Indemnity

Indemnity is a legal exemption from the penalties or liabilities incurred by any course of action. For example, after wars, the losers have sometimes been required to pay indemnities. An insurance payout is often called an indemnity, or it can be insurance to avoid paying expenses in case of a lawsuit.

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In pre-biblical times, most societies allowed for non-equal indemnity; a person who was only injured was often allowed to kill the person responsible in revenge. This was true of many near-eastern and middle-eastern societies. In some cultures, the standard has been like-for-like recompense, as in "an eye for an eye"

Related Topics:
Biblical - An eye for an eye

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An innovation occurred with the development of the Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament"), which put limits on indemnities; in the Biblical view, a maximum limit was applied with the phrase "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." In later centuries this was anachronistically read by non-Jews as a promotion of equal physical indeminity, while many Jews and Bible scholars hold that in its original context its function was to limit such actions.

Related Topics:
Hebrew Bible - Jews

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