What does the Bible say about the death penalty? Scripture and five traditions

Why the question is in the news

On October 8, 2026, the US Defense Department announced that the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, sentenced to death for the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13 people, will be livestreamed; the execution is scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood (Associated Press, October 10, 2026). On October 9 Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that Hasan’s actions cannot be condoned but called the decision “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death” that “must be reconsidered,” citing Romans 12:17 (USCCB statement, as reported by Newsweek and the AP). On October 10, the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Pope Leo XIV posted that the death penalty is “inadmissible,” without naming the US case, and President Trump said he would decide whether the execution is livestreamed (AP). This page does not comment on the case or its legal questions.

Genesis 9:6, before the law of Moses

After the flood God speaks to Noah and his sons, from whom, Genesis says, the whole earth was populated (Genesis 9:19), not to Israel alone. He will “require” an accounting for human blood (Genesis 9:5), and then:

The reason given is the image of God: the victim bears it. The translations differ on the verb: “will be shed” (BSB, WEB) can be read as a statement of what happens, while “shall be shed” (KJV, ASV, Douay–Rheims) reads more naturally as a command. Because it comes before Moses, Luther treats it as a rule for every government, and he rejects the reading that it describes only God’s own punishment of murderers; the 2018 appeal below also cites it. The Douay–Rheims, translated from the Latin, has no “by man.”

Read the chapter: Genesis 9 (BSB) · KJV · Douay–Rheims.

“You shall not murder”: the Hebrew word

(The WEB opens a quotation mark at each commandment because God’s speech continues across paragraphs.)

The older “kill” is often quoted against all killing. The Hebrew verb is ratsach (Strong’s H7523), which Strong’s dictionary glosses as “to dash in pieces, i.e. kill (a human being), especially to murder.” It is not the usual word for a judicial death sentence. The law’s formula for that is mot yumat, “he shall surely be put to death,” from the verb mut (H4191), the phrase repeated in Exodus 21:12, 15, 16 and 17.

But the word is not a technical term. In Numbers 35 ratsach also names the unintentional killer who flees to a city of refuge (Numbers 35:11), the avenger of blood who kills him if he leaves it (35:27), and the execution of a murderer: in 35:30 the murderer “is to be put to death,” and the Hebrew verb there is ratsach again. Deuteronomy 4:42 uses it for a killing “unintentionally without prior malice.” So the commandment forbids unlawful killing; the word alone does not settle whether a lawful execution is ruled out.

The law of Moses: penalties and limits

Exodus 21 makes death the penalty for striking and killing a man, for kidnapping, and for striking or cursing one’s father or mother. Other laws add further capital offences, among them adultery (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22–24, which specifies stoning), the kind of law the accusers in John 8 appeal to. The same chapter of Exodus distinguishes the man who “did not lie in wait” and provides “a place where he may flee” (21:13), and gives the rule of “a life for a life” and “eye for eye” (21:23–24).

Numbers 35 builds that distinction into law. Six cities of refuge shelter a person who kills someone unintentionally (35:11–15). The chapter lists what marks a murderer — an iron object, a stone “of deadly size,” a deadly object of wood, hostility or intent (35:16–21) — and what marks an accident (35:22–23). The assembly judges between the killer and the avenger of blood (35:24). Then come two rules:

³⁰ If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness. ³¹ You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.

Deuteronomy 17:6 applies the same rule to a death sentence for idolatry, and Deuteronomy 19:15 to any charge; 17:7 adds that the witnesses’ hands must be the first in the execution, so that accusers had to take part in what their testimony caused. Christians disagree about what carries over. Luther treated Genesis 9:6 and Exodus 21 as confirming a sword that every government holds; none of the five traditions below asks a state to enforce the whole list of capital offences in Exodus 21.

Read the chapters: Exodus 21 · Numbers 35 · Deuteronomy 17.

