Is this really God's punishment for rape?

Question

"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 the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives." Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NIV

Apparently it is not enough that she was raped, he must marry her and rape her over and over again. Why women believe in the Bible is beyond all understanding.

Remember Jesus came to fulfill these laws, not to abolish them.

Aileen, you obviously don't know your bible. Jesus said the old laws were still in effect. See my last statement.

Cindy, lying doesn't help your case.

Answer 1

God made the law for man. Not the other way around.

This one sounds more like a tradition than a Law... and may have expired in usefulness.

You must remember that rape in this case is more than likely translates to sex while un-married or sex while not pledged to be married.

Jesus, while it is true that not one "tittle" of the law will be changed, did clarify how important the Sabbath, and Food laws/traditions were.

Not in the name of erasing them, but in the intrest of quarreling and irony in them. Jesus taught us that while every word is important, it should not be a stumbling block.

You must not stare at the dirt specks on the window, but rather look through the window, and know God, see Him, and feel Him.

Then will you be more likely in the right mind to follow every "tittle" of the Law.

Answer 2

The Old Testament has some sick teachings in it.

Women had no rights back then.



Even if we assume that Jesus abolished the laws (contrary to what the Bible says, but oh well), the religion still claims that an all-wise, all-loving God invented these laws in the first place. The religion claims, outright, that God decided that rape victims should be sold to their attackers.

And yet people still believe the Bible to be the perfect, flawless Word of God.


Edit: Even if Cindy is right (and I doubt she is--the Bible contains plenty of other examples of men taking women as sex slaves, even at Moses's orders), she's still claiming that an all-wise, all-loving God declared in an inviolable book that women are to be property of their fathers and then husbands. Does she not see what is wrong with this?

If God is perfect and timeless, then why does her value system reflect the chauvinist mindset of an ancient, male-dominated culture?


Edit 2: If the Bible is not really talking about violent rape, then why are does it prescribe death for both the woman and man in situations where the woman is inside city limits (and for just the man outside, presumably because she couldn't scream for help there)? This is the same word, and it's clearly talking about a violent rape in at least one of these situations.

Answer 3

I also like how people always say that god said being gay was an abomination, but in the same book Leviticus it says the punishment for a child cursing his parents is being stoned.
People never really take the time to actually read the bible. They seem to usually just throw around the verses they heard in church.

I do think Cindy might have a point (not that there aren't several other examples of disrespect to women.) A lot of words were translated improperly and there is debate as to their meaning. Like originally it said Mary was a young women, not virgin. They rationalized the change by stating that a woman was called that when she was in fact a virgin. We had to go into this in depth in a college course I took.

Answer 4

Can you feel the religion going through yet another transformation? Better scramble the vatican, another bible scenario is being challenged.

If the laws of the OT are null and void than the stories have no credibility either....enough of the religious picking and choosing what's real and what isn't.

Maybe the vatican will announce a new new covenant to make religion more convenient again. They can take into account all of the disproved verses of the bible and call those metaphors and twist vague references to fit today's world.

Answer 5

You are also missing the part just before that:
"But if the man came across the engaged woman in the field and overpowered her and raped her, then only the rapist must die." (Deuteronomy 22:25)

Death is also listed as a punishment for rape in certain situations. Also, that is only dealing with the restitution to man. This act is still a sin against God as well as against the woman.

Answer 6

You must understand that the meaning of the word rape here is not the violent stranger rape that you are thinking of in our culture.

Rape was used to indicate that the father had not given the daughter to this man in marriage. The daughter could have been 30 years old, but she was still the property of her father and could not consent to sex just as a girl under 16 cannot legally consent to sex in most states.

The meaning of this passage was not about the violent abuse of a woman. IT was about the fact that she was another mans property and could not consent to give away her body without her fathers consent.

Answer 7

For those that argue that those were Old Testament laws, does that mean you don't follow the 10 Commandments, either? If so, why do we keep having battles over putting them in schools and courts?

Answer 8

The same law is in ALLn GOD religious text books, but the quran say that if the woman refuses to marry the man who assaulted her, she should be stoned to death. Needless to say, those books were written by men who thought of women as property

Answer 9

The new church age (today) does not follow the Old Testament law...we are not under Jewish law and that is because of Jesus...He did not come to enforce those laws, but to get the people to accept Him.

Answer 10

the only thing i can figure is, maybe rape doesn't mean the same thing today as what the word is talking about in bible, maybe it means sex outside of marriage. i don't know, i'm no bible scholar, i'm just offering a statement.