Did God say that a rapist must marry his victim?

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My brother posted the following link on facebook. I don’t exactly know how to refute this stuff.

upworthy-production.s3.amazonaws.com/nugget/4fad667a42542a00030018ba/attachments/biblemarriage.jpg

Anyways, here is the thing I find most worrisome:
Dueteronomy 22:28-29
If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

I would also like opinions on the other things too.
 
My brother posted the following link on facebook. I don’t exactly know how to refute this stuff.

upworthy-production.s3.amazonaws.com/nugget/4fad667a42542a00030018ba/attachments/biblemarriage.jpg

Anyways, here is the thing I find most worrisome:
Dueteronomy 22:28-29
If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

I would also like opinions on the other things too.
And then Jesus, God incarnate, comes along and states;

Matthew chapter 19.
1
  • When Jesus* finished these words,* he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.
    2
    Great crowds followed him, and he cured them there.
    3
    a Some Pharisees approached him, and tested him,* saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?”
    4
  • b He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’
    5
    c and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
    6
    So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”
    7
  • d They said to him, “Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss [her]?”
    8
    He said to them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
    9
    e I say to you,* whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.”
    10
    [His] disciples said to him, “If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”
    11
    He answered, “Not all can accept [this] word,* but only those to whom that is granted.
    12
    Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage* for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”
 
I honestly do not understand why anyone feels the need to respond to things posted on Facebook. That is not a medium for discourse. And from a close relative no less.

This calls for a conversation. Pick up the phone. Invite over to your house. Meet for coffee. Ask what prompts such a post. Find some context. Get to the source of why a person would feel the need to post this at all.

Then see if the person is open to *discussing *it. Because it’s not just a one-line refutation. You can just post a sentence on Facebook that refutes this. It takes study of the bible and the ancient Hebrew culture.

Here’s an article to start with, not to post back to your family member, but to help you own understanding:

jimmyakin.com/2012/10/the-dark-passages-of-scripture.html

Of course, people who post junk like this on Facebook do not want actual, intellectual conversations and discussion. They just want to proof text and make quick “points” on the internet for their coolness and hipness in being “against” religion.
 
Here’s what the old (19th century) Haydock commentary says:

Verse 29
A law nearly similar occurs, Exodus xxii. 16, (Haydock) only there Moses speaks of seduction. (Menochius) — If the father or the woman refused their consent to the marriage, the person had only to pay 50 sicles; which the woman received, if her father was not alive. But if they consented, the person who had been condemned by the judge, was bound to marry the woman, how deformed soever. (Selden, Uxor. i. 16.) (Calmet).

In other words, her consent was required. The point was since having her virginity soiled would make her ability to find a husband much more difficult, she could compel her violator to support her for life if she so chose. Back in those days a woman was reliant on her father or husband for support.
 
A similar law appears in Exodus 22:15-16, with the extra provision that the woman’s father may refuse to give her to her rapist.
16 “If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall give the marriage present for her, and make her his wife. 17 If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equivalent to the marriage present for virgins. (Exodus 22:15-16)

Thus, it is up to the victim’s father whether or not the rapist marries his daughter. Assuming that the woman and her father are in agreement on the matter, this means that the victim may choose to force her rapist to marry her.
 
Of course, people who post junk like this on Facebook do not want actual, intellectual conversations and discussion. They just want to proof text and make quick “points” on the internet for their coolness and hipness in being “against” religion.
👍
 
The Old Testament laws were the first controls on what had become an out of control situation.

Men were raping women with impunity. Husbands would kill their wives to get out of marriage. bestiality, cannibalism, homosexual gang rape, child prostitition and child sacrifice were all common at the time of Moses.

These laws were not meant to be permanent nor were they God’s final solution. The command to marry the woman you raped probably scared many men away from committing rape. It was the first controls on mankind who had become out of control.

-Tim-
 
The Old Testament laws were the first controls on what had become an out of control situation.

Men were raping women with impunity. Husbands would kill their wives to get out of marriage. bestiality, cannibalism, homosexual gang rape, child prostitition and child sacrifice were all common at the time of Moses.

These laws were not meant to be permanent nor were they God’s final solution. The command to marry the woman you raped probably scared many men away from committing rape. It was the first controls on mankind who had become out of control.

-Tim-
This is a good point. There’s a reason they later ceased to apply. They were supposed to be intervening and transitory, not permanent.
 
