But I say to you repeats the emphatic formula frequently used throughout this passage (see verse 22 and comments there).

Resist is the rendering of most English translations (so An American Translation, Moffatt, Barclay, Anchor Bible, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible; New American Bible “offer … resistance”); New English Bible translates “set yourself against.” A literal translation of the verb is to “stand against.” The context, as well as the parallels found in rabbinic sources, suggests that the word has a specifically legal connotation: “resist” in a court of law, or “oppose” before a judge. The Traduction œcuménique de la Bible (footnote) indicates that the verb carries the sense of a retort or of a payment in kind, be it immediate and personal or before a court of law; in the footnote attention is called to the following verses: Luke 21.15; Acts 13.8; Romans 13.2; Galatians 2.11; James 4.7; 1 Peter 5.9.

For these reasons it is important that resist not be translated so as to refer to physical resistance. Some translations (for example, Good News Translation) have used a fairly general expression such as “Don’t try to pay back,” “Don’t go seeking revenge,” or “Don’t try to do something in return.” Others follow more strictly the interpretation that puts “resist” in a legal context here, and say “Don’t try to get a judge to help you get revenge” or “Don’t take someone who wrongs you to court to get revenge.”

One who is evil (Good News Translation “someone who wrongs you”) in the Greek is simply the adjective “evil” used as a noun. It presents the same problems of interpretation as does “evil” in verse 37. Anchor Bible follows Revised Standard Version; New English Bible has “the man who wrongs you”; New International Version translates “an evil person”; Jerusalem Bible has “the wicked man.” Other translations take the word in an impersonal or abstract sense: “evil” (Barclay, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) or “injury” (Moffatt, An American Translation, New American Bible). But the context favors the interpretation represented in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. And it is erroneous to force modern psychology on the text by affirming that the reference is to “evil in the abstract,” which becomes visible through a person’s actions. The commentator is perhaps correct who narrows the meaning to “one who wishes to do injury.” Thus translators will translate one who is evil as “the one who wrongs you,” “who does something bad to you,” or “who harms you.”

Note that But indicates a contrast: “Instead,” or even “Instead, the way you should behave is.”

If any one strikes you on the right cheek has reference to an injury of insult, not of violence. In the Near East, both in Jesus’ day and in the present, the most insulting physical blow that one can give another is a slap with the back of the hand against the right cheek. Luke, on the other hand, substitutes a different verb (6.29), suggesting “a violent act.”

If possible, translators should use a word that means “slap” for strikes. Some have used “one cheek” for right cheek, but as we explained, it was in fact the right cheek that was slapped as an insult, and the biblical form should be retained if possible. Translators may consider saying “hits you on the cheek to insult you.”

Turn to him implies “let him slap” (Good News Translation) and the other obviously has reference to “the left cheek” (see Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Bible en français courant). The translation can be “turn the left cheek for him to slap as well” or “turn so he can also slap your left cheek.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .