Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same way: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The same type of injury inflicted on another must be inflicted on the one who inflicted it; whoever has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury. The lex talionis — the law of equivalent retaliation — communicates the principle of equal accountability for injury: the punishment must fit the crime, no more and no less. Matthew 5:38–39 records Jesus addressing this principle — you have heard it said, eye for eye and tooth for tooth; but I tell you, do not resist an evil person. Jesus does not abolish the principle of just accountability but calls his followers to go beyond it in personal relationships.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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