Rape of girls in the Bible

[ceciliatherese]

~ Numbers 31:18

“But all the young girls who have not known a man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.”

someone explain this?thanks.

 

[ibo]

~ Numbers 31:18

“But all the young girls who have not known a man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.”

someone explain this?thanks.

Yes. You are then 3000 years ago.
Jesus explained that in the beginning there was a man and a woman and that should be.
But people had hard hearts and behaved like stones. Salomon had 300 wives and 1000 concubines !!!
The eduction of the People of Israel by God was a hard task.
No wonder they took that sentence for God’s command. But is was 3000 years ago.
Today, things are completely different and you cannot judge past events by present ideology.

 

[DianaCC]

That’s the most effective and humane way to subdue an enemy who is sworn to destroy you. You conquer them and absorb them. The children of those virgins will be Jews, and so the Midianite nation comes to an end with the men dying nobly in war, the evildoers executed, and the women who never took part in the sexual immorality of the Baal Peor Cult end up loving in a motherly way a new generation of a mixed-race people with laws written by God himself. What a wonderful gift to give the next generation of Midianite children, who would have grown up in a culture of human trafficking, slavery, sexual manipulation, and idol-worship!

 

[ceciliatherese]

That’s the most effective and humane way to subdue an enemy who is sworn to destroy you. You conquer them and absorb them. The children of those virgins will be Jews, and so the Midianite nation comes to an end with the men dying nobly in war, the evildoers executed, and the women who never took part in the sexual immorality of the Baal Peor Cult end up loving in a motherly way a new generation of a mixed-race people with laws written by God himself. What a wonderful gift to give the next generation of Midianite children, who would have grown up in a culture of human trafficking, slavery, sexual manipulation, and idol-worship!

Ah, so the ends justify the means. I see. Yes, what a wonderful gift for those young girls to have been raped, at least they get babies from it, right?

 

[ceciliatherese]

Yes. You are then 3000 years ago.
Jesus explained that in the beginning there was a man and a woman and that should be.
But people had hard hearts and behaved like stones. Salomon had 300 wives and 1000 concubines !!!
The eduction of the People of Israel by God was a hard task.
No wonder they took that sentence for God’s command. But is was 3000 years ago.
Today, things are completely different and you cannot judge past events by present ideology.

Forgive me, I thought that rape has always been wrong. Now I know better.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Forgive me, I thought that rape has always been wrong. Now I know better.

How do you know that by ‘taking them for yourselves’ it wasn’t meant ‘marriage’? In fact, it probably did mean marriage. Remember that in that time it was customary for a man to have more than one wife and it was also customary for any ‘group’ defeated in battle to see the women of the defeated group married off to the conquering men.

Since Scripture also says that a man who takes a virgin against her will where she cannot ‘cry out’ not only HAS to marry her, but in later life he is forbidden to ever divorce her, these women were actually probably more ‘protected’ than others.

Also women did not CHOSE their husbands; their fathers, brothers, or town ‘elders’ chose them for her. It is very unlikely that these young women had ‘chosen’ young men whom they loved.

So they were not just ‘raped’ and left. They (as happened not just with the Jewish people but with pretty much very society of the time and beyond) were living according to the LAWS of their time. It’s entirely possible that the mothers or grandmothers of these girls had belonged to some tribe or group and they themselves were ‘carried off’ to marry.

As a woman it is heartbreaking to me to consider how women were often treated historically, but men didn’t exactly ‘luck out.’ I mean, there were probably plenty of young Jewish boys who had never known a woman, but they didn’t get set aside for the Jewish women to marry, did they? The women not only got husbands, and not ‘much’ more differently than they would have in the ‘normal’ course of daily life, they also had the chance to become part of God’s chosen people instead of, as would have happened, becoming the slaves of the evil one.

 

[Newsy]

I didn’t see an allusion to rape in the text. As was stated earlier, the women in society had no rights. This group of women wouldn’t have found prince charming, fell in love and rode off into the sunset. Women in this time period would have been given in marriage for a variety of purposes, i.e. to make peace with another group or to settle a debt. I am not saying it was a proper way to treat women, but it happened none the less. If we take this text and try to make it fit into our view of society it will fail miserably. This text needs to be read in light of the society of that time.

Some of the strangest ideas come out of twisting text out of context and then using it as a proof text.

 

[ahs]

Ah, so the ends justify the means. I see. Yes, what a wonderful gift for those young girls to have been raped, at least they get babies from it, right?

