Thief

THIEF. Among the Hebrews Theft Prov. vi. 30, 31.was not punished with Death: Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry. But if he be found, he shall restore seven-fold; he shall give all the Substance of his house. The Law allow’d the Exod. xxii. 2. Exod. xxii. 4. Exod. xxii. 1. Exod. xxii. 3. 2 Sam. xii. 6.killing of a Night-Robber, because it was supposed his Intention was to murder as well as to rob: It condemn’d a common Thief to make double Restitution. If he stole an Ox he was to restore it five-fold, if a Sheep, only four-fold: But if the Animal that was stolen was found alive in his House, he only render’d the double of it. If he did not make Restitution, they seized what was in his House, put it up to Sale, and even sold him himself, if he had not wherewithal to make Satisfaction. In the Passage we just now quoted, the Wise-man seems to say, that the Thief was to restore seven-fold the Value of the Thing stolen. But seven-fold is here put for many-fold. Zaccheus declares he would render fourfold whatever he had fraudulently acquired in his Office of a Publican; but it was because Luke xix. 8.the Civil Law condemned the Receivers of the publick Money to a fourfold Restitution M stitution of all they had unjustly got by Theft or Cheating.

If the Thief was taken, and carried before the Magistrate, he was interrogated in a judicial manner, and adjured in the Name of the Lord to confess the Fact. If he obstinately persisted in denying it, and was afterwards convicted of Perjury, he was condemned to Death, not for the Theft, but the Perjury. The Accomplice, or Receiver of stolen Goods, was subject to the same Penalty, if he did not discover the Truth to the Judges when he was examined and adjured in the Name of the Lord: If a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it, if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity, Levit. v. 1.; that is, he shall undergo a capital Punishment. And Solomon says, Prov. xxix. 24. Whoso is partner with a thief, hateth his own soul; he heareth cursing, and betrayeth it not.

Exod. xx. 15.The Law condemns Theft: Non furtum facies. But there is no Penalty annexed, except Restitution, which is to be greater or less, according to the Nature of the Offence: But to steal away a Freeman, or an Hebrew, and to reduce him to the State of Servitude, was punished with Death: Qui furatus fuerit hominem, convictus noxæ, morte moriatur. The Jews do not think that the stealing of a Man of any other Nation deserves Death, but only the theft of a free Hebrew. If it be a Stranger that is stole, they were only condemned to Restitution. They found this Distinction Deut. xxiv. 7.upon a Law in Deuteronomy, which limits the Law we are speaking of; Si furatus fuerit hominem de filiis Israel; an Exception which the Septuagint and Onkelos have even inserted into the Text of Exod. xxi. 16. The Laws of the Athenians punished Xenoph. l. 1. comment.the Plagium with Death, which was the Theft of a Freeman; and the Roman Laws condemned both the Buyer and Seller of a Freeman to the same Punishment, if they knew his Condition.

He that stole an Ox was punished by the Digest. 48. T. 15.Restitution of five Oxen; he that stole a Sheep or a Goat was obliged to restore four. ‘Tis thought that the Theft of an Ox, Exod. xxii. 1.or of any of that kind, was punished the more severely, because this Animal is of more Use than others. The Lawgiver limits this Law a little afterwards, saying, If the theft be certainly found in his hands Exod. xxii. 4.alive, whether it be Ox, or Ass, or Sheep, he shall restore double: Or, according to the Hebrew, If what he has stole be found in his Hands, he shall restore two alive, for every one that he stole.

The Night-Robber, taken in the Fact, might be killed with Impunity: But it was not allowed to kill a Thief that was

Exod. xxii. 2.taken stealing in the Day-time. It was presumed, that he that attempted to break open an House, and to steal by Night, had a Design upon the Life of him that he attacked; and with this Presumption he might be prevented, and killed. But it was not so with him that stole by Day; there was room to defend ones self against such an Attack, and the Thief might be prosecuted before the Judges, and compelled to Restitution.

If the Thief had not where-withal to restore what was stole, as the Law prescribed, he might be sold, and reduced to Bondage: Exod. xxii. 3.Si non habuerit quod pro furto reddat, ipse venundabitur: Even the Children of insolvent Debtors were sold to satisfy the Debts of their Parents. We see an Example of this in the Second Book of Kings: A 2 Kings iv. 1.Widow-Woman came to Elisha, and told him, that her Husband was dead, who feared God, and was a Disciple of the Prophet’s, and that a Creditor of his was coming to take away two of his Children, to make Slaves of them. To relieve her the Prophet so far increased a little Oil that she had in the House, that she sold it, and with the Money paid off the Creditor. And in Matth. xviii. 25.the Gospel, a Debtor that was found to be ten thousand Talents in arrears, was sold, with his Wife and Children, and all that he had besides, to make Payment of his Debts to his Master.

