{"id":34238,"date":"2012-07-25T19:04:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T00:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=34238"},"modified":"2021-04-16T19:13:44","modified_gmt":"2021-04-17T00:13:44","slug":"did-people-really-do-an-eye-for-an-eye-and-a-tooth-for-a-tooth-to-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-people-really-do-an-eye-for-an-eye-and-a-tooth-for-a-tooth-to-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Did people really do an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth to people?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth&#8221; &#8212; does that really mean that? Did they really do that in the Bible days?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>The phrase &#8220;an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth&#8221; is a part of the law that was given to judges who were deciding cases. It was not for people in their personal relationships. If a person was judged guilty of harming another person, then the punishment was to be the same harm to the abuser.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Case 1: If two men are fighting and accidentally harm a pregnant woman so that her child is born prematurely, the punishment is to be equal to the amount of permanent damage done to the child or the mother. If no permanent harm resulted, then a fine would be imposed \u00a0(Exodus 21:22-25).<\/li>\n<li>Case 2: A person making a false accusation is to receive whatever punishment the accused would have received had the judge believed the accuser. No pity was to be given because of the seriousness of the offense (Deuteronomy 19:16-21).<\/li>\n<li>Case 3: A man guilty of injuring another would receive the same injury he caused as punishment (Leviticus 24:17-22).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>None of these cases allow for a person to retaliate against someone else. Only a judge was to determine the guilt of the accused. Once the guilt was established, these laws determined the punishment for these particular crimes. God never intended these laws to be used as an excuse to take the law into your own hands (Leviticus 19:18; Proverbs 20:22; 24:29).<\/p>\n<p>The goal is to make people stop and think before they hurt another person because they may end up hurting themselves in the end. It also kept the judges from dealing out unequal justice. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/an-eye-for-an-eye-and-a-tooth-for-a-tooth\/\">An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth<\/a>\u00a0for more details.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: &#8220;An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth&#8221; &#8212; does that really mean that? Did they really do that in the Bible days? Answer: The phrase &#8220;an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth&#8221; is a part of the law that was given to judges who were deciding&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[523,115,669,399],"class_list":["post-34238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-justice","tag-old-law","tag-punishment","tag-revenge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34240,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/an-eye-for-an-eye-and-a-tooth-for-a-tooth\/","url_meta":{"origin":34238,"position":0},"title":"An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Dewhurst Such is modern man's ignorance of God's word, as well as His justice and mercy, that we often misunderstand the simplest Bible expressions and concepts. For example, the age-old principle of justice contained in the phrase \"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/eye.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":41910,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-female-nurses-touch-a-mans-genitals\/","url_meta":{"origin":34238,"position":1},"title":"Can female nurses touch a man&#8217;s genitals?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Deuteronomy 25:11-12 says \"This is what you must do when two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from the man who is beating him. If she tries to stop the fight by grabbing the other man's genitals, cut off her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49588,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-deuteronomy-2511-12-make-it-sound-like-it-is-wrong-for-a-wife-to-protect-her-husband\/","url_meta":{"origin":34238,"position":2},"title":"Why does Deuteronomy 25:11-12 make it sound like it is wrong for a wife to protect her husband?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello. I am confused about Deuteronomy 25:11-12. Why is it wrong for a wife to protect her husband from an attacker? Is it because she grabs him by the testicles? But won't that be a wise move, seeing that a \"low blow\" will be her best chance at overcoming\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26782,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-is-war-different-from-acts-of-retaliation\/","url_meta":{"origin":34238,"position":3},"title":"How is war different from acts of retaliation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read \"Is there any biblical support for war?\"\u00a0 but I don't understand how it fits with\u00a0Matthew 5:38-42 and Luke 6:27-31. Answer: \"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you not to resist an evil\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69297,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/revenge\/","url_meta":{"origin":34238,"position":4},"title":"Revenge (Flores)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores Revenge. The word flows through the lips almost in a kind of hiss full of sinister thoughts and inappropriate payback. We might dress it up in the indignant clothing of \"justice,\" but our attempts to justify it don't change what it is: retaliation, the required \"pound of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3144,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-masters-under-the-old-testament-law-beat-or-kill-their-slaves\/","url_meta":{"origin":34238,"position":5},"title":"Could masters under the Old Testament law beat or kill their slaves?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know what the Scriptures teach about how we Christians today\u00a0are to treat our fellow man and that it is a serious sin to murder, that being so, Is it true that during the Old Testament age\u00a0the slave\u00a0masters had the right to severely beat or to even kill their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}