📖 Biblical Definition
"Turn the other cheek" is Christ’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38-42): "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." The teaching overturns the Mosaic lex talionis as a principle of personal vengeance. It does not abolish judicial justice (the state still bears the sword, Romans 13:4) or self-defense in extremity; it forbids personal retaliation. The right-cheek slap was a backhanded insult; the offered left cheek refuses the cycle. Christian men do not return insult for insult.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
CHEEK, n.
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1. The side of the face. 2. To turn the other cheek — an idiom from our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, signifying patient forbearance under personal injury.
📖 Key Scripture
Matthew 5:39 — "Resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."
Lamentations 3:30 — "He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach."
Isaiah 50:6 — "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair."
1 Peter 2:23 — "Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Two errors: weaponize the verse against all justice; or limit it to never apply personally.
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Two errors plague modern interpretations of turn the other cheek. Pacifists weaponize it to forbid all defense, including police, military, and self-defense — ignoring Romans 13 and the rest of Scripture's clear teaching that civil authority bears the sword. Cultural Christians limit it to abstract ideal that never actually applies, especially when their honor is at stake. Both readings miss Christ.
The right reading is precise. The command governs personal disposition under personal injury — not civil justice and not life-threatening violence. When personally insulted, slighted, slandered — the believer's response is forbearance, not retaliation. Christ Himself modeled it: at His trial He gave His cheeks to those who plucked the beard; on the cross He prayed for His murderers. The cheek-turning Lord governs the universe; one strike from His hand and Calvary's soldiers are dust. He absorbed the blow voluntarily; that is the model.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek siagona (G4600), cheek; strepho (G4762), turn.
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G4600 — siagona — cheek; jaw
G4762 — strepho — to turn
G4486 — rhapizo — to slap, strike
Usage
"The command governs personal disposition under personal injury, not civil justice."
"Christ absorbed the blow voluntarily; one strike from His hand could have ended the soldiers."
"Two errors: weaponize the verse against all justice; or limit it to never apply personally."