The Rabbins acquaint us, that when a Woman was convicted of Theft she could not be sold: That a Thief was never sold, unless his Theft was greater than all he was worth; that if he was worth twenty Crowns, he was not sold for the Theft of ten Crowns; and that a Thief thus sold was not obliged to continue in Slavery any longer than that his Service should amount to the Value he had stole. This is the Doctrine of the Rabbins: As to the double, treble, or quadruple Restitution, this was only when he was set at liberty.

It is enquired, Whether the Crime of Theft, besides the Penalty of Restitution, was not subject to any corporal Punishment? Some believe that on some Occasions the Thief was put to death, because Jacob Genesis xxxi. 32.says to Laban, With whomsoever thou findest thy Gods, let him not live. Estius thinks, that if he was insolvent, he was corrected with Rods, or even that he was hanged, if he was convicted of Thieving several times. But I cannot be of opinion that mere Theft was ever punished among the Hebrews with Death, or even with corporal Punishment. The Law only inflicts the Punishment of Death upon Plagiarism, or the stealing away of a Freeman.

Solomon says in his Proverbs, Whoso is Proverbs xxix. 24.partner with a thief hateth his own Soul: he exposeth himself to live an uneasy Life; not because all sorts of Theft were punishable by Death, but because there are certain Cases in which Theft was capitally punished, as we have seen before. And besides, because it exposes a Man to the danger of taking a false Oath, and to perjure himself on the account of his Theft, in which Case he would deserve Death: Not so much for his Theft as for his Perjury: Adjurantem audit, & non judicat, says Solomon; and Levit. v. 1.Moses says, If a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity: He shall be punished with the utmost Rigor, because of his Perjury, and Profanation of the Name of God. See also Prov. xxx. 9. Lest I be poor and steal, and take the Name of my God in vain.

It should seem as if mere Theft among the Hebrews had no particular Mark of Infamy annexed to it. The Wise Man, in the Prov. vi. 30.Proverbs, says, Men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry: The Law inflicts no peculiar Punishment on him, and he is not made to undergo any shameful or ignominious Penalty. Solomon adds, But if he is found he shall restore seven-fold, he shall give all the substance of his house. This is all the Danger he is exposed to by Stealing.

Many People inhabiting round about Judea, made Robbery a kind of Profession. Genesis xxvii. 40.Isaac foretold to Esau, that he should live by his Sword; that is, that he should maintain himself by Plundering. Ishmael, the Son of Abraham, had no other Trade than War and Rapine; he was ferus homo, and Gen. xvi. 12. Gen. xxi. 20.juvenis sagittarius, and he was always at War with his Neighbours; Manus ejus contra omnes, & manus omnium contra eum. His Posterity the Ishmaelites followed the Example of their Father, and made no Scruple to rob upon the High-way.a They even gloried in it, and took it up as a sort of Trade or Calling. They do no farther Mischief to Travellers, when they submit to ‘em readily, and give up their whole Packets without Resistance, and without giving them the trouble to alight from their Horses. As soon as they perceive any one upon the Road, they cover the lower part of their Faces, as far as their Eyes, with their Turbant or Bustmani, which hangs upon their Shoulders, that they might not be known. They raise their Lances, and ride up to ‘em full speed, saying immediately in their own Language, Deli-

ver, you Rascal, your Aunt is quite naked.

By these Words they mean their own Wives, whom it would be ill Manners to name, according to their Customs. They call them the Aunts of those they attack, as imagining that all Men are Relations. All this time they hold their Lance against the Breast of the poor Traveller, till they have got what they want. Perhaps they may leave him a pair of Drawers, or a Shirt, if he surrenders readily, and intreats earnestly not to be sent away quite naked. Also they may leave him his Furniture besides, because they know not what to do with it, and it may make a Discovery. However, if the Traveller’s Horse have a good Saddle, or good Geers, they change with him for their own. But if the Passenger should stand upon his Defence, and should happen to draw Blood of them, they shew him no Mercy: And if they cannot be revenged on him, they kill all they meet besides: So truly do they fulfil that Prophecy foretold of Ishmael, the Father of the Ishmaelites or Arabians.

The Scripture often speaks of Troops of Robbers of Moab, of Syria, of Chaldea, of Ammon, and other like Nations, who practised their Rapine and Plunder where-ever they could do it with Impunity. Jepthah, who became afterwards the Captain of the People of God, was first at the Head of one of these Troops of Robbers. Judg. xi. 3. 2 Sam. iii. 23.David, and his Followers, had frequent Engagements with these Robbers that were near Palestine. They were such People as these that pillaged Ziklag, and of whom David revenged himself after his Return from his Expedition, in which he accompanied Achish, King of Gath. Ishbosheth, the 1 Sam. xxx. 8, 23. 2 Sam. iv, 2.Son of Saul, had in his Service two Captains of Robbers, who cut off his Head while he was sleeping. Rezin, who afterwards became King of Damascus, was before that a Captain of a Gang of Thieves. The three 1 Kings xi. 23,24. Job. i. 17.Troops of Chaldeans who took away Job’s Camels, were Troops of such Robbers.

