PaulK writes:
Deuteronomy makes it worse in that it authorises forced marriage of captive women. The women are not given any option of refusal. And once "married" they are fair game to be raped by their husbands. By endorsing marriage in these circumstances rape is not only expected but condoned.
Indeed, the final line of your quote from Deutronomy makes it clear that the woman has been "dishonored":
Deutronomy writes:
If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.
Now since being previously married isn't dishonorable, and divorce was permitted in those times (with the man's permission), then we might ask where the dishonor has come from unless it was from the forced marriage and rape?
In Deutronomy 22 we get:
quote:
if out in the country a man happens to meet a girl pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the girl; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders his neighbor, 27 for the man found the girl out in the country, and though the betrothed girl screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. [c] He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
This quote makes it pretty clear that it is ownership of the woman that is the important thing, according to the OT. If a woman is raped when she is pledged to be married to somebody else, it is a capital sin. But if she is an unbetrothed virgin it's only a matter of 50 shekels - paid to her father, not to the actual victim! Oh, and the victim is forced to marry her rapist - as a penalty to the rapist!
Edited by mick, : Provide reason for edit here
Edited by mick, : No reason given.
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