Texts in Conversation
In Matthew 5, Jesus quotes “eye for an eye,” from Leviticus 24 meant to limit excessive revenge. Jesus intensifies its meaning, using a Jewish tradition of building a “fence around the Torah” to prevent even the smallest step toward violating it.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Leviticus 24:20
Septuagint
19 And whoever shall inflict a blemish on his neighbor, as he has done to him, so shall it be done to himself in return; 20 bruise for bruise, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as any one may inflict a blemish on a man, so shall it be rendered to him. 21 Whoever shall strike a man, and he shall die, let him die the death.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Matthew 5:38
New Testament
37 Let your word be ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no.’ More than this is from the evil one. 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, do not resist the evildoer. But whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your coat also.
Date: 70–90 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Matthew 5 ... Jesus sets forth as his demonstration of how not to abolish the Torah and the prophets but to fulfill them in a set of teachings that, all together, point to a more profound demand - on the Torah's part - than people have realized. Not only must I not kill, I must not even approach that threshold of anger that in the end leads to murder. Not only must I not commit adultery, I must not even approach the road that leads to adultery. Not only must I not swear falsely by God's name, I should not swear at all. These formulations represent an elaboration of three of the Ten Commandments (later on we shall meet two more of them). In the language of a text of Judaism attributed to authorities long before Jesus' own time, "Make a fence around the Torah." That is to say, conduct yourself in such a way that you will avoid even the things that cause you to sin, not only sin itself ..."
Jacob Neusner, A Rabbi Talks with Jesus (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000), 40.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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