I thank God for my brother-in-Christ Mariano Grinbank. He sent me the following e-mail.The post-in-question is:
Dear brother,
I am preparing a series on that preposterous “Marriage =” graphic and noticed that you wrote, “the Bible does mandate that if a man rapes a virgin he has to marry her.”I would urge you to reconsider as this is simply not the case. The Biblical punishment for rape is the death penalty.I will run it down very quickly and then give you a link to the details.Deuteronomy 22:28-29 pertains to different litigious, judicial scenarios and so ch. 22 envisages various scenarios from adultery and rape to un-married consensual sex. Verses 28-29 deal with consensual sex between two unmarried people:If a man comes upon a maiden that is not betrothed, takes her and has relations with her, and their deed is discovered, the man who had relations with her shall pay the girl's father fifty silver shekels and take her as his wife, because he has deflowered her. Moreover, he may not divorce her as long as he lives.The Hebrew “taphas” refers to catching, handling, taking hold, grasping, etc. and “shakab” refers to laying down. He comes across her and they come together in consensual sexual relations, this is clear from the context of all of the scenarios within the chapter. In fact, verses 25-27 deal with an actual rape and so “taphas” is not used but rather, “chazaq” which is to force.Verses 28-29 are basically about what we would call a shotgun wedding.Here is a rundown of all of the relevant portions of the chapter.Deu 22:22 "If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die--the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel.This is adultery.Deu 22:23-24 "If a young woman [who is] a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbor's wife; so you shall put away the evil from among you.A betrothed woman who had consensual unmarried sex. That “she did not cry out in the city” means that if she had been attacked by a rapist she would have cried out and would have been heard within the close quarters of the city.Deu 22:25-27 "But if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the countryside, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman; [there is] in the young woman no sin [deserving] of death, for just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so [is] this matter. For he found her in the countryside, [and] the betrothed young woman cried out, but [there was] no one to save her.This is rape. He accosted her outside the city “in the countryside” where she could not be heard when she cried for help “cried out, but [there was] no one to save her.” Thus, only the rapist is executed.Deu 22:28-29 "If a man finds a young woman [who is] a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out, then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman's father fifty [shekels] of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days.We think that the particular translation of “seizes her” is force but it is not as noted above in the Hebrew differences.Here are some of the details:
What had happen' was.....: My Common Sense is Tingling: Marriage Equals… | The Angry Black Woman
I didn't even realize that I had made this mistake. I thank God for laying it on Mariano's heart to help me out. In retrospect and in light of Mariano's explanation I wish I had written:
"...the Bible mandate that if a man has consensual sex with a virgin girl, he has to marry her and not divorce her." Mariano has been much clearer than I was in this sentence and has managed to help me see the scripture even clearer. Deuteronomy 22:23-24 can't be referring to rape.