abstract: The Bible not only imposes the death penalty, it also gives reasons for requiring that we execute murderers.

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by daniel lance herrick

That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Deuteronomy 6:2-3

Introduction

Those who believe that man is the measure of all things1 declare that the death penalty is barbaric and that it does not work, using several definitions for "work".

The National Reform Association, having declared that King Jesus rules the United States of America2, must seek out His will on the matter. So, our immediate response to the title question is, "God tells us to do so in His written law."

However, that is not what this article is about. When we look at the laws in the Pentateuch commanding men to execute murderers, we find that the scriptures attach reasons3 to many of them. This article explores those reasons.

What are not the reasons?

Interestingly, the reasons that Bedau refutes in his Case Against the Death Penalty4 are not offered in scripture as reasons for executing murderers. Bedau says the death penalty is unfairly applied, it is inevitable we will make mistakes, and it is barbarous. He says that our application of the death penalty has a high financial cost (it is really the striving for perfect justice that has this financial cost). He says any penalty is retribution, it is not necessary to kill the murderer to have retributive justice. And he says it does not deter (reasoning, again, from the delays inherent in our striving for perfect justice to arrive at this conclusion).

barbarous

Bedau gives accounts of witnesses to executions to demonstrate the whole practice is an exercise in barbarity. This part of his argument is much like the arguments used in an attempt to outlaw one mode of abortion. ("Partial birth abortion is gross. Surely even the most ardent baby killer cannot countenance doing it this way.")

The scriptures do not seem to attach a lot of importance to this consideration. The mode of execution specified for most capital offenses in the Bible is stoning5. The people of the community are to gather at the gates of the city with the condemned. The accusing witnesses are to throw the first stones and the members of the community are to stone the condemned person until he is dead.

Some will take an early stone in the head and be quickly rendered unconscious. Others will be left for dead, as Paul was, and crawl away for a long life of service or malfeasance. Others may be buried under a heap of stones, but somehow avoid being killed outright and end up dying of starvation or exposure over an extended time. Nonetheless, the scriptures command the community to stone the person found guilty of various capital offenses.

But, even stronger, the mode of execution specified for murder in the Bible is for the "avenger of blood" to kill the murderer. The avenger of blood is someone connected with the murder victim, not necessarily someone trained or experienced in the arts of war or hunting or killing. You can count on there being a lot of botched executions, ranging from little or no injury to crippling but not mortal injuries.

Scripture does not condemn these practices as barbarous. It commands them.

mistakes are inevitable

Yes, I'm sure they are. Why there have even been a few cases of a murderer murdering the wrong person.

And there is, indeed, no possibility of undoing an execution.

However, the God who made us and who foreordained everything that comes to pass, commanded us to put the murderer to death. Psalm 100 reminds us that He is God and He is good.

unfairly applied

This is just not true.

God commands us to put to death every murderer. Thus, every time someone is found guilty of murder by the application of due process, it is fair and just to put that murderer to death.

Now there are some cases in which the civil magistrate chooses not to put the murderer to death. Those cases represent sin on the part of the magistrate involved6.

But the person opposing putting murderers to death is not complaining about those cases. He is concerned about the cases in which the ordained penalty is applied. Being more merciful than God, he is offended if twice as many blue-eyed blond murderers are executed as are red-headed murderers. Come on, you red-heads, more of you have to kill your bosses so we can even up the application of the death penalty for murder.

For in the Image of God made He man7

God tells Noah that the one who sheds man's blood shall have his blood shed by man. This is the first command to execute murderers. And God continues, "for in the image of God made He man".

There are two ways to read this reason clause:

1. The one who lifts up his hand against the image of God shall be executed.

   That is, it is a very bad idea to do destructive things to the image of God. God takes it personally.

2. As God dispenses justice, so shall the image of God dispense justice.

   That is, one of the aspects of God's character that we image is doing justice. That's doing justice, not defining justice.

So which does it mean? This looks to me like intentional ambiguity. That is, the text means both interpretations..*

For I am the LORD your God8

The small caps LORD is the translator's way of telling us that this is the particular name of God, often represented "Yahweh" by contemporary scholars. So the form of this is much like something I might say to a clerk in a store--do it my way "for I am dan, your customer." God commands men to put murderers to death and continues saying, "The reason you shall put the murderer to death is because I am who I am."

He also says here, "I am ... your God". That is, "I am the one who writes the rules." You are the one whose duty it is to live by those rules.

Thus, this reason could be paraphrased, "do it because I say it and I am the one who gets to say."

So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are9

Here is a pollution problem that is important. The text goes on, "for blood it defileth the land". It says, "the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it."

The text where we find this reason given says, five times, the murderer "shall surely be put to death."10 Notice that word, "surely" in there. And, lest you think the "surely" may be an error the translator made five times, one of those five repetitions11 also says, "Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death."

