Modern criminal punishment in the Western world does not follow biblical principles regarding the type of punishment to administer. In fact, the adoption of incarceration as the primary means of criminal punishment runs contrary to both the Old and New Testaments. Biblical references to punishment shed considerable light on any debate between the merits of incarceration versus the value of corporal punishment. Between the two, the punishment recommended and mandated by the Old Testament and essentially endorsed by the New Testament is corporal punishment (both judicial and parental). The Old and New Testaments indicate God sets prisoners free.
The biblical goals of corporal punishment (“CP”) are to rehabilitate, educate, impart wisdom, cleanse evil, deliver from hell, drive out foolishness, purge the innermost being, avoid ruining the lives of those who are punished, and correct fools. God’s love and the love of parents for their children are expressed motives for corporal punishment.
The recipients of CP are those who lack understanding, harbor evil, fools, children in need of discipline and children with naturally occurring foolishness. Based on the number of biblical references, most of those who need correcting are young men, the same demographic cohort that commits an inordinate number of crimes today or in any other age. The window of opportunity appears before the child grows too old or set in his ways.
Judicial corporal punishment according to the Bible should be administered in public, before the sentencing judge, and should not exceed 40 lashes. The recipients of physical punishment should, under biblical principles, accept their punishment, as from a loving God or as proper discipline. God chastises those God loves, and that’s how parents should approach corporal punishment to avoid abusive use.
According to the Bible, CP rehabilitates wrongdoers. Flogging is in truth a rehabilitative method. But the Bible also states that CP does not always work. Stubborn, rebellious, gluttonous and drunken sons who could not be corrected with a whip were to be stoned.
A common argument against corporal punishment is an observation that the New Testament was less punitive and more forgiving than the Old Testament. By no means did the New Testament abolish the laws and commandments established in the Old Testament. In the case of corporal punishment, the New Testament states that God scourges the sons who God loves and those who God receives as sons. Jesus made a whip out of cords and used it to drive money-changers, cattle and sheep from the temple area.
The Spirit of the Lord was sent, as Jesus was, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. Murderers and most dangerous criminals would have been executed under the laws in the Bible. It cannot be those prisoners to whom freedom should be proclaimed. Freedom is to be proclaimed to other, less dangerous offenders, such as those who would have been flogged in biblical times.
The Bible does not credit incarceration with restorative effects. Instead, prison is generally associated with darkness and despair. The Western world incarcerates millions of its citizens and almost never imposes judicial cp. The economic and social costs of mass incarceration in the United States spiral out of control. Prisons fail to rehabilitate and do not deter enough crime. Incarceration is an expensive way to make bad people worse. What seems right to modern man can be entirely misguided. Once again, it’s time to recognize the wisdom of the Bible.