How did you come up with the notion of “rape” from that verse in scripture?! It says nothing of the sort.

Ditto in the above 2 posts.

 

[jonfawkes]

That’s the most effective and humane way to subdue an enemy who is sworn to destroy you. You conquer them and absorb them. The children of those virgins will be Jews,

To be considered Jewish by Judaism you have to have a Jewish mother. These were not Jewish women so their children were not Jewish.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

To be considered Jewish by Judaism you have to have a Jewish mother. These were not Jewish women so their children were not Jewish.

But they could convert, and as ‘war spoils’ they almost certainly would convert. Thus. . .their children would indeed be Jewish.

Plus if I’m not mistaken the Rabbinical teaching of having to have a Jewish mother is something that dates from the time of Jesus. . .meaning in the time of the Old Testament it was still a patriarchical system. . .so the children of Jewish FATHERS were considered Jewish as well.

 

[st_lucy]

Ah, so the ends justify the means. I see. Yes, what a wonderful gift for those young girls to have been raped, at least they get babies from it, right?

Forgive me, I thought that rape has always been wrong. Now I know better.

I think that you are trying to put your own spin on these ancient books. You need to step out side of your time zone and go back to when this was written and consulting a biblical scholar from the Church would be great help.

 

[jonfawkes]

But they could convert, and as ‘war spoils’ they almost certainly would convert. Thus. . .their children would indeed be Jewish.

Plus if I’m not mistaken the Rabbinical teaching of having to have a Jewish mother is something that dates from the time of Jesus. . .meaning in the time of the Old Testament it was still a patriarchical system. . .so the children of Jewish FATHERS were considered Jewish as well.

There us no mention of conversion in the text. So it’s speculation on your part. Jewishness being passed along matrilinally comes from the Mishnah. Predates Jesus.

See Also

[BIBLEDRB]Ezra 10:2-3[/BIBLEDRB]

 

[Arkadin]

How can you not see rape alluded in this? Young women forced into marriages for the elimination of their tribe and the reinforcement of another. You’re telling me all these women consented? Some may have, but it is truly a disturbing read.

Just like Psalm 137 where the psalmist talks about rejoicing in bashing his enemies’ babies or young children against rocks.

 

[DianaCC]

Ah, so the ends justify the means. I see. Yes, what a wonderful gift for those young girls to have been raped, at least they get babies from it, right?

No, the ends do not justify the means. Are you even Catholic?

And where did you get the idea these girls were going to be raped?

 

[DianaCC]

To be considered Jewish by Judaism you have to have a Jewish mother. These were not Jewish women so their children were not Jewish.

Yes, that was later. At this stage, Jewishness was decided by the father.

 

[StrawberryJam]

The weak defenses of the indefensible come out of the woodwork. What is wrong is wrong, and it is not alright that a wrong happened a lot of years ago as another poster tried and failed to be convincing at.

Those people were unique in the sense that they kept reporting God was instructing them to do this via prophets.

 

[Arkadin]

What about Lot offering up his own daughters to the men wanting to “know” the angels? He was willing to let them be raped in order to save the angels…

 

[mcrow]

Common people, lets not act like this is a totally new concept and that we never knew this happened before.

It happens today and it’s probably more brutal in most cases than it was then. In those days most of the “rape” was in the form of arranged marriages. Don’t forget that the man often didn’t get a choice of who they married either so I guess it must have been mutal rape in those cases?

That’s not to say that true rape didn’t happen, it did but it seems what they are talking about here is more the arranged marriage. The women would lose their fathers, brothers and husbands in these wars and at the time a woman needed a man to survive, so it was better that they be married off to a foreigner than left in the streets.

 

[StrawberryJam]

What about Lot offering up his own daughters to the men wanting to “know” the angels? He was willing to let them be raped in order to save the angels…

Of course that is not the only time God was okay with rape of women. That’s just one of the more weird ones, as Lot was a so called holy man. Incest and drinking with his daughters was A Okay with God.

 

[Arkadin]

That’s not to say that true rape didn’t happen, it did but it seems what they are talking about here is more the arranged marriage. The women would lose their fathers, brothers and husbands in these wars and at the time a woman needed a man to survive, so it was better that they be married off to a foreigner than left in the streets.

It was kidnap, forced marriage and rape. Oh, but the woman needed someone in order to survive because the person she is now forced to marry killed her entire family.