The Death Penalty and the Bible; Reflection 1

We have been asked to connect our chosen books with material discussed in class. While we have not explicitly discussed the death penalty, we have discussed the origin of evil in the world, using violence in the pursuit of justice (i.e. Just War), and equality of all individuals in the eyes of God. For today, I will be discussing violence in pursuit of justice, but instead of discussing Just War, I am going to discuss the Death Penalty and how the Bible can justify it.

So, to begin, in Genesis, we see God say that every life is valuable and should be cared for. He also says "whoever sheds human blood, by humans their blood be shed"; to summarize, a life for a life. We see this theme repeated throughout the Old Testament, in Exodus 21:24 ("eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot"), in Deuteronomy 19:21 ("your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot"), in Leviticus 24:20 ("whatever injury he has given a person shall be given it to him"). There are several other quotes that I could mention, but the point remains that the Bible does support equality of punishment to the crime.


However, I struggle to use the Bible as evidence for support given the context for the Old Testament  is far different from the society that we live in today. While justice should be sought for crimes against humanity, were we not also taught that, as Christians, we are meant to be merciful and forgive, just as God has done to us? In no way do I mean that we should stop punishing people, but serving them death sentences seems to be a harsh punishment that does not, in my opinion, reap many benefits. There are several benefits to showing mercy or extending second chances to people, and I think that giving the death penalty to people denies a criminal their humanity. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule and I don't have a perfect way of executing forgiveness or mercy: an example that comes to mind is Ted Bundy and how given that he was imprisoned three times and escaped to cause more damage, that isn't the best solution for him. But if the ultimate judgement is meant to be left to God, what reason do I have to play god myself and choose to take someone's life?