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In Exodus, an eye, hand or foot must be paid for with the same body part. Jesus uses a similar list in the Gospel of Thomas, but replacing body parts is a way to enter the kingdom, possibly reusing the punishment language for a new purpose.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 21:24
Hebrew Bible
22 “If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no serious injury, the one who hit her will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides. 23 But if there is serious injury, then you will give a life for a life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
Gospel of Thomas 22
Nag Hammadi
22 Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, “These little ones being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom.” They said to him, “Then shall we enter the kingdom as little ones?” 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 will not be male and the female not be female—when you fashion eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom].” 23 Jesus said, “I shall choose you, one from a thousand and two from ten thousand, and they will stand as a single one.”
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Notes and References
“... 22.6 When you make eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot. Popkes is right to observe that 22.6 is apparently not about the overcoming of opposites, as was the case in 22.4–5. 22.6 speaks of replacement, rather than ‘making the two one’ as is found elsewhere. There are no less than three potential sources for the language and imagery here. (1) There is a peculiar correspondence here with the lex talionis in Exodus and the Sermon on the Mount, where we find the penalty of ‘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’ (ὀφθαλμὸν ἀντὶ ὀφθαλμοῦ, ὀδόντα ἀντὶ ὀδόντος, χεῖρα ἀντὶ χειρός, πόδα ἀντὶ ποδός, Exod. 21.24). ...”
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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