Among these People Theft was neither so odious nor so scandalous as it is among us. This appears even from the times of the Heroes, and still afterwards among the Grecians. They did not come clandestinely when they entered a Country to plunder it: It appears from Homer that they made a kind of Glory of it, as if it was to make a lawful Conquest. They enquired cooly of a number of People that came into a Province, or an Island, whether they were come a robbing, or¹ upon any other account? “ Our Ancestors, says Josephus, a being content with their own Country, which is very fruitful, did not apply themselves to Commerce, as the Phœnicians, who inhabit upon the Coasts of the Mediterranean, nor to Travelling, nor even to War, in order to make Conquests; nor to Robbery and Plundering, like many others; by this he probably means the Arabians, and even the more ancient Grecians; but they made it their Business to cultivate their Lands, and to breed up their Children to the Study of their Law. Our Saviour was fixed upon the Cross between two Thieves. St. Luke says, One Luke xxiii. 39, 40, &c.of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us: But the other answering, rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom: And Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. And this is all that we are informed concerning this penitent Thief.

Matth. xxvii. 44. Mark xv. 32.The other Evangelists, I mean St. Matthew and St. Mark, say, in the plural number, that the two Thieves insulted Jesus Christ. Some² explain this by a Figure of Speech wherein one is spoke of as if it were many. Others think,³ that the two Thieves at first insulted our Saviour, but that afterwards the good Thief, moved by the Miracles of Jesus Christ, and prevented by his Grace, was converted, and reproved his Companion for his Outrages and Blasphemies.

The false Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ, which is a very ancient Work, gives an Account, that when our Saviour fled into Ægypt, the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Joseph, fell among a Gang of Thieves, who were all asleep, except two: One of these proposed to murder that holy Company, but the other dissuaded him from it: That then the Child Jesus foretold, that one Day those two Thieves should be fix’d to Crosses near himself: That one should go to Paradise, and the other to Hell. The first was called Titus, and the second Damachus. The false Gospel of Nicodemus names one Demas, and the other Gertas. A Persian History of the Life of Christ gives them the Names of Vicimus and Justinus: The Author of the Flowers or Collections ascribed to Bede, calls them Matha and Joca. The Oriental Christians call the good Thief Laas-al-jemin, the Thief on the Hilar. in Matth.Right-Hand. St. Hilary also places the good Thief on the Right-Hand of our Saviour, and the wicked on his Left-Hand.

Several of the Fathers⁴ have given the Appellation of Martyr to the good Thief, because of the Testimony that he gave to the Truth at a time when it was almost abandoned by the whole World. He was baptized in his own Blood, and the Death that he suffered in a Spirit of Faith and Charity, procured for him the Faviour of Happiness immediately after Death, as Jesus Christ assures him: Hodie mecum eris in paradiso. Whether by the Word Paradise we are to understand the Place of Rest, where the Souls of the Saints wait for the Coming of the Messiah, or the Earthly Paradise, where they place Enoch and Elias; or Heaven, where the Blessed are in the Enjoyment of Eternal Happiness. Several of the Fathers⁵ understood it in this latter Sense.

Epiphan. Hæres. Marcion. Origen. in Joan.Marcion, at the Report of Epiphanius, had expunged these Words of the Gospel, Verily I say unto thee, to day shalt thou be with me in paradise: And Origen observes, that some Catholicks out of Simplicity had also obliterated them out of the Copies; imagining it to have been a Contradiction to say, that the good Thief should be to-day in Paradise with Jesus Christ, whilst the Body of our Saviour lay in his Tomb, and that himself descended into Abraham’s Bosom, to fetch from thence the Souls of the Patriarchs. Hesychius of Jerusalem observes, that some put a Stop after to day, in this manner, Verily I say unto thee to day, thou shalt be with me in paradise. But it is needless to make any Change in the Text, seeing it may be conveniently explained without any Alteration.

Biblioth. Orient. p. 512. Laas.The Oriental Churches, the Greek and the Latin, have thought it their Duty to pay a publick Veneration to a Saint so much favoured of God. The Churches of Syria and Mesopotamia mark his Feast in their Kalendar on the ninth Day after the Passion-Friday, or Good-Friday; that is to say, on the Saturday in Easter-Week. Anba Jacoub, Bishop of Sarouge, composed a Sermon for the Festival of the Pe⁶ nitent Thief, which is in Manuscript in the King’s Library.

The Greek Church places his Festival on the twenty-third of March, and the Latin on the twenty-fifth of the same Month; agreeably to an old Tradition, which affirmed, that Jesus Christ died on that Day. Others have placed his Feast on the Ballit. Life of the Saints. xxv. March.third of April, or on the fifth of May. In some Places Chapels have been erected to him, by the Name of St. Dimas, or Dysmas. The Cross of the Penitent Thief, and that of his Companion, were found, with that of our Saviour, by St. Helena. ‘Tis added, that the Cross of the good Thief was sent to Constantinople, and buried in the Palace of Constantine, and afterwards was transported to Nocosia in Cyprus.

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