As far as Deuteronomy 22:28-29, it’s not that cut and dry. You can’t just pull one verse out and interpret it on its own. I’m not trying to offend you, but it’s posts like this that really show your ignorance and lack of biblical understanding.
What I’m not going to do is hand you the answer. You’ve got a decision to make, and it’s your decision. You can remain in your ignorance and misuse scripture to support your unbelief, or you can do the tough work of comprehending that the laws within Torah are to be discerned. In other words, other laws always have to be weighed when looking at any specific law.
This being said, what other laws pertain, or could pertain? And what constitutes rape within the Hebrew culture of the day? Does rape mean the same thing in our current culture? Again, it’s a call for discernment and if you don’t understand the complexities that each law has the consideration of other laws then you’ll misinterpret most laws.
Are you up for the hard work of learning Torah? Or is it easier to just throw out ignorant accusations of things you know little to nothing about?
Let's look at the context. This is a continuous quote of Deut. 22:23-29 in the ESV (a conservative translation:
If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets 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 for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.
If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.
We have 4 cases in a row, which come after a test for virginity.
- Case 1: Consensual adultery.
- Punishment: death for both. Very simple. Complicated situations then come next.
- Case 2: Adultery (betrothal was closer to marriage in Hebrew culture than it is today) that begins as rape but becomes consensual since the woman did not resist. In a city.
- Punishment: death for both.
- Implied that if she cries for help, only the man dies.
- Case 3: Adulterous rape, in an open country where no one could help her.
- Punishment: only the man dies.
- Case 4: Rape that is not adulterous; no betrothal and certainly no marriage. No consideration of where it took place, or if she resisted or not.
- Punishment: The man marries her and gives the father the brideprice.
Why does adultery receive the death penalty? In Israelite culture, marriage represented the relationship between God and his people Israel. Thus to defile marriage with adultery receives the death penalty because it parallels blasphemy.
You wanted me to give context, not just pull out a verse? There it is. Now, in the context, case 2 and 3 are clearly rape because they talk about the woman calling for help and resisting. Case 4 though, is it rape? the word translated "violated" is ‘in·nāh. That appeared earlier in case 2, where we see "he violated his neighbor's wife", in the context of crying for help, and thus in the context of rape.
Most tellingly, remember 2 Samuel 13? David's son, Amnon, rapes his sister, Tamar. In verse 22, we see, "But Absalom [David's other son] spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad, for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had
violated his sister Tamar."
I have exposited the context and done a word study. The study has confirmed that it is a rape law. I've also addressed the background behind death for adultery. If there are flaws in my argument, please point them out.
EDIT: Valerie Tarico summed it up well : "The punishments for rape have to do not with compassion or trauma to the woman herself but with honor, tribal purity, and a sense that a used woman is damaged goods."
or maybe throw in some translation or interpretation errors or lifestyle conflicts?
