Vv. 38-42. Fifth illustration, from the law of compensation. Ver. 38 contains the theme, the following vv. Christ’s comment.—O@@alpov ... ὀδόντος. An exact quotation from Ex. xxi. 24, Christ’s criticism here concerns a precept from the oldest code of Hebrew law. Fritzsche explains the accusatives, ὀφθαλμὸν, ὀδόντα, by supposing εἶναι to be under- stood: ‘* Ye have heard that Moses wrote that an eye shall be for an eye”. The simplest explanation is that the two nouns in the original passage are under the government of δώσει, Ex. xxi. 23. (So Weiss and Meyer after Grotius.) Tersely expressed, a sound principle Οἱ civil law for the guidance of the judge, acted on by almost all peoples: Christ does not condemn it: if parties come before the judge, let him by all means give fair compensation for injuries re- ceived. He simply leaves it on one side.
112
j Ch. Σαν. μοῦ, καὶ ὀδόντα ἀντὶ ὀδόντος ° . Sep
Vv.
39- ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν ph ἀντιστῆναι τῷ
κκ] πονηρῷ: GAN ὅστις σε ) ῥαπίσει ἐπὶ] τὴν δεξιάν σου * σιαγόνα," κ ie vi. a9. στρέψον αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν ἄλλην: 40. καὶ τῷ θέλοντί σοι κριθῆναι καὶ a δε Χιτῶνά σου λαβεῖν, ἄφες αὐτῷ καὶ τὸ ἵμάτιον' 41. Kai ὅστις σε
1 For to the parall. in Luke.
ῥαπισει επι ΔΙΣ have ραπιζει (pres.) as.
The em of the Τ. R. conforms
2 For σον σιαγονα BD have σιαγονα σον. Tisch. (with §)) omits@ov. W.H.
bracket it.
“Though the judge must give redress when demanded, you are not bound to ask it, and if you take My advice you will not.” In taking up this position Jesus was in harmony with the law itself, which contains dissuasives inst vin- dictiveness, ¢.g., Lev. xix. 18: “ Thou shalt not escnae, nat wg grudge against the children o y people”. The fault of the scribes did not te in gainsaying this and introducing the jus talionis into private life, but in giving greater prominence to the legal than to the ethical element in the O. T. teaching, and in occupying themselves mainly wi discussing the casuistry of compensation, ¢.g., the items to be compensated for in a case of wounding—the pain, the cure, the loss of time, the shame, etc., and the money value of the whole. Jesus turned the minds of His disciples away from these trivialities to the great neglected ethical commonplace.
Ver. 39. μὴ ἀντιστῆναι: resist not, either by sp ne to prevent injury or by seeking redress for πα ῷ, not the devil, as Chrys. and annie thought ; either the evil doer or the evil doing or done. Opinion is much divided between the last two meanings. The sense is the same in either case. The A. V. takes πονηρῷ as neuter, the R. V. as masculine. The former is on the whole to be preferred. Instances of injury in various forms are next speci- fied to illustrate the general precept. These injuries have been variously dis- tinguished—to body, and property, and freedom, Tholuck; exemplum citatur in- juriae, privatae, forensis, curialis, Bengel; injuries connected with honour, material good, waste of time, Achelis, who points out that the relation of the three, Ex. in vv. 39-41, is that of an anti-climax, in- juries to honour being felt most, and those involving waste of time least.— ders . «+ ἄλλην. In the following instances there is a climax: injury proceeds from bad to worse, It is natural to expect the same in thisone. But when the right
cheek has been struck, is it an va- tion to strike the left? Tholuck, Bleek, and Meyer suggest that the right cheek is only named first according to common custom, not supposed to be struck first. Achelis conceives the right cheek to be struck first with the back of the hand, then the left with a return stroke with the palm, Ya high than the first, and ex- pressing ina er measure intention to insult.—pam({e in class. Greek = to beat with rods; later, and in N. T., to smite with the palm of the hand; vide Lobeck, Phryn., p. 175-—Ver. 40, κριθῆναι = in 1 Cor. vi. 1, to sue at law as in A. . Grotius takes it as meaning extra-judicial strife, while admitting that the word is used in the judicial sense in the Sept., «.g., Job ix. 3, Eccles. vi. 1ο. Beza had previously taken the same view.— x Téva, ἵμάτιον. The contention is supposed to be about the under gar- ment or the tunic, and the advice is, rather than go to law, let him have not only it but also, καὶ, the more costly upper robe, mantle, toga. The man might have several tunics or shicts for change, but only one upper garment, used for clothing by day, for bed-cover by night, therefore humanely forbidden to be retained over night as a pledge, Ex. xxii. 26. Ver. 41. Gyyapetou: compel thee to one mile in A. V. and R. V. Hatch Teepe in Biblical Greek, p. 37) thinks it means compel thee to carry his baggage, a very probable rendering in view of the history of the word as he gives it. A Persian word, originally, introduced into the Greek, Latin, and Rabbinic languages, it denoted first to requisition men, beasts, or conveyances for the courier system described in Herod. viii. g8, Xen. Cyr. viii. 6, 17; next in post-classical use under the successors of the Persians in the East, and under the Roman Em- pire, it was applied to the forced trans- port of military baggage by the inhabit- ants of a country through which troops were passing. Hatch remarks: ‘ The