What Does Matthew 5:39 Mean?
But I say to you, do not stand against evil. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other 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
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.THE KEY
The verse moves from refusing to stand against evil to actively turning, so nonretaliation has a chosen movement rather than the shape of mere passivity.
THE MEANING
When an injury meets you, this verse describes a response that declines to return the same blow and instead turns the body toward another exposure. That turn does not erase the strike or promise safety; it leaves the cost of refusing retaliation in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a blow leaves only two choices: strike back or pretend it did not hurt.
THE ROOT
ἀντιστῆναι
antistēnai
GROWS FROM
ἀνθίστημι
anthistēmi
To stand against or withstand; the verb combines the sense of against with the sense of standing.
English “resist” can sound like any kind of opposition, but this verb pictures taking a stand against. The sentence then gives a contrasting action, turning, so refusing retaliation is not the same as doing nothing.
ALSO GROWS
anthestēn: I stood against; I withstood.
ἀντέστην
This form describes withstanding another face to face, showing that the root names enacted opposition rather than a hidden feeling.
antistēte: Stand against; resist.
ἀντίστητε
The same imperative appears in James 4:7, aimed at the devil, so the object shapes the force of the verb.
στρέψον
strepson
GROWS FROM
στρέφω
strephō
To turn, rotate, or change direction.
English can make “turn” sound like a small gesture, but the verb names a deliberate change of direction. The line places that movement after the refusal to stand against, so restraint still has an active shape.
ALSO GROWS
epistrephō: Turn back; return.
ἐπιστρέφω
This related word makes the root’s sense of changed direction clear: turning is movement, not simple stillness.
apostrephō: Turn away; avert.
ἀποστρέφω
This branch shows how turning can redirect what faces what, echoing the verse’s bodily turn after a blow.
THE PATTERN
A blow need not become permission for a returned blow; the response can interrupt retaliation.
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
Therefore place yourselves under God. Stand against the Slanderer, and he will flee from you.James uses the same verb family when it says to resist the devil, the Slanderer. The shared root reveals that the verse’s force turns on what is being opposed, rather than treating every form of resistance as identical.
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