I also like to mention that SOME of the Old Testament laws are more akin to Canon Law. They were designed to address an issue at a particular time & culture; not for all time. Not all the Law is equivalent to the Ten Commandments.
 
The correct interpretation of that verse is found by reading the whole passage. First, different cases of adultery are considered, the penalty for which was death.

22:22 is the case of a man and woman who are both guilty of adultery, and both are put to death

22:23-24 applies the same penalty to man and woman, even if the woman is merely betrothed; this verse considers that both consented to the adultery.

22:25-27 considers the case of an unmarried and unbetrothed woman who is raped; the rapist is put to death.

22:28-29 considers the case of an unmarried and unbetrothed woman who has consensual sex outside of marriage; this case is not adultery or rape. This consent is implied by the context of the previous verses, since, if it were a case of rape, the man would be put to death.

The man pays a dowry to the father, as was the custom of the time. And he cannot divorce her, even though the Israelites permitted divorce in many cases, because sex before marriage is a sin. The young woman is not punished because he is considered to have the greater guilt, since the man tended in that culture (and in many cultures today) to be the one who pursued the woman, rather than vice versa.
 
The correct interpretation of that verse is found by reading the whole passage. First, different cases of adultery are considered, the penalty for which was death.

22:22 is the case of a man and woman who are both guilty of adultery, and both are put to death

22:23-24 applies the same penalty to man and woman, even if the woman is merely betrothed; this verse considers that both consented to the adultery.

22:25-27 considers the case of an unmarried and unbetrothed woman who is raped; the rapist is put to death.

22:28-29 considers the case of an unmarried and unbetrothed woman who has consensual sex outside of marriage; this case is not adultery or rape. This consent is implied by the context of the previous verses, since, if it were a case of rape, the man would be put to death.

The man pays a dowry to the father, as was the custom of the time. And he cannot divorce her, even though the Israelites permitted divorce in many cases, because sex before marriage is a sin. The young woman is not punished because he is considered to have the greater guilt, since the man tended in that culture (and in many cultures today) to be the one who pursued the woman, rather than vice versa.
This is very helpful!
 
I’d also like to point out that this was written by a man with his own faculties, his own understandings. This is written during a time when women are considered less than objects. On par with slaves, to be traded and sold. In our time the idea that a man who took a girls virginity would have to marry her speaks of a lowering, of a demeaning and debasing thing. Partly because we have come to truly not value what virginity really means, and secondly because we have come to understand the inherent dignity of a human.

What we often miss though is that for the time these words were written, to the audience they were written to, these were on the forefront of progressive thought. Why do I say that? If a women were raped by a man, well she was quite worthless then. Anyone who became aware of that rape would not want her, they would not marry her, she was ‘sullied’. Her father then had no value for her, just another mouth to feed that could not work the farm, could not bring in a dowry, she was just another woman in the house… not a son so to speak. For God to say wait, you can’t ruin this woman’s life like this… you can’t just let her go to rot in her old age uncared for. If you do this to her, you have to provide for her… you have to take care of her. That’s lightyears ahead of were other generations were.

As said above, it was definitely not the fulness of the message that God intended for us… that came later through the person of Christ. Between these proscription and the commandment not to covet your neighbors wife (which Catholics separate from things because we don’t lump wives in with things) it began to open the minds of the Israelite people to ask… why does God put such an emphasis on the female and other nations do not? That has truly influenced our modern understanding of how women should be treated.

While it is true that God never changes, our understanding of his revelation does. How we thought we should act towards women has been consistently revealed over time and we are still digesting the repercussions of that. What we are witnessing here is the journey of a people from a primitive tribal community to a royal kingdom. It’s important to keep that evolution in mind as we journey through their writings trying to understand their message to us.
 
The correct interpretation of that verse is found by reading the whole passage. First, different cases of adultery are considered, the penalty for which was death.

22:22 is the case of a man and woman who are both guilty of adultery, and both are put to death

22:23-24 applies the same penalty to man and woman, even if the woman is merely betrothed; this verse considers that both consented to the adultery.

22:25-27 considers the case of an unmarried and unbetrothed woman who is raped; the rapist is put to death.

22:28-29 considers the case of an unmarried and unbetrothed woman who has consensual sex outside of marriage; this case is not adultery or rape. This consent is implied by the context of the previous verses, since, if it were a case of rape, the man would be put to death.

