An Eye for an Eye, Part I. Judeo-Christian Symbolism from Above and Below

You are to take a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.

- Exodus 21:23-25

Part I. Judeo-Christian Symbolism from Above and Below

Here is a simple, yet elegant ikonographic understanding of taking an Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth:

Go thence down BELOW, and make yourself firm, and be a FOUNDATION for the lower things, and it happened and he went down and fixed himself, and became the FOUNDATION for the lower things, and below the darkness there is nothing else. (Enoch 26:4)


The Bible is God’s chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbor is, and how to reach it without running on rocks or bars. (Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887, American politician.)

Everyone who falls on that STONE will be dashed to pieces, and IT will crush anyone on whom it falls. (Luke 20:18)


You [Lucifer] said in your heart: “I will scale the heavens, above the stars of God I will set up my throne; I will take my seat on the Mount of Assembly, in the recesses of the North. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will be like the Most High!” Yet down to the nether world you go, to the recesses of the pit! (Isaiah 14:13-15)

All this is of significance because it is concerned with the fact that there is an age-old Western tradition, much battered and destroyed in recent generations, that has sent up new, living shoots of vigorous growth since 1945. (Tragedy & Hope, by Carroll Quigley, p.1232)


Upon a high and lofty mountain you made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifice. Behind the door and the doorpost you placed your indecent symbol. Deserting me, you spread out your high, wide bed, and of those whose embraces you love you carved the symbol and gazed upon it…While you sent your ambassadors far away, down even to the nether world (Isaiah 57:7-9)


When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back. (Nietzsche)

Beware! I am against you, destroying mountain, destroyer of the entire earth, says the LORD; I will stretch forth my hand against you, roll you down over the cliffs, and make you a burnt mountain. They will not take from you a cornerstone, or a foundation stone; ruins forever shall you be, says the LORD. (Jeremiah 51:25-26)

An angel of the LORD appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, ‘I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned.’ - Exodus 3:2-3


May the LORD God bless you in the name of King David.