Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!seismo!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu (Louie Crew) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Double entendre when walking twain? Message-ID: Date: 6 Jun 91 03:51:52 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 26 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu 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 Newark, NJ 07101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201-648-5700 FAX Only a dead fish floats with the current.