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Mat_5:39-40. Τῷ πονηρῷ ] is neither to be understood of the devil (Chrysostom, Theophylact), nor, as neuter (Augustine, Luther, Castalio, Calvin, Ewald, and others), of injustice; but, in accordance with the antithesis ἀλλʼ ὅστις σε ῥαπίζει , etc., and with Mat_5:40-41 : homini maligno.
Christ names first the right cheek, although the blow most naturally strikes first the left, but after the common fashion of naming the left after the right.
κριθῆναι ] to go to law. Vulgate well renders: in judicio contendere. Comp. on 1Co_6:1; Rom_3:4; and see Wetstein, Nägelsbach on the Iliad, p. 305, ed. 3. It refers to legal controversy, not to the extra-judicial beginnings of contention (de Wette; also Beza, Grotius, Kuinoel, and others), by which the distinction between the two cases, Mat_5:39-40, is quite overlooked.
χιτῶνα ] ëÌÀçÉðÆú , the shirt-like under-garment, tunica; on the other hand, ἱμάτιον ] ùÒÄîÀìÈä , áÌÆâÆã , the mantle-like over-garment, toga, which also served for a covering by night, and might not therefore be retained as a pledge over night; Exo_22:26; Deu_24:13. The ἱμάτιον was more valuable and more indispensable than the χιτών ; that is the point which, according to Matthew, Jesus has in view. It is different in Luk_6:29 (according to the order of succession in covering the body).
λαβεῖν ] by the lawsuit, which follows from κριθῆναι ; whilst the pettiness of the object is not opposed to this, seeing that the method of illustration is by way of concrete example.