Jesus: “eye for eye” and the woman in John 8

³⁸ You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’ ³⁹ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also;

Jesus forbids his followers to retaliate. Is he speaking to individuals or to courts? Luther, below, answered that a Christian bears injury for himself but may serve the sword for the sake of his neighbour; the Schleitheim Confession answered that the sword stays “outside the perfection of Christ.”

In John 8:1–11 the scribes and Pharisees bring a woman caught in adultery and say that Moses commanded such a woman to be stoned. Jesus answers:

⁷ When they continued to question Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.”

¹¹ “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Now go and sin no more.”

Jesus does not deny the law; he exposes accusers who were using it as a test “in order to have a basis for accusing Him” (8:6), and he sends the woman away with a command to stop sinning. The Schleitheim Confession, below, reads it as Christ’s pattern of mercy in place of the law’s penalty. The scene also leaves questions open: no court had tried her, and the man is not brought, although Leviticus 20:10 names both.

The passage’s textual status. The American Standard Version (1901) sets John 7:53–8:11 in square brackets (see John 7:53 in the ASV), and its margin notes that most of the ancient authorities omit it and that those which contain it vary much from each other. The site’s BSB text, which leaves out the translators’ notes, and the KJV, WEB and Douay–Rheims print it without marks.

Paul: the sword of the governing authority

Romans 13 comes right after Romans 12:17–21, where Paul tells Christians: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil,” and “Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath.” Then he turns to rulers:

⁴ For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer.

Berean Standard Bible

⁴ For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

King James Version

Personal revenge is forbidden; retribution belongs to God, and the ruler is called God’s servant in carrying it out. Luther opens his case for the sword with Romans 13, and the Westminster Confession speaks of the magistrate’s sword in the same terms. The verse itself does not say when the sword should take life; whether it requires, permits or merely assumes executions is where readers part. Paul’s words before Festus also bear on the question: “If, however, I am guilty of anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die” (Acts 25:11); he says it while defending himself in his own case.

Five traditions in their own sources

Historic texts are quoted from public-domain editions; modern church documents are copyrighted, so they are summarised and linked.

Roman Catholic

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II, question 64, article 2 (13th century; 1920 English Dominican translation). Aquinas asks whether it is lawful to kill sinners. His answer compares the community to a body: “if a man be dangerous and infectious to the community, on account of some sin, it is praiseworthy and advantageous that he be killed in order to safeguard the common good.” To the objection from Ezekiel 33:11 he replies that human justice executes those dangerous to others and gives others time to repent. In the next article (a. 3) he limits the power to public authority: “they alone, and not private individuals, can lawfully put evildoers to death.”

John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae 56 (1995). The encyclical kept the principle but narrowed its use to cases of absolute necessity, when society could not otherwise be defended, and judged that such cases are today “very rare, if not practically non-existent.” The Catechism’s official Latin edition then took this teaching into paragraph 2267.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 2267, revised 2018. In 2018 Pope Francis approved a new text of paragraph 2267. It says recourse to the death penalty was long considered an acceptable, if extreme, way to protect the common good, and gives three reasons for change: awareness that a person’s dignity is not lost even after very serious crimes, a new understanding of penal sanctions, and more effective systems of detention. It concludes that the Church teaches, “in the light of the Gospel,” that the death penalty is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” and that she works for its abolition worldwide. A letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, dated August 1, 2018 and published with the revision on August 2, presents the change as an authentic development of doctrine, not a contradiction of earlier teaching. Not all Catholics accept that account: on August 15, 2018, an appeal with 45 signatories in First Things asked the cardinals to advise the pope to withdraw the paragraph, citing Genesis 9:6 and earlier teaching.

Eastern Orthodox

Russian Orthodox Church, Bases of the Social Concept, IX.3 (adopted by its Council of Bishops in 2000). This is one Orthodox church’s official statement, not a ruling for all. It says the Old Testament recognised the death penalty and that neither the New Testament, Tradition nor Orthodox history indicates a need to abolish it. It notes that the Church has often interceded for the condemned, and gives reasons for abolition: more time for pastoral care and repentance, death cannot reform, and a judicial mistake becomes irreparable. It welcomes states that have stopped executing, “keeping in mind that mercy toward a fallen man is always more preferable than revenge,” but leaves the decision to each society, weighing crime, the courts and the protection of its law-abiding members.

