What Does Luke 6:29 Mean?
To the one who strikes you on the cheek, hold out the other also. And from the one who takes your cloak, do not hold back your tunic also.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.THE KEY
The hand that strikes can leave a mark, but it cannot turn its mark into your pattern.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you where another person strikes or takes from you: the injury and loss remain real. Yet the other cheek and the additional garment show that the first person’s act does not write your next one; your response need not copy their violence. The blow is not made harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that harm must be answered with matching harm.
THE ROOT
τύπτοντι
typtonti from týptō
GROWS FROM
τυπ-
typ-
Strike or beat; this word family also reaches into the impression or pattern a blow can leave.
“smiteth” in this verse is typtonti from týptō. Luke uses τύπτω (typtō, to strike) for the person striking you. Its word family includes τύπος (typos, an impression or pattern) and τυπόω (typoō, to form or stamp): the blow can leave a mark that becomes a model. The verse exposes whether that impact gets to shape what follows.
ALSO GROWS
typos: Impression, mark, model, or pattern.
τύπος
The striking word family also names an impression or pattern, linking the blow with the mark it may leave.
typoō: To form, mold, or stamp.
τυπόω
This related verb shows how an impression can shape a form; the verse turns on whether violence shapes the response that follows.
THE PATTERN
A violent act does not have to reproduce itself in the response it provokes.
Do not say, I will repay the evil; stretch yourself taut toward the LORD, and he will bring you out.Give back to no one evil for evil. Look ahead to what is beautiful in the eyes of all people.Who, when he was insulted, hurled no insult back; when he suffered, he threatened not; but handed himself over to the one who judges by alignment.THE THREAD
But I say to you, do not stand against evil. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.Matthew uses the same Greek verb τύπτω (typtō, to strike) for “smite” and links turning the cheek with “resist not evil.” That shared verb lets Luke’s cheek-answer read as a response to violence that does not take the striker’s shape.
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