Zam Ali's misunderstanding of rape law in Deuteronomy.

Submitted by J Gentile (United States), Dec 28, 2006 at 09:55

1. Zam Ali should be cautious. I assume Zam is Islamic. Islam regards these books of the Hebrew scriptures as the writings of prophets. Muslims must always be slow to speak against their own prophets.

2. Zam quotes (Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT) to say that God is insane for having a man marry the young woman he rapes. Rather than "not giving a damn" about a rape victim, this verse in fact proves the opposite. God cares very much. The ancient world is not the modern world were women could go out and make their own independent way - get some therapy after rape, change cities, start life over. Semetics lived in small communities, family clans, etc...

Women would have grown up within a small town and stayed there. She was dependent upon her father's house and a future marraige to a man for survival. The community would have known who had lost her virginity through rape or adultery. Her chances for future marraige were gone after rape. The man who raped a woman ruined her future - UNLIKE - our society where women can expect to marry after rape and work past it. The woman is scarred emotionally for sure, but her future survival is now a problem. Making her an "old maid" in her father's home would neither remove the emotional scar nor solve her problem for her future provision. She and her family would suffer from this crime for the rest of her life through dependence upon her family because no one would marry her.

Instead God commands that the man who took the virginity away from the woman, and her chances for marriage, must now take upon himself the responsibility of providing for that woman for the rest of her life. Certainly her marriage to this man was emotionally painful - but not necessarily less painful than living with the scar AND no future provision. Pain without poverty is not necessarily worse than pain with poverty. As reprehensible as this sounds to some people - there is even actually a possibilty for some sort of relationship to arise between the two over the years. Families of murder victims have been known to reach out to murders and their families themselves.

This actually happens in 2 Samuel 13:1-21where David's son Amnon rapes his half sister Tamar! She is very much aware of her same but she insists that his rejecting her after taking her virginity is a double insult.

Zam then quotes (Deuteronomy 22:23-24 NAB) to say that God kills a rape victim.

Reading the verse again will make clear that the woman was not a rape victim but an adulteress. She was already betrothed to another man and refused to CRY OUT during the sexual act - indication that she chose to go along with it.

The unique thing between the God of the Hebrews is the introduction of true fairness here. The man does not get off free becuase he is a male. In both cases he is either forced to make restitution or killed. In the first case he is kept alive and forced to provide for the raped woman - because God will NOT kill the raped woman - she is innocent. Killing the raper while leaving her alive leaves her scarred for life. He is KEPT alive and forced to provider for her.

In the latter case SHE is guilty as well as he. They both die.

These were the old civil rules for Israel, the nation of God. God sent Jesus as the Messiah and spread salvation to non Jewish races as well. Non Jewish believers in God through Jesus Christ are no longer responsible to live under Deuteronomy, although we can gain wisdom from it in our own law creations.

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