How to read this page

An Intertextuality Pair — one connection between two passages, shown as linked verse cards: the Later text and the Earlier text it quotes, alludes to or echoes. The Significance essay explains why the link matters and where it points in Christ.

Reference Type— how explicit the link is: Quotation, Allusion, or Echo
Connection Method(s)— how it carries meaning: e.g. Typology, Promise-Fulfillment, Analogy, Longitudinal Theme
Found via— where the connection was identified, e.g. the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge or an Anchor-Text Network

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Intertextuality Pair

Deuteronomy 19:18-21 → Leviticus 24:20

Quotation

Later text

Deuteronomy 19:18-21BSB

The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is proven to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. So you must purge the evil from among you. Then the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything so evil among you. You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Earlier text

Leviticus 24:20BSB

fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Just as he injured the other person, the same must be inflicted on him.

Significance

Leviticus 24:20 states the lex talionis: "fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth" (עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן, ayin tachat ayin) — proportional restitution for bodily injury. Deuteronomy 19:18-21 applies this same principle specifically to the case of false witnesses: "you must do to the false witness as he intended to do to his brother... life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth." The Deuteronomic application narrows the lex talionis to a judicial context — perjury in court proceedings — and adds the deterrent rationale: "the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you." Both texts establish proportional justice as the standard, preventing both excessive punishment and inadequate compensation.

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme