Why Does God's Law Support Rapist In Marrying A Raped Victim?

( Never come up with any conclusion until you read this pertinent Bible discussion to the end... From the stable of B.E.A.N, Bible Enthusiasts Association of Nigeria)

  According to the BIBLE LAW ON RAPE, Deuteronomy 22:28-29, the law permits the rapist in marrying the victim. So, the pertinent Bible question for now is...

As a Bible Enthusiast, do you solely back the stance of this CIVIL LAW in Deuteronomy 22:28-29 enforcing the Rapist to marry the raped victim?

 Here is Bible portion:

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NKJV reads:

“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."

After this part, a poll was created for all the Bible Enthusiasts in the house to vote whether they support this law or not.

This poll result speaks volume. Out of those who voted, 71% of us actually said capital NO to this law enforcing Rapist in getting married to the raped victim.

Now, the question remains that if MAJORITY of the Bible Enthusiasts in the house are saying NO to this law... What then is this law doing in the Bible?

 Or 

My question should have been if MAJORITY of the Bible Enthusiasts in the house are saying NO to the law, why then did the Almighty God give this law to Moses?

So, let those who answered NO to it answer these questions above before I address the MINORITY Bible Enthusiasts in the house who said YES to the law.

Bro Sesan Gabriel: From my little understanding Sir. The law was made to curb their excesses then. Even in church today, I doubt if any one will want to adopt such.

Olayiwola I.D: "curb their excesses?" How do you mean by that phrase sir?

Bro Sesan Gabriel: Meaning to deter them from committing such act

Olayiwola I.D: Sir, that word "EXCESSES" means an amount that is more than necessary. Meaning, there were lots of rape cases in the land, as insinuated by your statement.

Was that what you meant?

Bro Sesan Gabriel: No, I mean to serve as caution to anyone who might have such character. 

The Bible didn't give record of all that transpired in the days of old, so for the law to be given means some men would have been caught in the act or their case reported at one time or the other. This is mine understanding though.

Olayiwola I.D: Okay. So sir, what is your reason for saying NO to this law even though it's enacted by God and available in the Bible?

Bro Sesan Gabriel: Permit me to refer to Hebrews 8:7-8.

The law was enacted for the children of Israel and may not work in this present generation Sir.

Olayiwola I.D: That sounds like you are saying that this law is not extended to us. If that is what you meant, that means you are supporting "abolishing" some biblical laws. 

Take note sir, even our Lord and Savior never abolish "any" law.

Matthew 5:17

"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."

Secondly, Hebrews 8:7-8 was referring to COVENANT and not the old testament "civil laws."

 And hope you've not forgotten that Jesus only fulfilled "ceremonious laws" and not the "civil laws?"

Bro Sesan Gabriel: But I have never seen it practiced in this dispensation. If not abolished, then some fathers of faith would have adopted same as their doctrine.

Olayiwola I.D: So, does it mean if the present fathers of faith are not adopting a biblical law, then it's been abolish?

Sister Promise: Sir I think that was in old testament because many were involved, some when they did, they would hate and would not want to have anything to do with her again... look at the case of Tamar, the daughter of David

Olayiwola I.D: How do you mean "many were involved" ma'am?

Sister Promise: Yes I think so sir, see Amon and Tamar etc in 1st Samuel... God had to initiate it and for many reasons it cannot be carried out in the present time.

Olayiwola I.D: Okay ma'am...

 what then is your reason for saying NO to this law if it was enacted when you say "many were involved", don't we now have more rape cases than the Bible days???

Sister Promise: Reasons being that generally rape is done through a corrupt mind...

Can a grown up man marry a ten year old girl he raped?, If you force marriage on a man who raped a girl for the sake of temporal pleasure, through the evil spirit in him, that marriage will crash and they may live in regret.

Marriage is not by force, e t c, we will continue to pray that such people will encounter CHRIST for a devine change.

