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LEX TALIONIS

Often taken to be a summary of biblical law, this law of retaliation demands that the guilty suffer retribution equivalent to the injury inflicted (“eye for eye, tooth for tooth”). Biblical laws of talion are found in the context of murder (Gen. 9:6; Exod. 21:12; Lev. 24:17, 21), death of an animal (Exod. 21:36; Lev. 24:18), bodily injury of a pregnant woman (Exod. 21:22-25) or of a neighbor (Lev. 24:19-20), and false testimony (Deut. 19:16-21). They also appear in Mesopotamian legal collections, most notably in the Code of Hammurabi, and are fundamental to many ancient legal systems. In contrast to ancient Near Eastern law, there is no vicarious talion in the Bible, and biblical talion is applied to all regardless of social class (except slaves). Accusations of the barbaric nature of talion have been refuted by appealing either to its intent to curb unlimited cycles of retribution or to its replacement of earlier laws that allowed monetary compensation for acts of violence, including even murder.

Whether during the biblical period talion was understood literally (either as theoretical, proverbial, or a general principle) or simply as a dictum that the punishment should fit the crime remains an open debate. Evidence against a literal interpretation is found within the OT, e.g., immediately following the application of talion to the injury of a pregnant woman (Exod. 21:26-27). Controversy over the proper interpretation of these laws continued into the Roman period (cf. Josephus Ant. 4.278-80; Philo Spec. leg. 3.181-204; b. B. Qam. 83b-84a). The rejection of talion in the Sermon on the Mount has been seen as problematic since Jesus claims to fulfill torah and yet condemns retaliation in favor of benevolence (Matt. 5:38; cf. Rom. 12:17; 1 Thess. 5:15; 1 Pet. 3:9). These early Christian criticisms of talion should be analyzed in the context of both contemporary Jewish discussion of talion and Greco-Roman philosophical opposition to retaliation.

Recent studies of biblical laws of talion have stressed the importance of tracing their redaction history and intertextual relationships. Calum M. Carmichael’s analysis of these laws in relation to narrative (esp. Gen. 38; 1 Kgs. 21; Judg. 1) may also prove to be a fruitful approach.

Bibliography. C. M. Carmichael, “Biblical Laws of Talion,” HAR 9 (1985): 107-26; S. M. Paul, Studies in the Book of the Covenant in the Light of Cuneiform and Biblical Law. VTSup 18 (Leiden, 1970).

Jennifer K. Berenson Maclean

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

LEX TALIONIS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)