In the Mosaic law, the principle of an eye for an eye is commanded in three separate and slightly different situations:Ĭollateral Injury: If a pregnant woman is hurt by others’ struggling –and her child miscarries – the law of an eye for an eye is to be applied ( Exodus 21:24).Ĭrime of Passion Injury: If men fight and one is injured in the struggle, the law of an eye for an eye is to be applied ( Leviticus 24:20). If he has broken another man’s bone, they shall break his bone” (Code of Hammurabi, 196-97).īabylonian law was complicated by the fact that crimes against those of different social classes required different punishments (something Biblical law forbade, Leviticus 19:15), but the legal principle of the talion itself was obviously identical in both cultures. “If a man has destroyed the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye. ![]() 1780 BC), for example, we find exactly the same legal principle that individuals should receive as punishment the same injuries and damages they had inflicted upon others: ![]() In the ancient Babylonian Law of Hammurabi (c. Biblical Israel was not the only culture of the ancient Near East to have such laws, and their purpose is well known. But this is something of a misunderstanding. It is often said that the underlying concept of the lex talionis, equal restitution, is the basis of most modern law – that the punishment must fit the crime. But is this really what this law of “retributive justice“ is all about? Known legally as the lex talionis or the “law of retaliation,” and referenced by Jesus himself in his teaching, most people see this law as an ultimately fair, though almost barbarically cruel, principle of revenge and exact restitution. The principle of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”( Leviticus 24:20, etc.) is one of the most well-known laws in the Bible, but it is seldom fully understood. Was the Old Testament law of “an eye for an eye” a brutal law of revenge, or something very different? – And how can the answer help us understand Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount?
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