Read 2 Samuel 13: 1-17

Olayiwola I.D: Okay... Good. This your above statement ma'am will prompt me to explain that Deuteronomy 22:28-29 as your submission is making it sound like the LAW OF GOD is imperfect.

Onward...

Sister Promise: not that GODs law is imperfect, it was for those in old testament, but in the now He will have mercy

Olayiwola I.D: Sister Promise, you are still missing something here ma'am... You see, A LAW remains A LAW irrespective of the time given or time being used. 

Notably, if a law is enacted by man, then it can be amended. However, "law" that comes from God cannot be amended for any reason... That's why it's called a law in the first place.

In other words, human beings can change but the law of God remains unchangeable. 

This is the part we all need to relate with: ONE LAW can have SEVERAL INTERPRETATIONS.

Of course, those in law field are conversant with this procedural part of law... if a single law is interpreted in several ways, that does not mean the law has changed.

 Take note, the reason why ONE LAW can have several, different interpretations is because different societies value different things. 

For this reason can we not interpret that LAW OF RAPE as it was interpreted in the Bible days. 

How exactly do I mean?

In the Bible days, all they value was ECONOMY because it was an agrarian age, but in our present information age, we value several other things as much as we value economy. 

For instance, we value EMOTIONAL WELL BEING, PSYCHOLOGICAL AFFAIRS as much a we value our economy.

 So, if a law is to be interpreted in the Bible days, it will be interpreted based only on the society value, which was economy, but today our interpretation of the same law from Bible days MUST cater for other things we value besides economy.

Let me break it down so that we all can relate with this explanation. 

In the Bible days, women don't work. Only men work to support their wives and children. The reason for this is that... Everything was always about LAND (don't forget it was an agrarian age).

Every man supported his wife and children with the proceeds of his land as a "landowner." Mind you, women were not allowed to own land. And since only land owners can use its land to work and make money is the reason MEN were the only breadwinner of every home in the Bible days.

 So, when a woman get married, she is no longer being provided for by her parents; she has now automatically become a "burden of the husband."

Meaning, for the rest of her life, it is her husband that will cater for all her needs. This tells us that MARRIAGE in the Bible days was the ONLY means of getting "a lifetime support for women."

Now, here we come... Only virgins in the Bible days are entitled to being married. Once a girl loses her virginity, she becomes "a lifetime burden" for her parents.

And as we know from Bible school days, if the parents of the deflowered girl decide not to take care of the girl's need, she ends up becoming a harlot. This was why we had harlots in the Bible days, at a time when almost 98% of their women were virgins.

Moving on...

this brings us to RAPE.

If a girl is raped — as she loses her VIRGINITY in the process — she automatically becomes a burden to her parents as no one would marry a girl that was not a virgin.

So, the ONLY means of getting "a lifetime support" for a deflowered raped victim is to ENFORCE the rapist to give the girl that lifetime support as no one will since she's no longer a virgin, which was what translates to the rapist MARRYING the deflowered girl. Don't forget marriage was the ONLY means of getting a lifetime support for women at this time.

In addition, this rapist can not rescind — at any time — on providing for a lifetime for this raped victim as Dueteronomy 22:29 revealed that that MARRIAGE HAS NO OPTION OF DIVORCE.

Hope we can see that what was enforced by God in the law was not MARRIAGE in the actual sense, it was simply a lifetime support for the female victim?

Marriage in this case was just a means to an end as that was the ONLY means of getting a lifetime support for women in the Bible days.

 At this time, of course, the society did not value emotional or psychological well being of her people. So, the issue of what or how the female victim would think getting married to someone who raped her was not any issue at all. 

In fact, then, the raped victim became a happy person for life, as she was not oblivious to things like psychology or emotion, even though she was living with her rapist.

If you don't get this, just picture Adam and Eve being ashamed when they were walking naked in the garden of Eden after they were created. 

Of course, they couldn't feel anything called SHAME because they were not oblivious to what shame was.

