(31) The equal measure of violence
Talionic law meted out--an eye for an eye--meant that 'Pain, like money, was a payment', and revenge, Woodbridge argues, functions within a 'culture of credit', so that the suffering of violence becomes a debt, to be repaid with interest.
Christophe Nihan examines different versions of the
talionic law not "as fundamental principle of the law in ancient Israel" (p.
My claim is not that a growing, advancing society will have no need to develop much more elaborate rules of law than the simple
talionic principle, but that the lex talionis represents a foundation or a floor, without which everything else will be highly unstable.
ranges, varying from the
talionic (99) to the very moderate penalty
Talionic law sought to moderate punishment, not encourage retribution.
Figured as wildly unpredictable yet instinctually governed, as if but a bit of mechanical nature; perverse and untamable yet to a degree politically domesticable; vengeful and cruel yet possessed of a sense of natural justice; pliable and exploitable yet prone to
talionic vengeance; nomadic yet enraged by the dispossession of their traditional homelands; anarchic yet politically inscrutable; (58) a prehistorical relic impeding the progressive march of history yet a doomed race naturally fated to extinction; wolves in sheep's clothing, the fantasy of the indigenous beast was made to bear the burden of colonial/American abjection, to encapsulate all that would need to be eradicated or repressed in the colonial and later American pursuit of autonomization from nature and thereby of purity.
Because human beings should enforce justice as instruments of God's justice, how should a Noahic political-legal theory understand the nature of justice in light of the
talionic principle in Genesis 9:6?
Furthermore, given the nature of international crimes such as war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, Robert Sloan indicates that proportionality based on the lex talionis principle "would apparently require punishments that contemporary human rights law prohibits." (40) He consequently indicates that since no punishment from a crude
talionic perspective can fit serious human rights atrocities, justice only demands that more serious crimes should receive stronger disapproval then the less serious ones.
By contrast, TFT is evidence of the lowest (preconventional) stages of moral development, where what is right is expressed in
talionic terms (rewards and punishments).
(59) This canonical context carries two implications relevant for our purposes: first, Jesus' rejection of the lex talionis refers to the legal practice of the covenant community (i.e., not interpersonal relations); and, second, that context links the
talionic formula directly to sanction of capital punishment (as we observed above).
Sharia law may fully acknowledge the
talionic principle, but Islamic clergymen play an important role in persuading victims to be moderate in requesting blood money or to engage in other acts of mercy or reconciliation.