Rape a girl, get a wife? Deuteronomy 22:28-29

We get many questions sent to our email address - ppsimmons@live.com - regarding many issues like, well,this! It's one of those 'your god is a monster' issues Christians face when confronted by quote-mining atheists who throw Bible verses around and attempt to convince us that the God portrayed in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, was an evil tyrant who hated women and those who refused to bow down and worship Him (while there is not one single verse in the entire Bible in which God directly either demands or asks to be worshiped).

Please read the following answer we gave a young man who inquired how he should respond to someone who asked about Deuteronomy 22:28,29.

It's interesting that the words "rape" and "raped" are not mentioned anywhere in the entire King James version of the Bible. In Deut 22:28 the word "rape" is not used in the Amplified or N.A.S. however it is used in the NIV. So at least one translation says it refers to a man raping a woman. 

So be it. 

However, it was a cultural problem of the day that women had little value and God had to force these men to do the right thing. He instituted a law that said if a man rapes a woman he is responsible to take care of her for the rest of her life and to never get a divorce, ever. Women had no political power and relied entirely on the men to provide for their physical needs. They would look to their fathers for sustenance whilst young and then their husbands when married. So - the woman's virtue (virginity) was her capital. It was all she had to bargain with essentially. No man would wish to marry a woman who had been with another man no matter the circumstances. There was honor and family name at stake.

At the end of the day the law concerning marrying a woman which a man has raped protected her. It was not a boon for a man to be forced to marry and provide for a woman in that day. It was a tremendous burden to have yet another mouth to feed for the rest of her life! It is not the mark of an educated mind to assume men would wish to rape a woman in order to "get a wife." It was a sentence of extreme financial and social burden to be forced to marry the woman and provide for her. It was like an ancient male version of a "Scarlet Letter." 

In modern terms it might be considered the equivalent of paying alimony.

It is a sad historical reality but a reality none-the-less. It is only relatively recent that women have been delivered from this. In fact, many cultures still view women this way, especially non-Christian religious orders like Islam and Hinduism. It was not God's will that women should be raped but it WAS His will that men must be held accountable for it. He was making a provision for women, knowing that the hearts of men are evil.

Michael D. Shoesmith

Social Networking Director

Ministry Coordinator

PPSIMMONS/CGM