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2 - The Talionic Principle and Its Calibrations

from Part I - Legal Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2021

By
Sandra Jacobs
Edited by
C. L. Crouch
C. L. Crouch
Affiliation:
Fuller Theological Seminary, California
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Summary

This essay will explore the pathways (or calibrations) of the talionic ‘eye for an eye’ principle in the Pentateuch from the cultural perspective of the ancient Hebrew scribes. In contemporary doctrine, rabbinic consensus remains characterised by a strident denial of any literal intent of this principle, where it is interpreted exclusively as a monetary fine. This consensus emerged, initially, as a reaction to charges made in the New Testament regarding the excessive literalism of the early Pharisaic sages. With the growth of Christianity and in the wake of the prejudice from the decrees of Hadrian (c. 135 CE), through to the massacres of the crusades – essentially until the present times – the constancy of this denial was inevitable. Leaving the legacy of this reception history aside, how did the principle of ‘eye for an eye’ attain such prominence in the Hebrew Bible?

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible and Ethics , pp. 23 - 35
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Barton, John. Ethics in Ancient Israel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Cohn, H. ‘Talion’. Page 463 in Encyclopaedia Judaica: Volume 19. 2nd ed. Edited by Berenbaum, M. and Skolnik, F.. Detroit: Macmillan, 2007.Google Scholar
George, A. R. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts: Volume I. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Jackson, B. S. ‘The Problem of Exodus XXI 22–25 (Ius Talionis)’. VT 37 (1973): 273–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, B. S. Studies in the Semiotics of Biblical Law. JSOTSup 314. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2000.Google Scholar
Jackson, B. S. Wisdom Laws: A Study of the Mishpatim of Exodus 21:1–22:16. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Jacobs, S. ‘Instrumental Talion in Deuteronomic Law’. ZABR 16 (2010): 263–78.Google Scholar
Jacobs, S. The Body as Property: Physical Disfigurement in Biblical Law. LHBOTS 582. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.Google Scholar
Koch, K. ‘Gibt es ein Vergeltungsdogma im Alten Testament?’ ZTK 52 (1955): 1–42.Google Scholar
Nel, P. J. ‘The Talion Principle in Old Testament Narratives’. JNWSL 20 (1994): 21–9.Google Scholar
Oeming, M. ‘Wisdom as a Central Category in the Book of the Chronicler: The Significance of the Talio Principle in a Sapiential Construction of History’. Pages 125–41 in Shai le-Sara Japhet: Studies in the Bible, Its Exegesis and Its Language. Edited by Bar-Asher, M., Rom-Shiloni, D., Tov, E. and Wazana, N.. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2007.Google Scholar
Roth, M. T. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. SBLWAW 6. 2nd ed. Atlanta: Scholars, 1997.Google Scholar
Shemesh, Y. ‘Punishment of the Offending Organ in Biblical Literature’. VT 55 (2005): 343–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, D. P. Inventing God’s Law: How the Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.Google Scholar

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