Matthew 5:42

This counsel does not seem to belong to the same category as the preceding three. One does not think of begging or borrowing as an injury, but at most as a nuisance. Some have doubted the genuineness of the logion as a part of the Sermon. But it occurs in Luke's redaction (Matthew 6:30), transformed indeed so as to make it a case of the sturdy beggar who helps himself to what he does not get for the asking. Were there idle, lawless tramps in Palestine in our Lord's time, and would He counsel such treatment of them? If so, it is the extreme instance of not resisting evil. μὴ ἀποστραφῇς with τὸν θέλοντα in accusative. One would expect the genitive with the middle, the active taking an accusative with genitive, e.g., 2 Timothy 4:4, τὴν ἀκοὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀληθείας. But the transitive sense is intelligible. In turning myself away from another, I turn him away from me. Vide Hebrews 12:25; 2 Timothy 1:15.