Capital Punishment: Dying a Slow Death?

The cases of Duane Buck in Texas and Troy Davis in Georgia have re-sparked interest and discussion of whether capital executions are just, humane and a genuine deterrent. There is State and Federal law, and there is Bible, and many Christians prop up State laws of capital punishment by appealing to the Bible. So what does the Bible say?

Here again we are facing the redemptive movement approach to how to read the Bible. In Friedman and Dolansky’s new book,  The Bible Now, we get a listing of acts that were capital offenses, and it might surprise some of us so I want to provide a complete listing:

Murder (Exod 21:12-14), ownership of an animal that kills a human (21:28-32), kidnapping to sell as a slave (21:16), striking one’s parents (21:15), cursing one’s parents (21:17), rebellious children (Deut 21:18-21), rape of an engaged virgin (22::25), adultery (22:22), sex with one’s father’s wife (Lev 20:11), sex with one’s son’s wife (20:12), male homosexuality (20:13), sex with mother or daughter (20:14), sex with an animal (20:15-16), sexual misbehavior by a priest’s daughter (21:9) … and add to these the following more religious capital crimes:

sacrificing one’s children (Lev 20:2), working on sabbath (Exod 31:15), desecrating sabbath (31:14), non-Levite entering tabernacle (Num 1:51), profaning divine name (Lev 24:16), taking herem (Deut 7:26; 13:18), sorcery (witch; Exod 22:17), consulting a medium (Lev 20:27), pagan worship or inciting others to (Deut 17:2-5; 13:7-11), sacrificing to other gods (Exod 22:19), prophet who says to follow other gods (Deut 13:2-6), and false prophecy (Deut 18:20).

The Bible distinguishes murder from manslaughter, and between them a death caused by negligence, like an ox goring someone (the second time leads to execution). Then the Bible sacralizes time (sabbath laws leading to death) and space (holy place leading to death), and these are about crossing boundaries.

When it comes to capital punishment we have clearly moved beyond the Bible in most cultures. In the USA, which is one of the few democratic countries that still has capital punishment, we have clearly moved beyond the Bible and it seems most Christians go only as far as the government but not much further, while many Christians today oppose all capital punishment (I do). So, we ask, How does the Bible guide us? What principles are at work as we apply this today? Is the goal of punishment retribution or restoration? Have times changed so that life imprisonment is an adequate punishment?

Some texts are very difficult to discern. For instance, Genesis 9:5 [“And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.”] This is for Gentiles as part of the Noahic covenant, and not for Israel (as the above quotations were), and it is not clear if punishment is done by God or by humans (9:6: “by a human his blood will be shed”) or in the normal course of events.

Friedman and Dolansky suggest that the reason there are so many crimes that led to capital execution is because the notion of prisons had not yet developed. (The “city of refuge” idea is not a prison but a protective place.) They had places of confinement, or in holding while waiting judgment, but no such thing as a prison. And may refer to places where kings held other kings who had been captured.

Other than capital sentence, options included beating (40 times) and mutilation (Deut 25:11-12) [they aren’t convinced “eye for an eye” was a mutilation law], slavery, banishment, vicarious punishment, stocks, leaving it in the hands of God.

For Friedman and Dolansky, everything changes with the development of prisons.

They think the strongest argument for capital punishment is justice. But they wonder if we need to develop as civilizations until we reach enough wisdom … maybe capital punishment belongs at the beginning and the end of civilization, they ponder. They contend we need to act with humility.