- Jun 22, 2024
We’ve been interpreting “eye for an eye” wrong
- Jeff A. Benner
- Translation
- 11 comments
While I may frequently point out errors, problems and inconsistencies in translations, I have a lot of respect for Bible translators and their translations, many of which I use in my own research and studies. I just believe that translators should be more transparent with their translations.
My difficulty with attempting to point out the translation problem in Exodus 21:24 is that every translation I consulted, has the same translation, “eye for eye.” So, when I come along and say that is a poor translation, I appear to be claiming that I know more than all those other translators. With all of that said, I have no idea why all the translations have “eye for eye,” but let me bring to light with what is really going on in this passage.
If I wanted to say “eye for eye” in Hebrew, it would be, “ayin l'ayin.” Ayin is the Hebrew word for “eye” and the prefix “l” means “for.” But that is not what is found in the Hebrew Bible. In the Hebrew Bible we find the phrase “ayin tahhat ayin,” which literally translates as “eye under eye.” The word tahhat, which means “under” (such as we can see in Genesis 1:7 where it says, “under the firmament”), can also mean “instead” or “in place of” (such as we see in Genesis 4:25 where it says, “in place of Abel.”)
Let’s take a look at the first verse and the Hebrew verb translated as "give," which precedes the phrase "life for life..." This is the Hebrew verb “natan,” which means “to give." But let’s look at the New International Version (NIV), which says, “take life for life.” The Hebrew verb for “take” is laqahh and has the complete opposite meaning of natan. While the KJV is technically correct with its use of the word “give,” I think the English Standard Version (ESV) has captured the intent of the verb, “pay life for life.” We’ll come back to this idea of “paying” later.
This passage is not, I repeat, not, saying that if someone takes a life, their life should also be taken. What it is saying, is that if you cause the loss of a life, you must replace that life. The same is true for an eye, tooth, hand and foot as stated in the next verse.
An eye in place of an eye, a tooth in place of a tooth, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot.
Exodus 21:24, RMT
This command is stating that if you cause the loss of the use of the eye of a person, then you must replace that eye. Of course, this cannot mean implanting a new eye, but instead, you must take whatever measures are necessary to give that person what he needs in order to compensate him for the missing eye. This might mean giving him a servant to see for him or “paying” him to replace his lost wages.
But if a man will attack the eye of his servant, or the eye of his bondwoman, and he damages [it], he will send him to freedom in place of (tahhat) his eye, and if the tooth of his servant, or the tooth of his bondwoman, is made to fall out, he will send him to freedom in place of (tahhat) his tooth.
Exodus 21:26,27, RMT
I cover this topic and many others in my book, Benner's Commentary on the Torah.
About my Blog
The Bible was written in an ancient eastern culture, which views the world very differently from the way we do in our modern western culture.
My blog objectives:
Expose how our modern translations have ignored the original language of the Bible in order to present a Bible that is more easily readable by modern Western readers.
Transform your way of thinking to be more in line with the ancient Eastern authors of the Bible.
11 comments
Yes! Also, I would like to thank you for your word studies, Mr. Benner. I love the Hebrew and am always amazed at the meaning that my Father points out to me as I read and study his word, or he leads me to an educator who knows something about Hebrew, to let me sit in on his points of view and learn from him/her. I would love to know more on how to read, speak and write Hebrew. Western movies didn't do us any favors in helping us in the misinterpretations of the sayings of our Father on this either. Thank you for you all your hard work and effort in educating us on the beautiful Hebrew language of the Bible to be better equipped and knowledgeable of the truth of our Father's words. Thank you very much, sir!
Thank you Brenda. Hebrew is an amazing language. I’ve been studying it for 25 years and I feel that I’ve only scratched the surface of its depth.
Thank you very kindly, Dr. Benner. This seems appropriate for the ongoing theme of wholeness found throughout most of the biblical texts.
I don't understand this sentence: "This is the Hebrew verb “natan,” which means does, as the KJV has, mean “to give." It does not make sense grammatically. Please explain.
Thank you John for pointing this out. I have corrected the passage, which now reads, "This is the Hebrew verb “natan,” which means “to give."
This reminds me of this saying in the gospel of Thomas. The sayings, some anyways, seen very odd until you get the answer to them. This one I have not worked on but reading your article reminded me of it.
(22) Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom."
They said to him, "Shall we then, as children, enter the kingdom?"
Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom."
The very name that YHWH gave to be His Sons name is Yeshua, YHWH saves. Jesus is a made up name that man uses. So the question is this, will you continue to seek Him through man or will you seek Him through God Himself! Everyone who calls on the name jesus, is one who worships creation rather than the creator. And yes, i learned this through many years of lies and deceptions. Think about it this way, do you try to “english, or americanize” other peoples names from different countries or cultures, or do you honor them by calling them by their name given to them by their parents?
This makes reading the word more exciting and more addictive. Thanks for the profound and eye-opening revelations
I completely agree that these insights into Hebrew word studies make learning about deeper meanings of the Bible more and more exciting. When I recently happened upon Dr. Benner‘s book, His Name is One, my learning was transformed. I have shared this brief, but powerful book with many friends, and have since bought several other of Dr. Benner‘s books to reference them for my own personal research. Thank you, Dr. Benner, for your insight and bravery to challenge scholarship that most readers of the Bible, including myself, have assumed as always accurate. Let us embrace God‘s word as true, while always being challenged to understand what these words truly mean so that our lives can continually be transformed.
This is so good, and if I may say, eye-opening! I am confident your translation is accurate besides what you explain here but the fact that God does not want US to be the ones to exact revenge. Common translations cause us to seek revenge . (You did this to me so I am going to do this to you type thinking.) Instead, God wants us to fess up to our sins and drive out the vengeance we feel in "getting even" with repentance and love. Humbling ourselves and instead replacing what we have basically stolen from someone, now that is God's will for us and more clearly expresses His nature.
The problem that everyone of us has had in our asking, our seeking and our knocking has been from a place of lack, meaning lack of understanding and knowledge of God as Love, as Spirit. 1 Cor 2:11 NKJV “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God”
Therefore, it is you that is most assuredly the Translator!! It is your heart that translates not other people and certainly not different bibles, it is your heart that is what shows if your are of Love(God) or if you are of anti-Love(anti-christ).
For anyone to even begin to understand the word of God one must first realize that they are in fact the creation of God, that He created us and made us and formed us in His image and His character! We have His heart in us and that is where every aspect of light comes from! Yes the eye is the lamp of the body, but the eye must be connected to light in order to see the goodness of Love for them to actually be able to see. As Lord Yeshua is, as He was born, as He lives and sees and hears and everything else, so are WE in this world. Being born again is just the realization that one allows themselves to truly believe in how they were made and created from the first place, not of man or mans will, but as it has always been the Truth, by God the Father!! Lord Yeshua came to do one thing, to show us who we truly are and have always been!! The mind is not where anything comes from, our brains are merely the action center of our bodies, the Heart is where all your feelings and emotions and all of life truly come from. While the world takes the broad and wide path and believes that your brain is the major function center, Take the narrow path of Truth and realize, Out of the Heart flow the issues of life!!