Capital Crimes
When the wicked perish there is rejoicing Proverbs 11:10 (Jonathan Sacks translation)
When – Do you have a religious duty to report and testify against a criminal? While most of us might say, “Yes,” when it comes to actually following through, we are often much more hesitant. We imagine the protracted process of the courts, the personal inconvenience and the potential threat (I just heard a story from Croatia of one particular case of property ownership that was filed by a man when he was 40 years old. He is now 83. The case is still in the courts. It now appears that he will die before he sees justice remove her blindfold and earplugs). But the Mishnah is quite clear about our religious obligations in cases of capital offense. We are required to act. One of the arguments for this obligation is taken from Proverbs 11:10. On the surface, the verse seems not to include the testimony of a witness, but the rabbis argued differently. They conclude that “although the Jewish law abhors the wrongful execution of a person, the rightful execution improves the world. By testifying faithfully against a person who has truly committed a crime, the witnesses are bringing much needed justice into the world.”[1] The rabbis make a telling point. Righteousness requires the involvement of human beings. Yes, YHVH is its author, but its execution demands the deliberate action of His created agents. Left alone, divine righteousness is a rare thing.
Yeshua’s call to Torah obedience certainly implies as much. Paul is of the same mind. Community involvement is not limited to compassion and benevolence. It must also involve rebuke and chastisement. The well-being of the whole is at stake in every living person and for us to ignore wickedness is to destroy the world. If you and I can do something about it, we must do something about it. Truthfulness and confrontation are not optional.
This ethical stance is radically different than our typical individualistic approach to communal ethics. We are often more likely to act on the premise, “If it doesn’t affect me, it’s none of my business.” But, of course, it does affect you—whatever it is—because it is all your business. You and I are representatives of the righteousness of YHVH. What happens anywhere and everywhere matters to Him. Therefore it must matter to us. We carry His image in the world. We cannot pretend that any desecration of His image is acceptable. It is a capital crime to pretend we are exempt from involvement.
Do you know something that is wrong? Someone who has violated the image of God in creation? Are you sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone else to step forward? According to the Mishnah, that sort of action makes you guilty of the crime.
Topical Index: rejoicing, rinna, shouts of gladness, Proverbs 11:10, wicked, crime
[1] Commentary on Sanhedrin, Chapter 4, Mishnah 5.
I am a little uncomfortable when Scripture addressing a closed congregation of Hebrews who’s government was centered on God’s word to them, is seemingly applied to a secular, non conforming, governmental authority (Romans, Assyrians, Babylonians, American). Yes, I would feel compelled to offer my eye witness testimony of a ‘capitol crime’ (you offered a civil dispute as one definition) to our secular courts but I would not proffer the system of man by sitting on a Jury as one who is bent on making sure ‘righteousness’ is restored…there is no ‘righteousness’ sought in our court system nor is it brought to fruition in a secular society that fails to apply God’s instructions in any situation.
The Sanhedrin was a much different setting of inquisition than our courts even with the element of corruption that sometimes showed through. As a father who struggled for 8 years to have his son released from prison for a crime he did not commit (Please enter the name Uriah Courtney in any search engine) I know fully well that the courts of our country, even in cases of Capitol Crime (which I consider a crime resulting in death), the secular people who prosecute it do not abide in God’s instructions or Righteousness.
That is pointed out in your citation of the case in Croatia where no solid evidence written or living has proffered ‘justice’. God’s appointed nation under God’s instructions would have and will one day offer a court of justice that solidifies that nation’s communities security. And if the other nations don’t follow suit ‘…no rain will fall on their crops’. That will be justice.
Wow. I looked up “Uriah Courtney”. I cannot even imagine the pain your family had endured. The site I saw stated the “cost of wrongful incarceration” at $360,000; but, I’d have to ask how much 8 years of my life would be worth. How does one affix a cost to that? It can’t be merely lost earnings. Or the cost of the defense at trial. Or the cost to the taxpayers for the wrongful incarceration. What about emotional trauma? That’s not to mention anything unsavory that may have happened during the incarceration.
I agree with your thoughts about projecting theocratic rules on secular societies.
Unfortunately Craig what happened to my son has happened thousands of times over and is testified to by the almost weekly release of another falsely accused. I would add that the experience my son, his mother my wife and I went through over those 8 years has brought an abundance of joy and an awesome witness of God’s hand in our lives during those years!
It’s a sign of what our justice system is like that I share this; I testified for four hours in my son’s trial that he was on my jobsite, 15 miles away, standing next to another employee of mine, and that I was in his presence there around the time of the crime. When I asked a juror what it was about my testimony that they discounted it in convicting him, she said; “We thought you loved him and would lie for him”. As it was proven…I was the only person in that courtroom telling the truth.
We are called to be honest and trustworthy witnesses in this corrupt and self centred world. Ignoring human defined crimes to go unpunished just results in more crime occurring. What has that got to do with shema everything for all government is permitted by God. To defend a law that is based on the law of Moses is what it is about. To defend abortion, sexual immortality etc. because law permits it is corruption of our own purity of heart.
Marxism promoted a view that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And therefore the only way to fight this is by removing power…
If you desire after your brothers wife you have already committed adultery… Yes all power and sin starts with our thoughts for that reason the greatest law is. Love God above all and neighbours like self.
Do not cut off the ears restore them to the great law…
I do not think that this is a call to vote a certain way, as Yeshua’s life pointed out the fact that changing the politics is not going to change hearts (so therefore He completely ignored them!). Instead, I see this as a call to step forward and put our individual LIVES on the front lines. If we see injustice, we are required to speak up personally, as if it were ourselves (as Bonhoeffer found, to his sorrow). If, eventually, I have not found a way to be hanging on some cross of this world some kind of way (like I was called to do) or burning at some stake in some Nero’s courtyard, there may be a real good chance that my life has been wasted in this world, where the poor victims of injustice we “always have with us” may well be serving as a litmus test for the rest of us.
Do we ever get away with sin? With harming another?
Sin always brings death to me.
You can run but you can’t hide. Maybe we won’t be found out by others but God always knows our actions.
“Truthfulness and confrontation are not optional.”
But even ‘biblical’ whistle blowers are not respected. Let’s be clear about this. It’s likely that if one speaks up, they should be prepared to stand alone. Though The Father would be there, it may not seem so.
Consider how many years, and how many victims, were necessary in order to effect change in the Catholic church.
Yes Gayle, and that is exactly where the duty to speak up lies…within the congregation of believers.
Richard, I looked up Uriah’s story. I cannot even imagine what he and your family have endured. I am grateful that the Innocence Project recognized the injustice in his conviction, and worked on his behalf. I hope the LORD restores those years that were lost, tenfold.
AMEIN!!
Absolutely!!! Aren’t we, the believers always to speak up for truth!
“Community involvement is not limited to compassion and benevolence.
It must also involve rebuke and chastisement.
The well-being of the whole is at stake in every living person and for us to ignore wickedness is to destroy the world
You and I are representatives of the righteousness of YHVH”
ABBA give us the strength to stand for truth and righteousness. Amein.