[soc.religion.christian] Double entendre when walking twain?

lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu (Louie Crew) (06/06/91)

In several sermons I have heard in the last couple of years, preachers  have
cited a scholar who argues that "walking the second mile" and "turning of the 
other cheek" in their original context had more irony that we can discern in
a casual reading.  My memory is fuzzy, but I believe that going
the second mile was meant to expose the guy for demanding something 
unfair of you in the first place, rather as St. Paul (or was he still
just Saul when he...) said when he told us to be good to our oppressors
so that we will heap coals of fire on their head.   Hardly the usual 
picture of loving your enemies!

Paul's/Saul's flagrant opportunism has  often given me difficulty.  Does 
it trouble any others?

And does anyone know the biblical scholar whom the preachers have been
quoting to me?  I would appreciate some bibliographical data.


 
    Louie Crew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu
    Associate Professor . . . . . . . . . . . . . .lcrew@draco.rutgers.edu
    Academic Foundations Department . . . . . . . CompuServe No. 73517,147
    Rutgers:  The State University of New Jersey. . . . . . 201-485-4503 h
    P. O. Box 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  201-648-5434 o
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                    Only a dead fish floats with the current.

lm89@ecs.soton.ac.uk (McIlhoney L) (06/07/91)

In <Jun.5.23.51.50.1991.1306@athos.rutgers.edu> lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu (Louie Crew) writes:

>In several sermons I have heard in the last couple of years, preachers  have
>cited a scholar who argues that "walking the second mile" and "turning of the
>other cheek" in their original context had more irony that we can discern in
>a casual reading.  My memory is fuzzy, but I believe that going
>the second mile was meant to expose the guy for demanding something
>unfair of you in the first place, rather as St. Paul (or was he still
>just Saul when he...) said when he told us to be good to our oppressors
>so that we will heap coals of fire on their head.   Hardly the usual
>picture of loving your enemies!

>Paul's/Saul's flagrant opportunism has  often given me difficulty.  Does
>it trouble any others?

Don't worry about it.  What Paul meant was that being nice to your
enemy when he is being totally gittish to you, is far more effective
than being nasty to him.  That's what the "heaping burning coals on
the head " bit is about.  I think.  It's true as well ...

I was, at one opint, totally foul to someone who was always unfailingly
pleasant to me, even though he had no need to be (I was trying to
steal his girlfriend too, at the time).  The result - in the end,
I found myself apologising to him profusely.  The coals were weighing
too heavily on me!

I'm basically I Christian but I'm not yet a very good one.  Working
on it though..!
--
KRAKEN...............................alias.......................L McIlhoney
                                     Year 2, Dept. of Electronic Engineering
E-mail LM89@UK.AC.SOTON.ECS                        University of Southampton
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harling@pictel.uucp (Dan Harling) (06/07/91)

In article <Jun.5.23.51.50.1991.1306@athos.rutgers.edu> lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu (Louie Crew) writes:
>In several sermons I have heard in the last couple of years, preachers  have
>cited a scholar who argues that "walking the second mile" and "turning of the 
>other cheek" in their original context had more irony that we can discern in
>a casual reading.  My memory is fuzzy, but I believe that going
>the second mile was meant to expose the guy for demanding something 
>unfair of you in the first place...

It is my understanding that, in the Roman world, a civilian could be
ordered to carry a soldier's pack for him, over a distance of no more
than one mile.  After that, the civilian was no longer under
obligation.  For a Jew to voluntarily continue to help a representative
of his Roman oppressors would be quite an example of "loving one's
enemies."

>    Louie Crew

______________________________________________________________________
Daniel A. Harling					PictureTel, Inc.
Rockport, MA						Peabody, MA

	Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of
	PictureTel, Inc.; they are MINE, ALL MINE!  (So there.)
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