This study seeks to clarify the principle of talionic justice beginning with its first historical manifestations in the legal systems of the Ancient Near East. Itattempts to show that talionic justice was not simply a theory of punishment, but also existed as a restorative justice model. The argument for this interpretation of the talionic formula rests on analysis of the salient Biblical verses in the light of the cuneiform models and also utilizes more recent evidence from the Mediterranean region dating from the first centuries of the Christian era. Talionic justice emerges as a complete and constructive principle of justice from the time of its inception, one that cannot be reducedsolely to its punitive elements.