An Eye for An Eye.

[sky]

Originally Posted by theophilus

It was to place a limit on retaliation. You could only inflict as much harm on one who injured another as he had done to his victim. This contrasted to the Mosaic law's punishment for theft. A thief could be required to repay four times the amount he had stolen. Someone who was physically harmed could only demand that his attacked suffer the same amount of injury he had inflicted.

Retaliation is not the way, the circle of violence goes around and around as we see being practiced in some cultures today, , they call in ' Honour Killings ' although actual killings don't always happen but violence in one form or other is used.

I personally think it was used as a deterrent but I can't be sure and as rules are meant to be broken, so they say, who knows...

[Molearner]

[quote=davidmartin]there is also a progression to be found in the old testament
/QUOTE]

davidmartin,

Yes progression. Made me think of a little logic. At the time this first appeared(an eye for an eye, etc.) in all liklihood this was a nomadic civilization. i.e. absence of jails........why and how could a nomadic people build an impenetrable jail to hold wrongdoers? Then the guilty would live in the best place and someone else would bring him his food. Instead of punishment it might be akin to a reward. If mutilation of some kind was the punishment it might force him to be dependent on others and this would require a change of ways on his part. He suddenly would have to be kind to others to gain their favor to insure his existence. Yes, I know this might sound farfetched.......just suggesting.......:)

[sky]

An ' eye for an eye," was derived from the ancient Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, as a restriction on retaliation for personal injuries.I wonder who decided to incorporate the code into the bible. We know that a lot of biblical stories came from Mesopotamia but it would be interesting to know who chose which stories were used and why others were ignored....

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by sky123

What was the purpose of the Eye for an Eye Rule ?

Where I live, one mayor/judge back in the 1850's dished out justice in a unique fashion. Being the community had no jail (same as in ancient times in the Bible) he would execute punishment immediately after being found guilty.

The punishment normally was a number of lashings. Half of the lashings would be executed immediately the other lashings would be executed in 1 or 2 months later.

After the first lashing the person would disappear never to reappear in the community ever again.



The Law in the Bible seemed to be extremely harsh but was not always or possibly not at all implemented. King Davis is one example.

[theophilus]

Originally Posted by sky123

An ' eye for an eye," was derived from the ancient Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, as a restriction on retaliation for personal injuries.I wonder who decided to incorporate the code into the bible. We know that a lot of biblical stories came from Mesopotamia but it would be interesting to know who chose which stories were used and why others were ignored....

The Bible was inspired by God and he decided what would be in it. If some of the commands are found in other places that just means that he had revealed them before the Bible was written. God has always been active in the world revealing to men what is right and what is wrong. In the Bible he has gathered all of his commands into a single place for our convenience.