Planted by Water

Reading a book recently by Walter Wink (I hope to review it in a day or two) I read his take on Jesus’ words about turning the other cheek and was intrigued. I’m not sure what to make of it but I’m interested. What do you think? It goes something like this:

• Matt.5:39 refers to being hit on the right cheek. To be hit with the fist or a normal slap on the right cheek would mean your assailant would have to hit you with the left hand.
• But for some religious reason, in those days it was considered wrong to use the left hand, except for so-called ‘unclean tasks.’
• The only way for a person to hit you on the right cheek with his right hand would be for him to give you a backslap.
• A backslap, in those times, was the conventional way for a ’superior’ to strike a social ‘inferior.’
• It was to such ‘inferiors’ that Jesus was talking.
• By telling them to turn the other cheek i.e. the left cheek, he is encouraging them to pointedly prevent their ’superiors’ from backslapping them again. They would have to hit them with the right fist, which is how equals would have fought.
• In that case Jesus words do not commend our meek acquiesence to people’s mistreatment, as they have usually been interpreted but actually encourage them to stand up for themselves, preserving their dignity without resorting to violence.
• To quote Wink, ‘By turning the other cheek..the ‘inferior’ is saying: "I’m a human being, just like you. I refuse to be humiliated any longer. I am your equal. I am a child of God. I won’t take it anymore."’

So is this a valid reading and one that encourages us to stand up for ourselves or is it a way of avoiding the obvious meaning of Jesus’ words by misusing snatches of supposed historical cultural detail in order to get the meaning that the commentator wants out of it?