Bibical Questions on Capital Punishment

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English: Auguste Vaillants execution.
English: Auguste Vaillants execution. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Does the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex. 20:13), abrogate the principle of capital punishment? The verb used in this verse occurs forty-nine times in the Old Testament and in every relevant use means “to murder,” especially with premeditation. It is never used of animals, God, angels, or enemies in battle.

 The New Testament always translates the sixth commandment with phoneuo, which is never used to mean anything other than “to murder.” The penalty for breaking the commandment was death (Ex. 21:12; Num. 35:16–21). One can conclude that when the theocracy took the life of a murderer (i.e., one who violated the sixth commandment), the state (particularly those who actually performed the execution) was not guilty of murder. 

 Furthermore, God’s commanding Israel to kill their enemies during the conquest of Canaan could not have been a violation of this commandment either by God or by the individual soldiers who killed in battle. They were the instruments of the execution of divine judgment, not violators of the sixth commandment.
A THEOLOGICAL QUESTION

 Does an approach to the Scriptures that recognizes the progress of revelation or dispensational distinctions forbid the use of Genesis 9:6 as a guideline for today? There are only two ways that the answer could be yes. One is if in the progress of revelation, the New Testament declares a new ethic to replace the Old Testament ethic that included capital punishment. But we have already seen that neither the Lord nor the apostles introduced a replacement ethic for capital punishment; indeed, they did not disturb the Old Testament standard concerning this matter (John 8:1–11; Rom. 13:1–7).

 The other way would be to understand that the ending of the law in the New Testament carried with it the end of capital punishment, which was an integral part of the law. Dispensationalists are strong in their insistence that the law has been done away with in Christ (2 Cor. 3:7–11). This, of course, would mean that the capital punishment that was a part of the Mosaic law was superseded by the law of grace, but by no stretch of any dispensational imagination could this include Genesis 9:6. 

 Dispensational distinctions do recognize that the law of capital punishment for certain crimes was done away with in Christ, but this does not include capital punishment for murder. If the New Testament gave a replacement for the standard of Genesis 9:6, then the Genesis command would no longer be valid. But since it does not, the dispensational teaching concerning the end of the law is irrelevant to Genesis 9:6, and the principle of that verse apparently still applies today.
A PRACTICAL QUESTION

 What is the purpose of capital punishment? Numerous answers have been given and debated, but ultimately the biblical purpose is related to the responsibilities of civil government. It is the purpose of government to punish those who do evil (2 Pet. 2:13), and capital punishment is evidently one of the ways this purpose is to be carried out. This raises the question of whether or not capital punishment is really a deterrent to crime. This question has been debated as far back as the fourth century before Christ in the governing assembly of Athens. The proponent of capital punishment argued that “any pity you show will win you no gratitude, but will be taken as a sign of weakness, and others will rebel if they see that it is possible to rebel with impunity.” The opponent exhorted the assembly not to “do something foolish by trusting to the death penalty.”

 The argument continues today, and experts are cited on both sides of the question. J. Edgar Hoover’s experienced appraisal was: “The professional law enforcement officer is convinced from experience that the hardened criminal has been and is deterred from killing based on the prospect of the death penalty.”

 Recent experience in Great Britain indicates that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime. “There has been a sharp rise in armed robberies and violent crime throughout Britain since 1965, when the death penalty was dropped, and more criminals seem to carry guns now.”

 In light of this evidence, capital punishment does serve a purpose necessary to carrying out government’s God-ordained function. Without it the sword of government would be sheathed.
Ryrie, C. C. (1991). Biblical answers to tough questions (pp. 29–31). Chicago, IL: Moody Press.

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