Has the Middle East crisis reached a tipping point? This remains a very common interpretation even today-quite likely as an attempt to make the biblical custom seem less harsh in comparison to contemporary cultural and legal norms. Yet it was not a permanent shift some of the earliest interpreters of the Bible read the lex talionis as advocating for monetary compensation: the value of an eye for an eye. The concept of “eye for an eye” isn’t really representative of some primitive state of humanity-it’s actually a development from an earlier system of monetary compensation. It turns out that the oldest codes in the Near Eastern legal tradition, Sumerian laws from the 21st century BCE, also have payment in place of retaliation. “If a man bites the nose of another man and thus cuts it off” -don’t ask- “he shall weigh and deliver sixty shekels of silver an eye, sixty shekels a tooth, thirty shekels …”
EYE FOR AN EYE TOOTH FOR A TOOTH BIBLE VERSE CODE
It was already present in the famous Code of Hammurabi, from the 18th century BCE: “If an upper-class man should blind the eye of another upper-class man, they shall blind his eye,” and so on through breaking bones, knocking out teeth, etc.Įarlier Mesopotamian law codes, two generations before Hammurabi, take what we would consider a more civilized approach to the matter: Though famously biblical, lex talionis isn’t a biblical creation at all. It seems barbaric that the penalty for arson, for example, would be burning the arsonist to death-this sounds like something out of the Middle Ages, not out of the 21st century. This law is often brought as evidence that the Bible cannot be a reliable guide for modern morality: Who today would truly advocate for this kind of retributive justice? It is known as the lex talionis, or “law of retaliation,” and it would seem to be central to the biblical worldview.įlare-up in Israeli-Palestinian violence: Why now? The injury he inflicted on another shall be inflicted on him.”įew biblical laws are repeated three times this is one of those few.
The Book of Deuteronomy uses even stronger language: “Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”Īnd the Book of Leviticus says again, “Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible says, “The penalty shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” Such patterns are familiar from conflicts across the world, but they have a special resonance in the Holy Land.Īfter all, it was from Israel, nearly 3,000 years ago, that this famous concept spread. It’s a familiar cycle: attack for attack, murder for murder.
Israeli officials admitted the likelihood-already acknowledged by many-that this killing was carried out in revenge for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers.īoth sides have stepped up their aggression in the past few days, with rocket launches from Gaza into Israel and Israeli airstrikes against Gaza. (CNN) - This past Sunday, six Israelis were arrested for the murder of a 16-year-old Palestinian boy.
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