The concept of expiation though execution is a matter of dogma, but I doubt that many have given much thought to its
"logic". I found the following artical quite interesting in that regard.
quote:
THE DEATH PENALTY AS AN ACT OF MERCY
The Mishnah’s laws governing the death penalty define a theological and narrative, not a juridical, context in which the passion narratives may be read. The law, Halakhah, forms Judaism’s principal medium of theology and translates details of law into a theological system expressed in patterns of deeds.
< snip >
Given the Rabbinic conviction that all Israel possesses a share in the world to come, meaning, nearly everybody will rise from the grave, the sages took as their task a very particular task. It was the specification of how, in this world, criminals/sinners would receive appropriate punishment in a proper procedure, so expiating sin or crime that, in the world to come, they would take their place along with everyone else in the resurrection and eternal life.
- see A Judaic Reading of the Passion Narratives for Mel Gibson to Consider
The
'logic' of Christology flows directly from the
'logic' of its predecessor.
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