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What does the Bible say about the death penalty?

EthicsMulti-view · no verdict

Short answer

Scripture plainly authorises capital punishment in the Old Testament, and Christians disagree about whether that authorisation still stands. Both parts of that sentence are needed.

The main positions are below, and none is endorsed here.

Question

What does the Bible say about the death penalty?

Analysis

The main views

ViewPositionHeld by
RetentionistCapital punishment is divinely authorised for murder, grounded in the image of God (Genesis 9:6) before the Mosaic law and so not abolished with it, and affirmed for the state in Romans 13:4Many evangelical and Reformed bodies; the historic position of most traditions
RestrictionistIt is permitted in principle but should be rare or effectively never used, because the biblical safeguards cannot be met by modern systems and the risk of executing the innocent is realWidely held across traditions
AbolitionistThe consistent direction of Jesus' teaching, and a consistent ethic of life, rule it out for Christians now, whatever was permitted under the old covenantHistoric peace churches; many mainline Protestants; the current Catholic position

The Catholic change, which is dateable

This is a matter of record rather than interpretation. Catholic teaching historically permitted capital punishment. In 2018 the Catechism was revised to state that the death penalty is inadmissible because it attacks the dignity of the person, and the church works for its abolition worldwide. Anyone quoting older Catholic teaching in support of it is quoting a position the church has since changed.

The arguments, laid out

For, in brief:

  • Genesis 9:6 precedes Israel's law and is addressed to humanity after the flood, so it is not obviously tied to the covenant that passed away.
  • Romans 13:4 was written under Roman rule, where the sword plainly meant execution, and Paul does not qualify it.
  • Justice for the victim is a real biblical concern, not merely a human sentiment (Deuteronomy 19:13; Numbers 35:33).
  • Jesus did not tell the soldiers or the centurion to leave their profession (Luke 3:14).

Against, in brief:

  • The same Genesis 9:6 reasoning, that human life bears God's image, is used to argue against taking it.
  • Jesus explicitly revises the lex talionis formula that grounds the older penalties (Matthew 5:38; Matthew 5:39).
  • God repeatedly protects a murderer from execution: Cain is marked so no one will kill him (Genesis 4:15), and David, guilty of arranged murder and adultery, both capital offences, is not executed (2 Samuel 12:13).
  • God states no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that they turn and live (Ezekiel 18:23; Ezekiel 33:11).
  • Vengeance is reserved to God (Romans 12:19; Deuteronomy 32:35).
  • Paul himself, who had consented to Stephen's killing (Acts 8:1), was not executed but converted.

The safeguards the law itself imposed

Both sides note that the biblical procedure was demanding, and restrictionists build their case on it:

SafeguardWhere
No one may be executed on the testimony of one witnessNumbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 17:6; Deuteronomy 19:15
Witnesses must be examined, and a false witness bears the penalty they soughtDeuteronomy 19:16; Deuteronomy 19:18; Deuteronomy 19:19
The witnesses must act first in the executionDeuteronomy 17:7
Cities of refuge protected the accused from vengeance before trialNumbers 35:11; Numbers 35:12
A clear distinction between murder and accidental killingNumbers 35:22; Numbers 35:23; Deuteronomy 19:4

The passage many people expect, and a caution about it

John 8:7, where Jesus tells the accusers that the one without sin should throw the first stone, is the text most often quoted here. Two things should be said about it:

  1. It is a disputed passage. The account of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1 onward) is absent from the earliest manuscripts, and nearly all modern Bibles mark it with a note. Traditions differ on its authority; many hold it as a genuine memory of Jesus preserved outside the original text of John.
  2. What it addresses is contested even by those who accept it. Some read it as undercutting capital punishment; others read it as addressing the hypocrisy of these particular accusers, and note that the law required both parties in adultery to be brought (Leviticus 20:10) and only the woman was.

What is agreed

PointWhere
Human life is valuable because it bears God's imageGenesis 9:6; Genesis 1:27
Government has a real, God-given role in restraining evilRomans 13:1; Romans 13:4; 1 Peter 2:13; 1 Peter 2:14
Justice must not be corrupted or partialLeviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 16:19; Proverbs 17:15
Executing the innocent is a grave wrongExodus 23:7; Proverbs 6:16; Proverbs 6:17
Mercy is not weaknessMicah 6:8; James 2:13

Sources, trace every one

Every cited verse, in full. Tap any reference to open it in the reader.

  • Genesis 9:6bsb

    Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.

  • Exodus 21:12bsb

    Whoever strikes and kills a man must surely be put to death.

  • Numbers 35:16bsb

    If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

  • Exodus 21:16bsb

    Whoever kidnaps another man must be put to death, whether he sells him or the man is found in his possession.

  • Exodus 21:15bsb

    Whoever strikes his father or mother must surely be put to death.

  • Leviticus 20:10bsb

    If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife— with the wife of his neighbor— both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.

  • Leviticus 24:16bsb

    Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD must surely be put to death; the whole assembly must surely stone him, whether he is a foreign resident or native; if he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.

  • Numbers 15:35bsb

    And the LORD said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death. The whole congregation is to stone him outside the camp.”

  • Romans 13:4bsb

    For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer.

  • Matthew 5:38bsb

    You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’

  • Matthew 5:39bsb

    But I tell you not to resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also;

  • Matthew 5:44bsb

    But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

  • Ezekiel 33:11bsb

    Say to them: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

  • Ezekiel 18:23bsb

    Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Lord GOD. Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?

  • Deuteronomy 19:13bsb

    You must show him no pity. You are to purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, that it may go well with you.

  • Numbers 35:33bsb

    Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

On contested questions we show every major view, attributed and cited, and pick no winner. Answers are synthesized from primary sources, truth you can trace, not opinion.

What does the Bible say about the death penalty? · Bubble Bible