Lloyd Richard Bailey Jr.

“You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.[42] The passage for our consideration is one of Jesus’ great elaborations found in Matthew and especially in the sermon on the mount whereby Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said…but I say to you.” It is best to understand these teachings of Jesus as elaborations of the Old Testament. This maintains the cohesion of the Old Testament and the New Testament since both Testaments are God’s inspired Word. We shouldn’t understand these teachings of Jesus to be changing God’s revealed Word, as if the New Testament abrogates the Old Testament since God cannot change or contradict Himself. Rather, the Old Testament is congruent with the New Testament but that the New Testament sheds greater light on what we know to be true. When Jesus is using these examples, if He is overriding anything, it isn’t the Old Testament He is overriding but the contemporary understanding of that Old Testament passage. Therefore, when Jesus says “You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,'” He is quoting the Old Testament. With the words “But I say to you,” He is not reversing the Old Testament or abrogating its teaching, rather He is expounding upon it by exposing the common erroneous teaching in Jesus’ day. Understanding the foil Jesus is refuting is key to rightly understanding how Jesus’s words apply to us. What are passages like “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” actually teaching? These passages are given by God to promote fairness and justice for transgressors from their governing authorities. They are words written as civic law for society, namely ancient Israel, in dealing with wrongdoers.”
― Lloyd Richard Bailey Jr., Duty to Defend