The principle “If anyone hits you, hit back! If anyone takes your coat, burn down his house!” seemed the only way to survive (Theissen 1987, 88); Lamech’s kind of revenge, which returns seventy seven blows for every one received, seemed, paradoxically, the only way to root out injustice (Genesis 4:23–24). Turning Lamech’s logic on its head, however, Jesus demanded his followers not simply to forego revenge, but to forgive as Many times as Lamech sought to avenge himself (Matthew 18:21). The injustice of oppression must be fought with the creative “injustice” of forgiveness, not with the aping
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