Thursday, January 3, 2008

Thoughts About Turning the Cheek by Paul Copan

Here are some thoughts written by Paul Copan about a Christian turning the other cheek. As you will see, we have different views on how much turning the other cheek means. It is a good argument though.


Contrary to what many believe, Jesus’ words about “turning the other cheek” after someone hits you on the right cheek are dealing with personal insults, not with acts of violence or force. Rather, Jesus said, “When insulted, be willing to take another insult.” Assuming that persons in Jesus’ time were generally right-handed, a hit on the right cheek is a back-handed slap, which even today in the Middle East expresses a gross insult. This idea of a slap as an insult is seen in Lamentations 3:30: “Let him give his cheek to the smiter and be filled with insults.” This slap would be roughly equivalent to spitting in someone's face in our society.


Jesus is not saying, “Don’t defend yourself when you are attacked” or “Don’t help a woman who is being raped” or “Don’t defend your country when it is being attacked.” He is not negating the judicial principle of an “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”; he speaks against the abuse of that judicial principle to justify personal retaliation or vengeance.[7]

Paul Copan Jesus, Religions, and Just War - CDC Panel Discussion
http://www.rzim.org/resources/essay_arttext.php?id=8

1 comment:

Daniel Sparks said...

I'd ultimately have to agree with the implications here. As I have commented elsewhere, I really think that evil must be suppressed by good resistance, even if "good resistance" ends up being something fundamentally aweful in itself.

If I go into a man's house by force, I expect him to try to stop me. If that man's drive for survival is so steep that he kills me in the process, I don't blame him. I would expect any good man to go up to that man, over my dead body, and say "Good job."

Its a cruel reality, but reality it is. What is good must be defended; what is evil must be counted as loss.

Death is inevitable for both the just and the unjust. I say let the just live in peace.

If the unjust die in their sins by the hands of the just, I suppose that is unfortunate. If the just, though, dies at the hands of the unjust by the sin of the unjust, that is a real travesty.