Jesus and the Lustful Eye: Glancing at Matthew 5:28

The literary setting of Matthew 5:28 shows that Jesus is intensifying the Torah in its own direction but not by adding further restrictions on women’s apparel. In this sense, Jesus’ antithesis is counter cultural, placing the responsibility for lust in the heart of men rather than holding women responsible for its control. Appropriate relationships between genders in the people of God are founded upon the new relationship between God and his people established by Jesus. Paul introduces the issue of head coverings in 1 Cor. 11 from his own background but not to assert male authority. Other references to female apparel in the epistles may well be understood in the context of the ‘new Roman woman’. However, Tertullian seems to have urged the more traditional route of restricting women’s clothing as the remedy for male lust.