Biblical Guidelines On Rape
Consulting the “Good Book” on concepts of justice
Biblical Guidelines On Rape
Consulting the “Good Book” on concepts of justice
Rape is one of the most heinous crimes that can occur in human society. So I thought we should take a look at what the “Good Book” has to say on this topic.
After all so many in the country are pushing now to have this book taught in schools as well as having the Ten Commandments in every class, so this holy book must have some solid divinely inspired guidance on topics that societies have dealt with since the start.
On this topic, we have to look no further than the Old Law.
Exodus 22:16–17-NASB
16 to be17
Let’s break this down…a man rapes a virgin, and the first answer is for her to be pressured to marry this man? Relegating her to have to sleep next to, have sex with, and bear children for a man who traumatized her. Things she’ll be required by society to keep doing for the rest of her life.
Or the rapist will merely have to pay a fine to the dad, similar to the price he would to marry her, which isn’t specified here.
The man doesn’t face imprisonment, death, or any real punishment aside from financial damages.
In fact, he could in theory just rape a virgin he’s had his eye on, and by this law, she would essentially be required to marry him, or likely just become an “old maid” living out her life at home with her parents, possibly in the care of some other male family member eventually since this society would see her as too damaged to marry at this point.
Deuteronomy 21:10–14-NASB
10 11 12 13 14
Here we get the guidelines on how to take sex slaves from the people you are conquering. You spot some you want for yourself and all you’re required to do is let them mourn the fate that has befallen them for a month, then this law gives you the right to rape them and decide whether to then marry them or kick them out.
Oh, but you can’t sell them since you’ve now humiliated them…but what option does a female prisoner of war really have in a foreign land? She can marry you, or what? Become a slave for someone else, face possibly getting raped again by strangers in the town, who likely won’t even have to pay a financial penalty since you’re not one of this god’s “chosen” with no family around, and no longer a virgin.
There doesn’t really seem to be a penalty for rape of a foreigner or single non-virgin even mentioned in this book. But thank goodness we have all the rules around what clothes to wear and crops to plant! Those come in real handy!
Deuteronomy 22:23–29-NASB
23 “If there is a girl who is a virgin betrothed to a man, and another man finds her in the city and sleeps with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death: the girl, because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.
25 “But if the man finds the girl who is betrothed in the field, and the man seizes her and rapes her, then only the man who raped her shall die. 26 And you are not to do anything to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. 27 When he found her in the field, the betrothed girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.
28 29 shekels
So if a woman who is engaged to be married gets raped and doesn’t manage to cry out for help, possibly because she was gagged or drugged…or fearful her rapist would kill her for crying out…or just couldn’t be heard because she was inside a building…then they both will be executed publicly by stoning.
If outside of town thankfully the woman wouldn’t be held liable for her rape.
This last one in the list is a repeat of the one from Exodus that we first covered, but thankfully we now get a financial amount for the penalty the rapist faces.
In ancient times a shekel was a measurement of the weight of silver usually, and a shekel was approximately 14.3 grams, silver is worth $0.90 per gram currently so $12.87 per shekel, so at 50 shekels the price of this rape is going to cost the perpetrator $643.50… seems like fair financial penalty right? The victim will now face the scorn of society, marriage to her rapist, or the alternative of a lifetime of being an “old maid” likely never wed since society valued virginity so much.