And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.
Literally rendered the verse says that one who strikes the soul of a man shall be put to death, where soul denotes the person or human life that is struck. Killing a soul therefore means killing a person, and a human being can kill a soul. Soul here does not mean a separate immortal entity within man that survives the body. The verse stands in Leviticus 24:10-25, which records the first stoning to death. That first stoning was imposed for blasphemy when an Israelite blasphemed God's name, and the passage prescribes death for both blasphemy and murder.
Under Israel's law murder was punishable by death. Violation of the moral precept against killing was punished with death at the hand of the civil magistrate. The same death penalty was affixed to violations of several other commandments, including Sabbath-breaking, idolatry, disobedience to parents, covetousness and theft, and to most of the precepts of the moral law. Sameness of penalty therefore does not prove the Sabbath to be merely ceremonial or positive, since moral laws carry the same penalty. The moral law formed part of the civil code of the Hebrew nation, and as such penalties to be inflicted by the magistrate were annexed to it, shadowing forth the final retribution of the ungodly. Infliction of that civil penalty was suspended by Christ's decision that only those without sin should cast the first stone, but the real penalty of the law, the wages of sin, was not set aside and the precept violated was not weakened.
Killing another person is a willful violation of God's law that breaks the sixth commandment. It brings the transgressor under the curse and carries the penalty of death. The severe penalty for murder presents one of Leviticus's object lessons about the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
Literally rendered the verse says that one who strikes the soul of a man shall be put to death, where soul denotes the person or human life that is struck. Killing a soul therefore means killing a person, and a human being can kill a soul. Soul here does not mean a separate immortal entity within man that survives the body. The verse stands in Leviticus 24:10-25, which records the first stoning to death. That first stoning was imposed for blasphemy when an Israelite blasphemed God's name, and the passage prescribes death for both blasphemy and murder.
Under Israel's law murder was punishable by death. Violation of the moral precept against killing was punished with death at the hand of the civil magistrate. The same death penalty was affixed to violations of several other commandments, including Sabbath-breaking, idolatry, disobedience to parents, covetousness and theft, and to most of the precepts of the moral law. Sameness of penalty therefore does not prove the Sabbath to be merely ceremonial or positive, since moral laws carry the same penalty. The moral law formed part of the civil code of the Hebrew nation, and as such penalties to be inflicted by the magistrate were annexed to it, shadowing forth the final retribution of the ungodly. Infliction of that civil penalty was suspended by Christ's decision that only those without sin should cast the first stone, but the real penalty of the law, the wages of sin, was not set aside and the precept violated was not weakened.
Killing another person is a willful violation of God's law that breaks the sixth commandment. It brings the transgressor under the curse and carries the penalty of death. The severe penalty for murder presents one of Leviticus's object lessons about the exceeding sinfulness of sin.