The man pays a dowry to the father, as was the custom of the time. And he cannot divorce her, even though the Israelites permitted divorce in many cases, because sex before marriage is a sin. The young woman is not punished because he is considered to have the greater guilt, since the man tended in that culture (and in many cultures today) to be the one who pursued the woman, rather than vice versa.
This is a good, succinct answer. The penalty for nonconsensual sex (rape) in Deuteronomy, at that place and time, was death.

The proof-text cited on Facebook has to be considered in the context of the entire passage, which lists penalties for different circumstances. (As a priest I knew used to say when someone cited an out-of-context proof-text, “I’m pretty sure God wants you to read the lines above and below that one…”)

We should also look at the language used in the translation cited. “Rape” is not used in all translations for this passade, nor is it the correct one in context.

To go further into this (at probably greater length than is necessary):

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 “If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days."

The choice of words of “and they are found” indicates that this refers to a consensual act. Thus, “seizes” used in this context seems to imply a lustful or passionate act, but not a non-consensual one, as the term “ravished” in English implies a lustful act but not necessarily a non-consensual act of rape. This sounds more like a description of a shotgun marriage, Israelite-style. The violation involved was loss of her virginity, which would make her unmarriageable in the eyes of their people, so the seducer would have to marry her. He would also forever lose his ability to divorce her, no matter what she did in the future.

Many English translations of this passage do not carry a connotation of rape: Douay Rheims doesn’t: “If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, who is not espoused, and taking her, lie with her, and the matter come to judgment.”

The term for taking or seize in this passage in the original Hebrew is a combination of two words, TAPHAS (to catch, handle, lay hold, take hold of, seize, wield) and SHAKAB (to lie down, to bed, to rest).

That this law does NOT apply to rape is shown if you read it in the context of the earlier passage. The actual penalty for forcible rape is quite reasonable (execution of the offender, with no penalty to the victim) and is probably far more compassionate than existed in the middle east then, or in many middle eastern countries now, where loss of virginity for a girl even by rape can result in the execution of the woman by her own family for being “dishonored,”
 
Compare the first passage to:

Deuteronomy 22: 25-27: But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.

(In the above passage, a different word is used than in 28-29 , CHAZAQ, a word used for rape. The word CHAZAQ or LAQACH is used elsewhere in the OT when rape is clearly referenced.)

So, if it happened in the close quarters of the city and there was evidence it was consensual (i.e, she would have been able to call for help but did not do so), it was considered a consensual act and the woman shared responsibility for the illicit sex act. Fornication and chastity were taken seriously, walls were thin, and there were many extended family members who could come to your aid if you screamed once or fought. Interestingly, Deuteronomy provides GREATER legal protection for the betrothed woman than modern criminal law if the act happened away from witnesses, as there would be no need for witnesses, and the woman’s complaint to her betrothed or the officials would be sufficient. The rapist would be presumed guilty and receive swift and terminal justice.

So no, if a woman was raped her attacker would be put to death and no shame attached to the woman. And no, a woman couldn’t be forced to marry even a seducer, as her father could protect her and demand a fine instead, one which would have been fairly expensive as it was equal to a wedding dowry. If it was judged to be consensual sex, the law from Exodus would have applied:

Exodus 22:16-17 “If a man seduces (“PATHAH”) a virgin who is not betrothed and lies (“SHAKABH”) with her, he shall give the bride price for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride price for virgins."

The Hebrew verb used to describe the sin is PATHAH, used elsewhere in the OT for “coaxing” (Jud. 14:15), “luring” (Jud. 16:5; Hos. 2:14), and “enticing” (Prov. 1:10; 16:29), and never used for rape.The word PATHAH is even used to describe how God will tenderly lure Israel back into His love in the passage below:

“‘Therefore I am now going to allure (PATHAH) her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. In that day,’ declares the LORD, ‘you will call me “my husband”; you will no longer call me “my master.” I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety. I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.’” Hosea 2:14-20.

PATHAH is not used anywhere in the OT for an act of rape.

The lesson of the passages from Exodus and Deuteronomy is that when a man talks a virgin into consenting to have sexual relations with him, he is morally obligated to marry her, if and only if her father approves.

As both Deuteronomy 22:28-29 and Exodus describe essentially the same crime and punishment, and as the Exodus passage is clearly using the same term as is used for seduction, not violent rape, and as the passage directly referring to violent rape (CHAZAQ) calls for an altogether different and quite terminal punishment…No, the OT does not support rape or require a raped woman to marry her rapist. That is absurd.

