Matthew 5:38 BSB — MannaFest

Matthew 5:38

You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

KJV

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

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Commentary

1 voice

Jerome

Commentary on Matthew (420)

(Verse 38.) You have heard that it was said: An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist evil. Whoever says an eye for an eye does not want to take away the other, but to preserve both. Our Lord, by taking away vengeance, cuts off the beginnings of sins. And in the Law there is retribution, in the Gospel there is grace. There, fault is corrected, here the beginnings of sins are taken away.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

John Gill

1697–1771

Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748)

Ye have heard that it hath been said,.... That is, to, or by them of old time, as is expressed in some of the foregoing instances, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, Exo 21:24. This is "lex talionis", the "law of retaliation"; which, whether it is to be understood literally, or not, is a matter of question. The Baithuseans, or Sadducees, among the Jews, took it in a literal sense, and so does Josephus, who says (b), he that shall blind, i.e. put out a man's eyes, shall suffer the like.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible (1832)

An eye for an eye - Our Lord refers here to the law of retaliation mentioned See Exo 21:24, (see the note there, and see Lev 24:20 (note)), which obliged the offender to suffer the same injury he had committed. The Greeks and Romans had the same law. So strictly was it attended to at Athens, that if a man put out the eye of another who had but one, the offender was condemned to lose both his eyes, as the loss of one would not be an equivalent misfortune.

Voices on this verse

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Original language & word study

10 tagged words

Original	Transliteration	Meaning	Word study
Ἠκούσατε	Ēkousate	You have heard	G191 →
ὅτι	hoti	that	G3754 →
ἐρρέθη·	errethē	it was said;	G2046 →
ὀφθαλμὸν	ophthalmon	Eye	G3788 →
ἀντὶ	anti	for	G473 →
ὀφθαλμοῦ	ophthalmou	eye	G3788 →
καὶ	kai	and	G2532 →
ὀδόντα	odonta	tooth	G3599 →
ἀντὶ	anti	for	G473 →
ὀδόντος.	odontos	tooth.’	G3599 →

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

The walk

The walk8

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Matthew 5:27
You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’
leads to
- Deuteronomy 5:18
  You shall not commit adultery.
- Proverbs 6:32
  He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.
- Exodus 20:14
  You shall not commit adultery.
- Leviticus 20:10
  If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.
- Deuteronomy 22:22–24
  If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
Through
Deuteronomy 19:21
You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.
leads to
- Matthew 5:38–39
  You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’
- Exodus 21:23–25
  But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life—
Through
Deuteronomy 19:19
you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. So you must purge the evil from among you.
leads to
- Proverbs 19:5
  A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not escape.