anabaptist tradition (the Schleitheim Confession, 1527), reads it as absolute nonresistance, extending even to civil government and the use of force in any capacity. Both are named here without disparaging either.
Contemporary scholarship has added a third reading worth naming, though it is not a roster voice: Walter Wink's Engaging the Powers(1992) argues the three examples — cheek, coat, mile — describe creative nonviolent resistance, exposing an oppressor's injustice rather than teaching simple passivity. It is a reading gaining influence in recent decades, not a settled or universal one.
The Voices on the Old Limit
— the church hears Matthew 5:38Ye have heard that it hath been said-- (Ex 21:23-25; An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth--that is, whatever penalty was regarded as a proper equivalent for these. This law of retribution--designed to take vengeance out of the hands of private persons, and commit it to the magistrate--was abused in the opposite way to the commandments of the Decalogue.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 5:38
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Condescending to human perversity, the law permitted retaliation so that men would not harm each other, out of fear of suffering the same themselves (Ex. 21:24).
Theophylact of Ohrid· Commentary on Matthew (1107), Matt 5:38
This command is found in Exo 21:24; Lev 24:20, and Deu 19:21. In these places it was given as a rule to regulate the decisions of judges.… But instead of confining it to magistrates, the Jews had extended it to private conduct, and made it the rule by which to take revenge.… He declares that the law had no reference to private revenge, that it was given only to regulate the magistrate, and that their private conduct was to be governed by different principles.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, Matt 5:38
The Voices on “Resist Not Evil”
— the church hears Matthew 5:39But I say unto you, that ye resist not the evil man - Thus; the Greek word translated resist signifies standing in battle array, striving for victory.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), Matt 5:39
It is the preparedness, after one indignity, not to invite but to submit meekly to another, without retaliation, which this strong language is meant to convey.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 5:39
The Lord wishes that the hope of our faith, extending into eternity, be tested by these things, so that the very toleration of a hidden injury should be a witness of our future judgment. The law used to hold unfaithful Israel within a boundary of fear and contained the desire for injury by the threat of injury returned. Faith, however, does not permit resentment for injuries, nor does it wish for revenge.… There is in the judgment of God a greater consolation for those who have suffered injury and a punishment more dreadful than injuries returned. Therefore the Gospels not only warn us away from iniquities but also drive out the latent desire for vengeance. For if we have received a blow, we ought to offer the other cheek.… The Lord who accompanies us on our journey offers his own cheek to slaps and his shoulders to whips, to the increase of his glory.
Hilary of Poitiers· Commentary on Matthew 4.25 (367), on Matt 5:39
The Voices on the Cloak and the Mile
— the church hears Matthew 5:40–42And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat--the inner garment; in pledge for a debt (Ex 22:26, 27). let him have thy cloak also--the outer and more costly garment. This overcoat was not allowed to be retained over night as a pledge from the poor because they used it for a bed covering.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 5:40
it is an opportunity of glorifying Christ, of doing good, and of experiencing special comforts and visits of grace and tokens of his presence, 2 Cor. i. (2.) They shall be recompensed; Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), Matt 5:41
Shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. - αγγαρευσει. This word is said to be derived from the Persians, among whom the kings messengers, or posts, were called Αγγαποι, or angari. This definition is given both by Hesychius and Suidas. The Persian messengers had the royal authority for pressing horses, ships, and even men, to assist them in the business on which they were employed. These angari are now termed chappars, and serve to carry despatches between the court and the provinces.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), Matt 5:41
Thus much for your behaviour toward the violent. As for those who use milder methods, Give to him that asketh thee - Give and lend to any so far, (but no further, for God never contradicts himself) as is consistent with thy engagements to thy creditors, thy family, and the household of faith.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), Matt 5:42
Where It Points
— the same command across Scriptureeye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,The limit itself — “eye for eye” as a ceiling for judges, never a private license.
Along the way they found a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross of Jesus.The same word “compel” — Simon of Cyrene, conscripted to carry the cross.
Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.“Avenge not yourselves… overcome evil with good” — Paul carries the command forward.
When they heaped abuse on Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats, but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.Christ Himself, reviled, reviling not again — the command lived out first by the One who gave it.
Proverbs 25:21–22 already anticipated the shape of it — feed your enemy, and you “heap coals of fire upon his head” — mercy that shames rather than matches. Jesus does not invent non-retaliation; He fulfills a thread already running through the Law and the Writings, and Paul and Peter both pick the thread back up on the other side of the cross.
Closing
The old law kept vengeance inside a courtroom. Jesus takes it out of the disciple's hands altogether — not because injury stops mattering, but because a follower of His is free enough to give what no one can take, and to walk a second mile no one can compel. The one who taught it walked it first: reviled, He reviled not again.