{"id":403,"date":"2014-09-24T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=403"},"modified":"2014-08-30T21:31:27","modified_gmt":"2014-08-30T21:31:27","slug":"matthew-538-42-an-eye-for-an-eye-cultural-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-538-42-an-eye-for-an-eye-cultural-commentary.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 5:38-42; An Eye for an Eye (Cultural Commentary)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why was Jesus so adamant about mentioning \u201cthe right cheek\u201d when he gave his command for followers to \u201cturn the other cheek\u201d? The answer lies in the social norms of that time in ancient Israel.<\/p>\n<p>In Western society today, one person spitting on another is a contemptuous, especially offensive insult. In the time of Jesus, being slapped on the right cheek was similarly offensive. The average person was assumed to be right-handed, thus the perception was that striking a person on the right cheek required with a backhanded slap. That action was one of the more egregious insults in the ancient world. It communicated utter contempt toward someone considered inferior. In fact, it was such a serious offense that both Jewish and Roman law allowed a victim of this kind of slap to take his abuser to court and demand restitution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf anyone slaps you on the right cheek,\u201d Jesus said, \u201cturn to them the other cheek also.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In this instance, Christ wasn&#8217;t simply speaking of cultivating a nonviolent attitude. In the context of that cultural setting, he was insisting that his followers instantly forgive\u2014and refuse to retaliate\u2014when others acted contemptibly toward them. Perhaps because this seems to be such an impossible demand for people like us, he later demonstrated this exact ideal during the hours leading up to his awful, humiliating, contemptible crucifixion and death.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[WOM, 42; BBC, 60]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why was Jesus so adamant about mentioning \u201cthe right cheek\u201d when he gave his command for followers to \u201cturn the other cheek\u201d? The answer lies in the social norms of that time in ancient Israel. In Western society today, one person spitting on another is a contemptuous, especially offensive insult. In the time of Jesus,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[163,111,165],"class_list":["post-403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culturalcommentary","category-matthew","tag-eye-for-an-eye","tag-sermon-on-the-mount","tag-turn-the-other-cheek"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 5:38-42; An Eye for an Eye (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-538-42-an-eye-for-an-eye-cultural-commentary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 5:38-42; An Eye for an Eye (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why was Jesus so adamant about mentioning \u201cthe right cheek\u201d when he gave his command for followers to \u201cturn the other cheek\u201d? The answer lies in the social norms of that time in ancient Israel. In Western society today, one person spitting on another is a contemptuous, especially offensive insult. In the time of Jesus,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-538-42-an-eye-for-an-eye-cultural-commentary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-24T12:00:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-30T21:31:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 5:38-42; An Eye for an Eye (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-538-42-an-eye-for-an-eye-cultural-commentary.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 5:38-42; An Eye for an Eye (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"Why was Jesus so adamant about mentioning \u201cthe right cheek\u201d when he gave his command for followers to \u201cturn the other cheek\u201d? The answer lies in the social norms of that time in ancient Israel. In Western society today, one person spitting on another is a contemptuous, especially offensive insult. In the time of Jesus,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-538-42-an-eye-for-an-eye-cultural-commentary.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-09-24T12:00:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-08-30T21:31:27+00:00","author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-538-42-an-eye-for-an-eye-cultural-commentary.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-538-42-an-eye-for-an-eye-cultural-commentary.html","name":"Matthew 5:38-42; An Eye for an Eye (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-09-24T12:00:30+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-30T21:31:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-538-42-an-eye-for-an-eye-cultural-commentary.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-538-42-an-eye-for-an-eye-cultural-commentary.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-538-42-an-eye-for-an-eye-cultural-commentary.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 5:38-42; An Eye for an Eye (Cultural Commentary)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. 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