25:1-3 - When men have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make him lie down and have him flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime deserves, but he must not give him more than forty lashes. If he is flogged more than that, your brother will be degraded in your eyes.
Abu Ghraib has demonstrated how easy it is for any society that prides itself as a great civilization to descend into the barbarism of turning on its criminals (and at Abu Ghraib, they were merely suspects) with intimidation and derisive contempt. Moses would have none of this. There comes a point when what is legitimate as punishment crosses the line into excess.1
The case opens with an innocent-sounding introduction, "when men have a dispute," but the dispute turns out to be serious enough to warrant corporeal punishment. It is with this punishment that the rest of the passage is concerned. The criminal's flogging2 is to be supervised by one of the judges ("in his presence") and only in proportion to his crime ("with the number of lashes his crime deserve," v2). There is a point when what is legitimate turns to excess, and forty lashes is set as the limit (v3). A criminal is a human with a dignity that is right to be defended and "more than that your brother will be degraded in your eyes." Why forty is not explained, but anyone who has witnessed such lashings knows it is plenty enough. This means that the punishment meted out most often would be less. To prevent transgressing this limit, later Jewish practice kept flogging to the "forty lashes minus one" that Paul claimed he received (five time) from the Jews (2 Cor 11:24). Wright notes quite pertinently how sad it is that "in the popular perception the OT is so often vilified for the severity of its punishment, whereas this law with its careful limitations and its explicit protection of the rights and dignity of criminals is overlooked."3
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2017