There are a variety of laws in the Pentateuch that say some animal is to be dedicated to the LORD and then offers a way to redeem that particular animal. For example, the first young born to several kinds of domestic animal mothers is to be the LORD's. Some of those firstborn can be redeemed for money, but some others are to be killed if the owner does not choose to give them. So some can be redeemed, but others cannot. "Ye shall take no satisfaction" is saying that the life of a murderer cannot be redeemed. He shall "surely be put to death".

God told Cain that "the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground."12 Since the flood, we are commanded to still the voice of the blood of the murder victim by putting the murderer to death. When we do not, we pollute the land.13

thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee14

Of course, we are not ancient Israel. "And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?" (Deuteronomy 4:8) And so, because we are not Israel, we should aspire to have statutes and judgments less righteous than those with which God blessed ancient Israel. Seems kind of wrong headed to me.

This reason is attached to the instruction, "the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die."15 If the jurisdiction in which you live does not put murderers to death, the elders of your city are choosing to pile up the guilt of innocent blood on your city. There is a very strong suggestion that it will not go well with you in such a city.

That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God16

The passage quoted at the beginning of this article is not a reason attached to any particular law. Rather, Moses offers this as the reason for all of the law. Including the death penalty statutes.

We have been told that "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom." The abolitionist author referenced here sees no need to seek guidance from the LORD on the topic of criminal justice. The course of wisdom is for each man to seek to know that duty that God requires of him and then to seek to do it. Even the civil magistrate.

Conclusion

"...what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly..."17 Justice is defined by God in His law, recorded in the Pentateuch. Anywhere that we find a different way to govern our society, we have chosen to make our society less just.

When a Christian asks why we execute murderers, tell him, "We execute murderers because in the Image of God made He man; for He is the LORD our God; because by doing so, we avoid polluting the land; and by doing so we put away the guilt of innocent blood from our nation. And, most important of all, we execute murderers because we fear the LORD our God."

When a non-Christian asks why we execute murderers, tell him the truth of scripture (Paul said he holds the truth in unrighteousness18), "We execute murderers because in the Image of God made He man; for He is the LORD our God; because by doing so, we avoid polluting the land; and by doing so we put away the guilt of innocent blood from our nation. And, most important of all, we execute murderers because we fear the LORD our God."

Endnotes

1 I'll reference one abolitionist source - The Case Against the Death Penalty (http://ethics.acusd.edu/Bedeau.html) by Hugo Adam Bedau. Bedau is Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University, his article carries a preface signed by the Capital Punishment Project of the ACLU, and he has written books on the subject. The arguments in Bedau's Case apply the light of reason to demonstrate that no right thinking person could support the death penalty. This natural law approach to morality was the subject of the January-February 1999 issue of The Christian Statesman (Volume 142, Number 1). See particularly the conclusions in Einwechter, Natural Law: A Summary and Critique, http://www.natreformassn.org/statesman/99/natlawcrit.html#par60, such as, men are fallen and under the curse and hence human reason is unreliable for determining what is right and what is wrong.

2. See Basic Principles of Christian Civil Government, http://www.natreformassn.org/ccGov.html

3. While this article is only about murder, I've tried to identify all death penalty statutes in the Pentateuch and tabulate them in Table of Death Penalty Laws in the Pentateuch, http://www.natreformassn.org/statesman/00/dpenalty.html. That table shows the reason scripture gives for the penalty.

4. Bedau, op.cit.

5. The Table of Death Penalty Laws in the Pentateuch, http://www.NatReformAssn.org/statesman/00/dpenalty.html, displays the instructions for how to accomplish the execution that are attached to the death penalty statutes. Aside from one case in which the prescribed penalty is burning (and a couple that are more like war than criminal justice), all capital offenders but murderers are to be executed by stoning.

6. The requirement, not option, is demonstrated in this article under the "Pollute the Land" heading.

7. Genesis 9:6

8. Leviticus 24:22

9. Numbers 35:33-34

10. Numbers 35:16, 17, 18, 21, and 31

11. Numbers 35:31

12. Genesis 4:10

13. And the blood of thirty-five million unborn murder victims is a terribly heavy load of pollution on our land. See Einwechter, The Crime of Abortion and Its Just Punishment, http://www.natreformassn.org/statesman/99/aborpenlty.html, The Christian Statesman, Volume 142 Number 6, 1999 November-October.

14. Deuteronomy 19:13

15. Deuteronomy 19:12

16. Deuteronomy 6:2-3

17. Micah 6:8

18. Romans 1:18

* William Einwechter offers theological reasons for choosing just one interpretation in a note of Murder and the Death Penalty The Christian Statesman vol 144, no. 4 (July-August 2001), pp. 34-35. His theological reasons probably trump my literary reasons.

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