What does the expression an eye for an eye mean in relation to Hammurabi's Code?

Answer 1

None. An eye for an eye won't make the whole world blind. What you need to get at is understanding what it means. It means that if we all took revenge and if we all never forgave just think of what our world would be like?

"An eye for an eye" IS the example. There isn't an example for an example.

Answer 2

Revenge is another word for the saying an eye for an eye. The saying means that if someone harms you or something of yours, you will harm him, or something belonging to him, to get even.

in the old testimont it said spare the rod and spoil the child, but in the new testimont it revises alot of that to a non violent form of understanding, revenge is wrong so now its says to turn another cheek and walk away, and don't beat your kids, but discipline them to obey without beating them

Answer 3

It's an eye for an eye makes everybody blind. It's a phrase used to discourage the act of getting revenge. It's saying that if someone does something bad to you, such as pokes your eye, and you poke their eye back in revenge, then that person'll want revenge back on you and so on. It is saying revenge is a never ending cycle and will eventually leave both sides blind, meaning both of them lost when revenge was brought into play.

Answer 4

Mahatma Gandhi (WHAT?!?)

It is in The Bible, although i forget who said it.........

" you have heard, an eye for an eye......." Matthew 5.

That was Jesus Christ... quoted from the code of Hammurabi from 18th century B.C.

Answer 5

The phrase originates from the Old Testament bible:

22 When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman's husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine. 23If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, 24eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. 26 When a slave-owner strikes the eye of a male or female slave, destroying it, the owner shall let the slave go, a free person, to compensate for the eye. 27If the owner knocks out a tooth of a male or female slave, the slave shall be let go, a free person, to compensate for the tooth.

(Exodus 21:22-21:27)

18Anyone who kills an animal shall make restitution for it, life for life. 19Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: 20fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered.

(Leviticus 24:18-24:20)

16If a malicious witness comes forward to accuse someone of wrongdoing, 17then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days, 18and the judges shall make a thorough inquiry. If the witness is a false witness, having testified falsely against another, 19then you shall do to the false witness just as the false witness had meant to do to the other. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20The rest shall hear and be afraid, and a crime such as this shall never again be committed among you. 21Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

(Deuteronomy 19:16-19:21)

Read more about the source and subsequent uses of the prhrase in:

http://www.answers.com/Eye%20for%20an%20eye

This was part of the original Code of Hammurabilong before (ca. 1700 BC) any of the old testament was created (ca. 1400 BC to 1300 BC).

Answer 6

The expression refers to Hammurabi's (sp) Code, the first codified set of laws which directly impact our own. Hammurabi was a Babylonian king (circa 1700s BCE) and he was among the first rulers to record his laws.

The code states: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"; meaning, that if person A attacks person B and causes person B to lose an eye in the fight, person B has the legal right to remove person A's eye in retaliation for the loss.

Answer 7

And eye for an eye is an expression of revenge, meaning what you do to one person, they feel they can then do to you.

Answer 8

Punishment should be similar to the crime committed.