Matthew 5:38 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 5:38 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

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

You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The fifth antithesis addresses the lex talionis, the law of proportional retaliation from Exodus 21:24. In its original context, the lex talionis was not a license for personal revenge but a limit on escalating vengeance in legal settings: the punishment must not exceed the injury. It was a principle of judicial restraint. The tradition, however, had extended it to personal dealings, providing a framework for private retaliation that Jesus will now challenge.

Church Fathers on Matthew 5:38

The Lord having taught that we are not to offer injury to our neighbour, or irreverence to the Lord, now proceeds to shew how the Christian should demean himself to those that injure him.
Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria) · medieval compilation · non occ.

This law, 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth,' was enacted to repress the flames of mutual hate, and to be a check on their undisciplined spirits. For who when he would take revenge, was ever content to return just so much harm as he had received? Do we not see men who have suffered some trifling hurt, straightway plot murder, thirst for blood, and hardly find evil enough that they can do to their enemies for the satisfying their rage?
Augustine · 4th century · cont. Faust., xix, 25

For without this command, the commands of the Law could not stand. For if according to the Law we begin all of us to render evil for evil, we shall all become evil, since they that do hurt abound. But if according to Christ we resist not evil, though they that are evil be not amended, yet they that are good remain good.
Pseudo-Chrysostom · 5th century

Read all 28 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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