‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…..’
Exodus 21:12-36 is basically an amplification of the commandment ‘Do not murder.’ It details exactly what to do in all sorts of very specific situations – manslaughter, deliberate murder, patricide, grievous bodily harm, actual bodily harm, owning a dangerous animal……it’s all there, even down to hitting a pregnant woman and causing her to give birth prematurely. This is the establishment of the first criminal justice system. Detainment is not an option – if a life has been taken, a life is required and the perpetrator is to be put to death. For lesser crimes, exile or financial restitution are required. It makes for interesting reading.
These are the bits that stand out to me –
1. v17: ‘Anyone who curses his mother or father must be put to death.’ Wow, how times have changed! For society to function correctly, respect for our parents has to matter. There are all sorts of reasons why this breaks down, I know, but look at the damage that is done in families and in the wider society when it does. Things have changed, even in my lifetime. Kids of my generation may have been a bit rebellious, but would not dream in general of swearing at or hitting a parent. Parental abuse is the most undermining of experiences. It is real and it happens far more than we think or know, because people are too ashamed to admit to it. I know because we live with it. I’m not talking about normal teenage behaviour. I’m talking about the day in day out abuse – ‘you’re dead to me’, ‘you’re pathetic’, ‘we’d all be better off without you’, ‘you’re the reason I’m like this, it’s all your fault….’; the tiptoeing on eggshells never knowing when the next explosion will be; the having to defend yourself against the bites and kicks and punches without losing control; the having a bowl of soup thrown at you or a bottle of shampoo tipped over your head. It makes you feel worthless. It leaves you feeling completely defeated. You cannot escape to the safety of your own home. This is your own home and there is no escape. Sometimes your own home is hell on earth.
Parental abuse is a reality that we need to have our eyes opened to. The organisation ‘Family Lives’ aims to deal with parental abuse in a ‘listening, supportive and non-judgmental’ way. And so should we.
2. v20: ‘If a man beats his male or female slave……’ Yesterday I said that slavery was not an option for the Hebrews and yet it clearly still exists. Maybe the words are interchangeable or maybe the practice of owning foreign slaves was still commmonplace and deemed acceptable. Either way, killing a slave is not acceptable; they are not merely possessions for you to do what you want with. They are human beings and theirs lives are to be treated as precious. This is what was revolutionary.
3. In the most unlikely of contexts, we come across a familiar saying that has stood the test of time –
If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. Exodus 21:22-25
‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ – so retaliation is OK then. It says so in the Bible. Yes it says so, but not the escalation for violence that so often leads to war and disastrous consequences. ‘You killed one of our soldiers, we’re going to kill ten of yours’…..’you took a member of my family, I’m going to wipe out your whole family’……’you captured one village, we will take over your whole province’…. ‘Because exact revenge is not enough. If you hurt me, I want you to hurt more.’
‘An eye for an eye’ is a restrained retaliation. It’s counter-intuitive. It deals with the grievance in a controlled way and then the issue is over and dealt with and it is time to move on. See how hard this actually is? And why it’s important? If we or one of ours is hurt, then we do not have to sweep it under the carpet and pretend it hasn’t happened. It needs to be dealt with – fairly and justly – without any escalation of violence or angry words or turning others against ‘the enemy’ – imagine how different our communities and Facebook pages and world would begin to look then!
OK, so the Bible as a whole doesn’t leave it there and Jesus refers to this in Matthew 5:38…….but at that time in that context, this was a revolutionary concept to halt the escalation of violence and in our world today, it is still a revolutionary concept in many situations. (but I am not advocating violence in any, shape or form, please be clear on that!). So my final thought is –