Lutheran

Martin Luther, Secular Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed (1523; J. J. Schindel’s translation, 1930). Luther grounds the sword in Genesis 9:6, which he says God “re-established and confirmed … after the Flood in unmistakable terms”: “a murderer is guilty of death and should in justice be slain by the sword.” He cites Exodus 21 and Christ’s words to Peter that those who take the sword will perish by it. To the objection from Matthew 5 he answers that a Christian suffers wrong for himself but serves the sword for his neighbour: “should you see that there is a lack of hangmen, beadles, judges, lords, or princes, and find that you are qualified, you should offer your services and seek the place.”

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, social statement The Death Penalty (1991). The ELCA acknowledges the Lutheran teaching that God entrusts the state with power to take life where not doing so would clearly endanger the common good, and then opposes the death penalty as it is used: it is not applied fairly and has not made society safer.

Reformed

Westminster Larger Catechism, question 136 (1648). Among the sins forbidden by the sixth commandment (Reformed numbering) the catechism lists “all taking away the life of ourselves, or of others, except in case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defense.” Public justice is one of three named exceptions.

Westminster Confession of Faith 23.1. God has ordained civil magistrates and “hath armed them with the power of the sword, for the defense and encouragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evildoers.” Presbyterian churches such as the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, whose text is quoted here, keep these documents as doctrinal standards.

Anabaptist

The Schleitheim Confession, article 6 (February 24, 1527; English from Zwingli’s Latin, in McGlothlin’s Baptist Confessions of Faith, 1911). The Swabian and Swiss Brethren who drew it up accept that the state executes, but not that Christians may take part: “The sword is an ordinance of God, outside the perfection of Christ by which the evil man is punished and killed, but the good one defended.” Inside the church they use only excommunication. They point to John 8: Christ did not tell the woman taken in adultery “that she should be stoned according to law” but spoke to her with pity and told her to sin no more. They also hold that a Christian should not be a magistrate.

Mennonite Church USA, A Resolution on the Death Penalty (July 7, 2001). Mennonite Church USA goes further than Schleitheim and asks the state itself to stop. Its delegates stated “our opposition to all capital punishment,” citing Mennonite calls of 1965, wrongful convictions and racially discriminatory application, and committed the church to walk alongside the families of murder victims.

Where Christians disagree today

In 2000 the Southern Baptist Convention resolved to “support the fair and equitable use of capital punishment by civil magistrates” for murder and treasonous acts resulting in death, and only on “clear and overwhelming evidence of guilt.” The ELCA and Mennonite Church USA oppose it, and the Catholic Church now teaches that it is inadmissible, while the signatories of the 2018 appeal dispute the change.

The arguments on each side come back to the passages above.

• For: Genesis 9:6 addresses all humanity and rests on the image of God; Romans 13:4 gives the ruler the sword; the law refused ransom for murder.
• Against or for restraint: the law demanded strict proof, and a wrongful execution cannot be undone (the Orthodox document says so; the Mennonite resolution cites innocent people sent to death row); Jesus forbade retaliation and spared the woman in John 8; the 2018 Catechism holds that crime does not erase dignity.

Both sides agree that murder attacks the image of God and that private revenge is forbidden; they disagree over whether execution is still a just use of the ruler’s authority.

A prayer

God of justice and mercy, every human life bears your image. Comfort all who grieve a murdered loved one. Give judges, jurors and rulers wisdom, honesty and restraint. Be near to every prisoner, and to those condemned to die, and bring them to repentance and peace with you. Keep us from revenge and from indifference, and teach us to seek your justice with your mercy. Amen.

This prayer is original to this page. For a historical Catholic treatment of the commandment, see the clearly labelled course lesson on authority, life and chastity; for forgiveness and the limits of revenge, see What does Scripture teach about forgiveness?.