Murder

Murder — the intentional unlawful killing of a human being — is among the most severely condemned acts in biblical law and ethics. The prohibition against murder is embedded in the Noahic covenant (Gen. 9:6: Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image) and reiterated in the Sixth Commandment (Ex. 20:13; Deut. 5:17). The Mosaic law carefully distinguished murder from accidental homicide (manslaughter), prescribing cities of refuge where those guilty of unintentional killing could seek asylum from the avenger of blood (Num. 35:11–28). For deliberate murder, capital punishment was mandatory and no ransom was accepted (Num. 35:16–21, 31). Jesus radicalized the commandment by extending its scope to encompass hatred and contemptuous anger as murder of the heart (Matt. 5:21–22). The New Testament consistently lists murder among the gravest sins excluding from the kingdom of God (Rev. 21:8; 22:15) and associates it with the fallen nature of a world in rebellion against its Creator (Rom. 1:29; 1 John 3:15).