F
Filida
Guest
We studied this law in seminary but I would like a Jewish (again, that JEWISH) comment on how it was explained to us.
The professor said that "an eye for an eye" never meant that if you put a person's eye out, you had to get your own poked out. Instead, it was juxtaposed to the laws of other people's which had different penalties for rich and poor. In those tribes, if a poor man put out a rich person's eye, he could be put to death.
The Mosaic law was groundbreaking in that everybody got treated the same: if a poor man put out a rich man's eye, or a rich man put out a poor man's eye, they each had to pay the same penalty, probably a fine. The rich didn't get off easier.
Is that correct? This is important because Jesus quoted that law and his words are often taken to mean that the law was inadequate. But according to my teachers, Jesus was not negating the law, but addressing the need to love our neighbors, even those who had harmed us.
Thanks for any insight.
The professor said that "an eye for an eye" never meant that if you put a person's eye out, you had to get your own poked out. Instead, it was juxtaposed to the laws of other people's which had different penalties for rich and poor. In those tribes, if a poor man put out a rich person's eye, he could be put to death.
The Mosaic law was groundbreaking in that everybody got treated the same: if a poor man put out a rich man's eye, or a rich man put out a poor man's eye, they each had to pay the same penalty, probably a fine. The rich didn't get off easier.
Is that correct? This is important because Jesus quoted that law and his words are often taken to mean that the law was inadequate. But according to my teachers, Jesus was not negating the law, but addressing the need to love our neighbors, even those who had harmed us.
Thanks for any insight.