What Does Matthew 5:40 Mean?
And if anyone wants to take you to court and take your tunic, let your cloak go to him 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 if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.THE KEY
The second garment changes the encounter from what a court can take into what you can release.
THE MEANING
When a claim reaches into your life, the verse places a response beyond the claim itself: the cloak follows the coat. That second garment is not demanded by the lawsuit; it marks a release beyond what the claimant asked for. The encounter is no longer governed only by what can be taken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that another person’s claim gets the final word over what passes from your hands.
THE ROOT
ἄφες
aphes
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
Release, leave, let go, forgive.
“let your cloak go” in this verse is aphes. The Greek verb translated “let him have” carries the sense of release: the response is not only a transfer of clothing but a letting go. The same word-family also speaks of releasing debts, joining this legal claim to the larger movement of loosening what is held against another.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: Release, remission.
ἄφεσις
This noun names the state or act of release, including the release of debts.
aphēkamen: We released, we forgave.
ἀφήκαμεν
This form appears in Matthew 6:12, where the same verb describes releasing debts.
κριθῆναι
krithēnai
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
Judge, decide, distinguish.
“take you to court” in this verse is krithēnai. The Greek frames the encounter as being brought into judgment. The response then shifts from the court’s claim to release, carrying the verse beyond the logic of judgment and counterclaim.
ALSO GROWS
kritēs: Judge.
κριτής
The person who sues brings the matter before a judge, making judgment the setting for the response.
krisis: Judgment, decision.
κρίσις
This branch names the act or outcome of judging that frames the garment claim.
THE PATTERN
Release interrupts retaliation by keeping another person’s claim from dictating the next response.
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.Do not say, I will repay the evil; stretch yourself taut toward the LORD, and he will bring you out.Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.THE THREAD
And release our debts, as we also release our debtors.“Let him have” comes from ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), meaning release or let go, the same verb-family used here for forgiving debts. The garment claim and the debt both meet the same movement: releasing what is held against another.
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