What if the seducer did not have enough money to pay the dowry cost, which he would be required to pay whether her father did or did not agree to marriage? He would have become the father’s slave for 7 years. (The Israelites did not have prisons, so chattel slavery was the imprisonment of choice.) It probably would not be a very easy term of slavery for the seducer, working for the father of the girl he had seduced.
 
My brother posted the following link on facebook. I don’t exactly know how to refute this stuff.

upworthy-production.s3.amazonaws.com/nugget/4fad667a42542a00030018ba/attachments/biblemarriage.jpg

Anyways, here is the thing I find most worrisome:
Dueteronomy 22:28-29
If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

I would also like opinions on the other things too.
Eh, rape is not an appropriate translation here. Take the Vulgate for example. It uses the word adprehendens which means “seizing.” In our modern culture, this tends to lend itself towards meaning rape. However, in the Old Testament times, it applied to even when both the man and the woman consented to sexual intercourse. The reason it still applied was because it was a heavily patriarchal culture. The single daughter still belonged under the authority of the father. When the man slept with the father’s daughter he therefore insulted the honor of not only his daughter but also his, the father’s. The daughter in a sense was considered to be semi-property for the lack of a better term.
 
My brother posted the following link on facebook. I don’t exactly know how to refute this stuff.

upworthy-production.s3.amazonaws.com/nugget/4fad667a42542a00030018ba/attachments/biblemarriage.jpg

Anyways, here is the thing I find most worrisome:
Dueteronomy 22:28-29
If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

I would also like opinions on the other things too.
Interpretation: if a man does something really stupid like taking advantage of a naive girl, he should suffer a just punishment.
 
The Old Testament laws were the first controls on what had become an out of control situation.

Men were raping women with impunity. Husbands would kill their wives to get out of marriage. bestiality, cannibalism, homosexual gang rape, child prostitution and child sacrifice were all common at the time of Moses.

These laws were not meant to be permanent nor were they God’s final solution. The command to marry the woman you raped probably scared many men away from committing rape. It was the first controls on mankind who had become out of control.

-Tim-
Yes, this is just one example of a law intended to deter the described action, just like the water test to determine if a woman had committed adultery, or the death sentence for a son who disrespected his father and mother.

It makes the point that there are consequences of sin (in general) and consequences right now when you injure someone. These types of laws occur over and over, and are written in the context of the Biblical timeframe – like the command that you have to take care of your neighbor’s animal that has escaped. That teaches that the modern attitude “I’d rather not get involved” is sinful.

I lived in an apartment building on the ground floor. A little girl ran away from her folks during the night when they were “engaged” (if you know what I am referring to) and she got scared. Well she found the usually-unlocked door of our section of the building. When my clock radio woke me up, there was this little girl half-naked (she had wet her pants and taken them off) knocking on my door. [how to explain a half-naked kid in my apartment, to begin with] I was doubly obligated to call the police. I wrapped her in my favorite Land’s End parka, because of the freezing weather, while she waited for her parents to show up. They took her away. I never saw the old parka again.
 
My brother posted the following link on facebook. I don’t exactly know how to refute this stuff.

upworthy-production.s3.amazonaws.com/nugget/4fad667a42542a00030018ba/attachments/biblemarriage.jpg

Anyways, here is the thing I find most worrisome:
Dueteronomy 22:28-29
If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

I would also like opinions on the other things too.
That is God’s way to protect and provide for the rape victim for life in those times. In those days, the husband can find flimsy excuses to divorce their wives. Errr, like “found disfavor in his eyes”. But this rape victim is protected from divorce for life. It would be difficult for the rape victim family to marry her off to a respectable family and to be taken care off. And in case the rape resulted in a child, some one must be held responsible for the upbringing of the child. If the rape victim’s family is already in dire straits, it would be a very difficult situation indeed to raise someone else kid.
 
That is God’s way to protect and provide for the rape victim for life in those times. In those days, the husband can find flimsy excuses to divorce their wives. Errr, like “found disfavor in his eyes”. But this rape victim is protected from divorce for life. It would be difficult for the rape victim family to marry her off to a respectable family and to be taken care off. And in case the rape resulted in a child, some one must be held responsible for the upbringing of the child. If the rape victim’s family is already in dire straits, it would be a very difficult situation indeed to raise someone else kid.
Again, based on the posts above, this refers to seduction of an unmarried girl, not rape. Rape is dealt with in a separate part of the cited passage.
 
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