Letter: Legal revenge an affront to victims

Sir: Jack O'Sullivan's phrase "the more limited Biblical lines of an eye for an eye" requires some modification.

There is a progression of thought in both Old and New Testaments away from the idea of vengeance towards the original concept that retribution belongs only to God, as stated in Genesis 4, 15/16: "The Lord set a mark upon Cain that no man should touch him." There was a fall away from this principle in the Song of Lamech (Gen. 4, 24) - vengeance is now to be seventy times seven. The Mosaic principle of an eye for an eye (one for one) goes some way back towards the original concept. The New Testament gives the judgement of Jesus: "You have heard that they were told an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth: what I tell you is this, do not resist those who wrong you ..." (Matthew 5, 38).

Both Jewish and Christian tradition argue that to demand retribution is to risk usurping what is the prerogative of the Creator alone.

The Rev J STRONG

Winchcombe, Gloucestershire