“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”
Matthew 5:38
Legal referenceSettledJesus
You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.' (Matthew 5:38 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A barbaric law of mutilation that Jesus is overturning.
The cultural key
Lex talionis (Exodus 21:24) was originally a limiting principle: in a world of escalating blood-feud, where a whole village might avenge one injury, it capped justice at strict proportionality: one eye, no more. By the first century, courts had long commuted it to monetary damages; nobody was literally taking eyes.
Recovered meaning
Jesus isn't correcting cruelty with kindness; he's moving beyond even fair, proportional payback. The law restrained revenge; Jesus uproots it.
Parallels: Luke 6:29–30