An eye for an eye: Encyclopedia II - An eye for an eye - Criticisms

An eye for an eye - Criticisms

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus of Nazareth urges his followers to turn the other cheek when confronted by violence:

The passage continues with the importance of showing forgiveness to enemies and those who harm you. This saying of Jesus is frequently interpreted as criticism of the Old Testament teaching (an antinomistic disposition), and this has led to the idea that "an eye for an eye" implies an encouragement to excess of vengeance rather than an attempt to limit it. That is however a misunderstanding caused by taking the saying out of context. The saying is one of a series of six known as the Antitheses, in each of which Jesus quotes with approval provisions of the Jewish Law, but then calls on his followers to go further; for example Matthew 5:27-28 reads:

And Matthew 5:33 reads:

Jesus's treatment of "an eye for an eye" as inadequate has to be seen in the light of the introduction to the antitheses:

and the closing injunction of this part of the Sermon of the Mount:

Modern Christian scholarly commentary universally recognises that the original "eye for an eye" prescription had the intent of limiting vengeance, and regards this intent as humane (for examples, see references in the relevant section of The Text This Week); indeed, the legitimising of vengeance implied by the context of the saying in Exodus tends to be downplayed. More ancient Christian scholars, down to Calvin, tended to see "an eye for an eye" as simply another example of what they regarded as pharasaic legalism, rather than as implying an objectionable degree of vengefulness. Notoriously, Jesus's doctrine of perfection has been hard for Christians to live up to, and turning the other cheek is probably more often preached about rather than practised. The Jewish Law, with its more limited demands, sometimes seems more practical than the stricter Christian teachings.

However, many modern moralists have also felt that merely limiting vengeance is not enough as even limited retaliation continues a potentially endless cycle of violence; Mahatma Gandhi remarked that:

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Criticisms", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki