You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. Yeshua seems to come and soften the Torah’s extreme system of justice when he says, If two people get in a fight and one gouges out the other’s eye, then the offender is to be held down and have his eye gouged out as payment for the offense. Leviticus 24:19–20 says, “If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.” So, it would seem that from this command and the one in Exodus 21, that the Torah condones a retaliatory style of justice. Upon a cursory read of the books of Moses, the Torah, some of the laws contained within it not only seem a bit harsh, but even barbaric at times. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. Maybe it will help you to explain this seeming contradiction to others who have posed this or a similar question to you. In our current newsletter, I address this question with an article entitled “An Eye For An Eye,” explaining Yeshua’s teaching in this instance. Maybe you have come across this type of question as well. If we are required to be fully Torah observant, and Yeshua was simply establishing a way for us to do so in practice but without making any actual change to the laws Moses communicated, then how could Yeshua establish a new law of mercy in their place as he told his followers here? Yeshua said "you have heard they were told 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' But what I tell you is this: do not resist those who wrong you." (Mt. Among them is "an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth" (v.
God gave the people laws to obey, as recorded in Exodus 21 ("these are the laws you are to set before them." v. Yeshua’s words in Matthew 5 seem to advocate changing the Torah’s principle of “eye for eye” with grace and mercy. But if the river proves that the accused is not guilty, and he escapes unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.” We can surmise from this law that not many people at that time were able to swim.I was recently asked a sincere question about the relationship of Yeshua to the Torah. “If he sinks in the river, his accuser shall take possession of his house.
An accused person could jump into the Euphrates River. One exception existed to the principle of “an eye for an eye.” It demonstrated that Hammurabi believed the gods had power over people and events. If the owner’s son was killed, then the builder’s son is to be killed.”
Hammurabi’s Code states, “if a man builds a house badly, and it falls and kills the owner, the builder is to be killed.
One law said, “if a son strikes his father, his hands shall be hewn off.” Civil law settles disputes among individuals. Criminal law consists of rules that define conduct.
Hammurabi’s code included what we today call both criminal and civil law. One law said, “If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.” Later historians summarized Hammurabi’s Code with the phrase, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” This means that whoever commits an injury should be punished in the same manner as that injury. Hammurabi’s Code prescribed specific punishments for citizens who broke the law.