benignuman –
In other words, Chazal are saying that “eye for an eye” always meant money, it was never meant, or practiced, literally. To say Chazal were lying, and they didn’t really get it from Moshe mipi HaGevurah but instead made it up, is to deny the Torah Sh’bal Peh as being min hashamayim.
First of all, there is no clear implication in the Gemara that they had a tradition from Moshe Rabbenu about this. On the contrary, the simplest way of reading the Gemara is that they deduced this themselves either through logical analysis or with a drasha.
More importantly, I still don’t see how someone who says this is a denier of Torah sheba’al peh. What if someone says that he agrees there were some things that Chazal had a tradition about, that not everything falls into that category, but it is all halacha either way?
Is Sumchus an apikores for denying chatzi nezek tzroros?