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The Bible states that for the death penalty to be carried out, at least two witnesses were required. [6] (According to Rabbinic tradition, there were numerous other conditions/requirements (such as a warning) that made it difficult to get a conviction.) Sins that were punishable by death in the Torah, included the following: [3] [4]
If an ox has gored in the past and the owner has been warned about the behavior of the ox but has failed to confine it, and it gores and kills another person, the owner is to be put to death. If the interested party requires payment of a fee death is not required. If a slave is killed the owner of the ox is to pay a fine.
Other sources, such as Josephus, disagree. The issue is highly debated because of its relevance to the New Testament trial of Jesus. [48] [49] Ancient rabbis did not like the idea of capital punishment, and interpreted the texts in a way that made the death penalty virtually non-existent.
There is some question as to whether the death penalty was invariably or even usually implemented in ancient Israel, or whether this was even the intention of the Tanakh (c.f. Numbers 35:31). "It must be noted that the death penalty might also indicate the seriousness of the crime without calling for the actual implementation of it in every case.
The New Testament narrative also describes several occasions where people testify falsely against Jesus and his disciples. When Jesus was on trial before the Sanhedrin , the chief priests were looking for evidence to justify putting Jesus to death, and the narrative in Matthew's Gospel states that many false witnesses ( Greek : πολλων ...
Deuteronomy 24 imposes the death penalty for the kidnapping of a fellow Israelite, and forbids putting parents to death for crimes committed by their children, and vice versa. [ 51 ] : 367–370 Deuteronomy 25 allows for judges to have people punished in legal disputes by flogging, but limits the number of strikes to forty.
The New Testament acknowledges the just and proper role of civil government in maintaining justice [47] and punishing evildoers, even to the point of "bearing the sword." [ 48 ] One criminal on the cross contrasts his death as due punishment with Jesus' death as an innocent man. [ 49 ]
As in the first centuries and also in the current one, the Church suffers from the application of this penalty to her new martyrs. The death penalty is contrary to the meaning of humanitas and to divine mercy, which must be models for human justice. It entails cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, as is the anguish before the moment of ...