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Mat_5:41. Ἀγγαρεύειν , passed over from the Persian (see Gesenius, Thes. I. p. 23) into Greek, Latin (angariare, Vulgate, Augustine, Ephesians 5), and into the Rabbinical dialect ( àÇðÀâÇøÀéÈà , Buxtorf, Lex. Rabb. p. 131; Lightfoot on the passage), to force into transport service. The Persian arrangements respecting post messages, instituted by Cyrus, justified the couriers ( ἄγγαροι ) in making requisitions from station to station of men, or cattle, or carriages for the carrying on of their journey, Herodotus, viii. 98; Xenoph. Cyrop. viii. 6. 17; Josephus, Antt. xii. 2. 3. See Dougtius, Anal. II. p. 9 f. Here it refers to continuing a forced journey, comp. Mat_27:32.
μίλιον ] One thousand steps, or eight stadia, one-fourth of a German mile. A late word found in Strabo.
REMARK.
The spirit of the ethics of Jesus, His own example (Joh_18:22 f.) and that of the apostles (Act_23:3; Act_16:35; Act_26:25; Act_25:9 f.), require us to recognise, in these manifestly typical representations, Mat_5:39-41, not precepts to be literally followed, but precepts which are certainly to be determined according to their idea. This idea, which is that of love, yielding and putting to shame in the spirit of self-denial, and overcoming evil with good, is concretely represented in those examples, but has, in the relations of external life and its individual cases, the measure and the limitation of its moral practice. Comp. on Mat_5:38. Luther appropriately lays emphasis here upon the distinction between what the Christian has to do as a Christian, and what as a worldly person (in so far as he is in a position or an office, and so on). The Lord leaves to the state its own jurisdiction, Mat_22:21.