Why does everyone always take this Bible verse out of context?

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
Why does everyone take this out of context? Back when the Bible was written, men were pigs who wouldn't marry a girl if she wasn't a virgin, no matter how that happened. If she was raped, she would never get married, which was pretty much all they cared about back then. Making the rapist marry the girl ensured she would have a husband. The divorce thing was to make sure he would never try to leave the marriage. This wasn't about making a victim marry her attacker, it was about forcing a guy to pay for stealing the one thing a girl needed to get married, her virginity. Today, people will understand if you were raped, and won't treat you differently for it, so that is not neccessary anymore.

Answer 1

It's because the Bible was written by man. What kind of god would force a rape victim to marry her attacker? It's OK to stone people to death for other crimes, but the rapist pays 50 shekels and gets a wife. Just another absurdity in the Bible.

Answer 2

OK, I get that the guy needed to be punished, but why force the girl to marry him? This is just wrong on so many levels (without taking it out of context). This is a recipe for disaster. So it's better to be married to the man who raped you than to be single? Now think about this: as his wife, she must follow and obey him in everything. This means that not only has she been raped, she is now supposed to let him do it to her over and over again because it's his right as her husband. He is "in charge" of her and any children she gives birth to after these rapes. Yeah, that's a great punishment for him- he gets to do whatever he wants to her now, with blessings and she just has to put up with it. How sad is that?

Answer 3

The reason for this is that many do not have any idea about what they are preaching or are reading and it only brings confusion and a bad message to all seekers after the truth,.In short they are giving out mis-information.Not only the Christians for these fanatics are to be found in all of the worlds religions and is a very sad condition indeed and as well a case of carelessness and lack of true insight

Answer 4

People tend to forget the context under which the Bible was written. It was directed to the people at the time. The lessons that the stories portray can be directed to our time, but the stories must be understood within the cultural context of the exact time period it was written in.


If I told a story and said that the person was so bad. A thousand years from now a person can think I thought the person in the story was really a bad person. Maybe, however, what I meant was the person was awesome or cool. The slang wasnt taken into account when interpreting what I meant because maybe a thousand years from now very few people would know that bad could also mean cool.

I think this is one of the reasons there are sooo many diff interpretations and religious sects out there too.




You people are missing the point. Noone is saying it is ok to make someone marry their rapist, but you are judging the story from your societal viewpoint. Lets face it, most olders societies, and many now still, treated woman like 2nd class citizens. The laws and the rules were adapted withing their own societal and cultural beliefs. The stories are being told within their own societal and cultural beliefs.
The reason the Old Testatment people were led by such rigid laws was because they didnt have the ability to step out of their own cultural blindness. When Christ tried to change this and give his followers more freedom in the laws most of them just reverted back to the old ways which is why he had to start directing the teachings to the gentiles.



thumbs down me all you want, but whether you believe the bible is the word of God or not, what I said holds true.
You have to read a book like the Bible, whether you believe it is true or not, within the cultural context it was written in.
When in Romeo and Juliet they mention biting their thumbs at each other you wouldnt get what they were doing or why unless you knew that culturally it meant the same as giving someone the bird now.

Answer 5

Just think of the fear the man would live in. And how cold the woman would be in bed with him. If she was the vindictive type, he would somehow get sick from eating bad food, or wake up with his penis missing. Any time the man would turn a corner, there could be death awaiting him.

Answer 6

So "God" decided it's a better idea for a girl to marry someone who raped her, rather than bring about change in the societal 'rules' concerning shunning women who weren't virgins (especially if their virginity was literally taken from them)?

Answer 7

so lets put you in the virgins shoes.

would you want to marry the man who raped you.





didnt think so.
point is the bible was written by sexist men, who considered women property.

Answer 8

you're right, those damn Christians are always quoting the Bible out of context. How many times has some one come up to you and said "John 3:16"

Good point (even though its not the one you think you are making)

So you are fine with the god derived concept of women as chatel like goats or slaves?

Answer 9

People take that verse "out of context" because Christians are constantly taking verses out of context and even stretching them to fit their concept that we should live by Biblical rules no matter how irrevelant they are to the modern world .

Answer 10

Ok then, so explain the 50 shekels.