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"Lamech, son of Methushael, said to his wives, ‘Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me."
It's disproportionate violence to the imago dei, not merely sanctifying one over the other, but eliminating the other for daring to risk the one.
The ancient world said "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: as you have done, so shall it be done to you". We know the pattern of that through history. Blood feuds. Honour prices. Duels.
Our modern codes demand justice, yes, but part of the intent was to give grace for betterment or improvement. It was not a hand for a hand, nor even a hand for stealing, but a limitation for a while with the chance to make better. And sometimes people did manage to work out how to make better than they'd done.
And sometimes we just returned them to the situations they were in, that turned them back to the practices that got them in trouble, without any attempt to change what went wrong the first time.
Which worked about as well as one would expect.
Anyway, here we are, back at the violence of Lamech of the line of Cain - Cain who was marked by the blood of his brother, one like to him but unlike to him, also. Disproportionate violence to be visited on the 'lesser' - a hand for a injury, a life for an interruption.
Truly, humanity doesn't change, just goes round the block again with a fancier set of tools.
It's disproportionate violence to the imago dei, not merely sanctifying one over the other, but eliminating the other for daring to risk the one.
The ancient world said "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: as you have done, so shall it be done to you". We know the pattern of that through history. Blood feuds. Honour prices. Duels.
Our modern codes demand justice, yes, but part of the intent was to give grace for betterment or improvement. It was not a hand for a hand, nor even a hand for stealing, but a limitation for a while with the chance to make better. And sometimes people did manage to work out how to make better than they'd done.
And sometimes we just returned them to the situations they were in, that turned them back to the practices that got them in trouble, without any attempt to change what went wrong the first time.
Which worked about as well as one would expect.
Anyway, here we are, back at the violence of Lamech of the line of Cain - Cain who was marked by the blood of his brother, one like to him but unlike to him, also. Disproportionate violence to be visited on the 'lesser' - a hand for a injury, a life for an interruption.
Truly, humanity doesn't change, just goes round the block again with a fancier set of tools.