Rape in the Bible

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its because as said in Matthew 19:8 He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
 
2Towers, the Little Lady and Miss Therese I believe are right.
I was in a Bible study in a Lutheran Church many years ago and someone outraged at this passage asked the pastor this question and he gave those exact answers and to me they make sense.
Also, think of the rape of Tamar by Anmon David’s oldest son and her half brother. Her life was ruined after that even though she was totally the victim and we sympathize with Absolom(her full brother) for killing him later on.
Different culture different times we have evolved since then of course was always wrong in God’s eyes.
 
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I can understand it being Jewish culture, but it seems that these commandments come from God himself. That’s why it bothers me so much
 
God was dealing with specific people at a specific point in History.

He did not give these laws to Bostonian in 1982.
 
I can understand it being Jewish culture, but it seems that these commandments come from God himself. That’s why it bothers me so much
I agree. If the Bible is true then God shaped the culture that is being blamed. He told the Hebrews what to eat, what to wear, when to work, when to rest. For anyone that said the culture looked down on unmarried women who were not virgins, a few words from God saying women who were raped should be treated as virgins would supersede any such bias.
 
Hi Seeking,

If you read the book of Deuteronomy it looks to be one long law book that the Jews kept adding laws to. I don’t see it as God’s law personally coming from Himself.

So with most law books there is a prelude establishing the context and then laws are added by HUMANS as needed.

I think we can see this in the ad-hoc nature of the laws added. So if we just take the chapter 22 that you mentioned the laws are written one after the other on finding others possessions, then what not to wear as clothing, then what to do with birds nests, then how to build your house roofs, then how to plant your vineyard, then which animals shouldn’t be used together in ploughing, then what material of clothes one shouldn’t wear then which design of cloak to wear and then it gets to the rape laws that you mentioned. This section is expounded into a few sentences but looking at the words beforehand it looks just like one law pronounced after another on varying matters as was needed to be adjudicated by HUMANS.

Looking back through the preceding chapters there does seem to be a mixture of God speaking and of humans speaking of God in the third person. It seems as the chapters progress humans doing the speaking come to dominate the laws written and God is written as someone else, not the one doing the writing / dictating.

So given this I do not think the rape law comes from God.

It is interesting that the law distinguishes between virgins and non virgins, towns women and rural women and those pledged in marriage and those not so pledged. So if a woman has been pledged in marriage then the rapist is to be put to death which is much stricter law than we have today. I am assuming that at that time it was usual for a girl to be pledged to be married and so any rapist would be killed for his crime. Why this would be different for a girl/woman that is not pledged to be married is an interesting cultural question and may have been a HUMAN response to a specific ad-hoc incident.

I don’t see the book of Deuteronomy as a dictation from God. It doesn’t read that way.

Peace.
 
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I agree. If the Bible is true then God shaped the culture that is being blamed. He told the Hebrews what to eat, what to wear, when to work, when to rest. For anyone that said the culture looked down on unmarried women who were not virgins, a few words from God saying women who were raped should be treated as virgins would supersede any such bias.
Didn’t the incarnated God do even one better than what you have asked?

 
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