Matthew 5:38 known as the principle of "lex talionis", is an ancient statement of the principle of retributive punishment dating back to the Code of Hammurabi. This phrasing appears several times in the Old Testament at Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, and Deuteronomy 19:21. This was a moderate rule compared with the blood feuds described in Genesis 4:23-24. The New Testament scholar R. T. France notes that by Jesus' era such punishments were no longer in practice, rather they had been replaced with fines judged to be of equal value to the damage caused. Thus, according to France, Jesus is not here condemning
Hans Heinrich Schmid Hochschule Bethel). In the summer semester 1976 he was Professor of Old Testament scholarship and general history of religion at the University of Zurich. From 1988 to 2000 he served as rector of the University of Zurich. During his tenure, in 1998, the University of Zurich became an independent legal entity of the Canton of Zurich. Hans Heinrich Schmid was married in 1962 and had two sons and two daughters. Schmid was a respected authority on the question of Pentateuchal origins (the question of how the first five books of the bible – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Book of Numbers and