Capital punishment in the Bible

The Bible states that for the death penalty to be carried out, at least two witnesses were required.[6] (According to Rabbinic tradition, there were numerous other conditions/requirements (such as a warning) that made it difficult to get a conviction.)

Sins that were punishable by death in the Torah, included the following:[3][4]

Homicide (excluding negligent homicide),[7] to strike/attack/smite one's parents,[8] kidnapping[9] cursing one's parents,[10] witchcraft and divination,[11][12] bestiality[13] worshiping other gods,[14] violating the Sabbath[15] child sacrifice,[16] adultery,[17] incest,[18] and male homosexual intercourse (there is no biblical legal punishment for lesbians mentioned).[19][20] The daughter of a Kohen who defiles herself through harlotry,[21] blaspheme (of the Tetragrammaton name of God),[22] a non-Levite "encroaching" on the Levite task of setting up or taking down the Tabernacle,[23] a non-Kohen carrying out priestly duties,[24] promoting the worship of other gods (if an entire town is swayed by such people, the entire town is to be put to death and destroyed),[25] defiantly refusing to accept a court's ruling,[26] maliciously giving false testimony accusing another person of having committed a capital offence,[27] rebellion against parents,[28] If a man marries a girl and claims that she is not a virgin, the girl's parents should produce evidence of her virginity. If it is found that she was not a virgin, she is stoned to death for fornicating while still under her father's authority,[29] intercourse with an engaged/betrothed virgin girl (if she could have cried out for help and did not, she is killed as well).[30][3][4]

The most common method mentioned is by stoning, followed by burning, and then by sword (once). There is a verse that mentions hanging; however, it isn't clear whether this is a separate method of killing, or something done with the body after it was dead. The verse goes on to command that the body is not to be left up overnight, but rather must be buried that day, since an impaled or hung body was offensive to God.[31][3][4]

In the Genesis creation narrative (Book of Genesis 2:17), God tells Adam "But of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for on the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die."[32] According to the Talmud, this verse is a death penalty.[33]

In Genesis 38:24-26, when Judah is told that Tamar (his former daughter-in-law) had become a harlot and was pregnant, he sentences her to death by burning. However, she proves that he (Judah) is the father, and (apparently) the ruling is reversed.[3][4]

During the period that the Israelites wandered the wilderness, examples include: A man was stoned for gathering wood on Sabbath,[34] while another was stoned for blasphemy.[35] In the rebellion of Korah, the ground opened up swallowing Korah, other leaders, and their families; and a heavenly fire consumed another 250 followers. The next day, all the Israelites railed against Moses and Aaron, blaming them for the deaths, and God sent a plague that killed another 14,700.[36][3][4]

During the period of Kings, examples include: Elijah captured and "slaughtered" the prophets of Baal.[37] King Asa and the tribes who followed him made a covenant to worship God and "whoever would not worship the LORD God of Israel would be put to death."[38] King Ahab eliminated Naboth (to get his land) by getting false witnesses to testify that Naboth had blasphemed God and the King.[39][3][4] In the uprising against Athaliah when Jehoash was appointed king of Judah, Mattan, the priest of Baal was killed.[40]

The Sermon on the Mount rejects "an eye for an eye" and thus, implicitly, retributive justice, which has been argued to include capital punishment.[41] Whether supportive or not, commentators establish the relevance of the Sermon to considerations of capital punishment,[42] for example Augustine, who cites it in his analysis supporting capital punishment as carried out by duly constituted authority.[43] In 2018 the Roman Catholic catechism changed to repudiate capital punishment in any circumstances,[44] and the Vatican website explicitly references the Sermon on the Mount in justification for this.[45]

In a passage that may be a later interpolation,[46] John 8:3–11 mentions a woman caught in adultery being brought to Jesus for judgment.[47] Jesus does not condemn her, but says "Go and from now on do not sin any more." (John 8:11)

Jesus is sentenced to death and dies on a cross in all four Gospels.[48]