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MATTHEW 5:40 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 5:39Matt 5:41
“And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.”
And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. The tunic was the inner garment; the cloak was the outer garment that also served as a sleeping covering (Exodus 22:26–27 protected it from being kept overnight as a pledge). Giving up the cloak too — beyond what was legally required — is the same refusal to fight on the aggressor's terms. It also has a subversive element: the person who ends up with both garments of someone who was being sued has revealed the extremity of their own position. The excess generosity of the response exposes rather than accommodates the injustice.

Church Fathers on Matthew 5:40

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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