Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
All Commentaries on Exodus 21:24 Go To Exodus 21
Tertullian of Carthage
AD 220
But what parts of the law can I defend as good with a greater confidence than those which heresy has shown such a longing for—as the statute of retaliation, requiring eye for eye, tooth for tooth and stripe for stripe? Now there is not here any smack of permission to mutual injury. There is rather, on the whole, a provision for restraining violence. To a people which was very obdurate and wanting in faith toward God, it might seem tedious and even incredible to expect from God that vengeance which was subsequently to be declared by the prophet: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Therefore, in the meanwhile, the commission of wrong was to be checked by the fear of retribution immediately to happen. So the permission of this retribution was to be the prohibition of provocation. In this way a stop might thus be put to all hotblooded injury. By the permission of the second the first is prevented by fear. By this deterring of the first the second act of wrong fails to be committed. .
