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Anger Apostolic Writings Discussions Life With God Torah

Real meaning of ‘eye for an eye’: God’s lessons in peace-making

Last time, we discussed lashon ha-ra (evil tongue, i.e., gossip, slander and divisiveness) and how it is one of the latter-day plagues among God’s people.

In this excursus, we will explore a related principle taught in Torah by Yeshua and His apostles: proportionality. A number of Christians often consider “eye for an eye and tooth for tooth” an example of the “old covenant” not to live by anymore and quote Yeshua to that effect.

Rather, we’ll see that “eye for an eye” is a Bible parabolic idiom teaching proportionality. The point of justice is to restore the offender to the community, not extract a pound of flesh.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Prophets and Writings

Luke 6:20-26: Sermon on the Mount vs. Sermon on the Plain, part 2: Beatitudes in Isaiah 61

The focus of Isaiah 61 is the status of the poor. Notice there are several similarities between that passage and Yeshua’s “happy are”/“woe to” discourse, commonly known as the Beatitudes.