Shame became a knowledge to them immediately their knowledge increased. That of course was the only advantage SIN gave man... 

sin increased the knowledge of man in things god intended to hide from humanity for eternity.

 From this brief explanation of mine, hope we now understand the ambit of that Deuteronomy 22 law of rape?

To add to the above explanation...

apart from lifetime support for the deflowered raped victim, the father of the girl gets 50 SHEKELS from the rapist. 

The reason why this HUGE AMOUNT was given to her parents is to make them recoup the money they've spent over the years taking care of her till she was supposed to be married. 

In fact, this was a major part of the essence of paying BRIDE PRICE in the Bible days.

 You see, my brethren, all that I've explained here is what we call HISTORICAL CONCEPT OF LAW in theological studies. 

This is why no theologian is allowed to interprete any Bible law to other Christian populace in church or any gathering whatsoever until he or she understands "historical concept of any law."

Not understanding historical concept of law is the reason why many Christians, including Bible Enthusiasts, feel some of "God's laws" are unreasonable.

They have the feeling that some of these laws are IMPERFECT. Whereas  the Bible says...

The LAW OF GOD is perfect...(Psalm 19:7)

At this juncture and since you now understand historical concept of the law of rape... if you want to interprete Deuteronomy 22 law of rape in our present dispensation, how will you interpret it?

Sister Promise: Sir, I understand very well your explanation as in the bible days, but it's not seen that way these days, in fact people are ignorant of this, men want working class women, talkless of a girl who is raped.

How I wish GOD could help this generation to go back to bible days.

Thanks I appreciate you.

And as for the interpretation, you can interpret more for this dispensation, because apart from people that know this perfect law and close to the bible, they can't think and take it that way, now every man wants to marry a working class lady.

Olayiwola I.D: I understand your point ma'am. So, how exactly will you interpret that LAW in our time paying cognizance to factor of working class women?

Sister Promise: do you know why I say so, in our world today any woman that is not working is seen as a liability to her husband, since they don't know the  law, the man and his people makes jest of that woman, which I have seen. 

More so, nowadays, some men are lazy, not working, leaving every responsibility for the woman to carry, which they do for peace to reign in the house.

So sir, tell us how we can interpret this law that had been long standing in this time

Olayiwola I.D: Ma'am, I've done the first and difficult part by explaining the historical concept of that law of rape. So, the second part of interpretation is what I want us to do so that we all can be edified. 

Notably, i want to learn as much as you want to.

Onward... Let all the Bible Enthusiasts in the house prove their enthusiasm for the word of God by stating their respective interpretation.

Sister Promise: Yes, their respective interpretation to the understanding of our people I want to learn, too.

Bro Sunnypraise: Our God is an understanding God. He gives rules or judgement on how we are and how it pleases Him. And culture differs.... Jews and our culture is different. 

If our country could follow that law according to the bible, people will misuse it. That law is far. If we should keep digesting it, the physical and spiritual  aspect of it is deep. 

May God help us.

Olayiwola I.D: Okay... How then do we interpret this law of rape in our time?

Bro Sunnypraise: Here in Nigeria, Government has taken over a lot of things. For raping in our time, how many family or parent will agree to that... You rape and Government intervenes... That is straight to prison.  

Let's put it into consideration amongst us here. To be sincere how many of us can follow the law, let it be a general discussion?

 And moreover that's old testament, right now we are enjoying the grace of new testament.

If one can't hold oneself, one should go and marry. 

God will help us all. 🙏🙏🙏

Olayiwola I.D: you are mixing it up. I've made it clear that the interpretation given to this law in the old testament days cannot be used in our dispensation because the two societies value different things. 

If that then is the case, how do we interpret this law in our present time without amending (changing) it since it is God's law?

And for the part you mentioned about government's intervention. Government cannot do anything outside the verdict given in the court of law by the honorable judge.

Consequently, we are looking at things, as Bible Enthusiasts, from the perspective of the honorable judge and not that of Government.

Bro Orekoya: as you have righly said, the society value different things. These days knowledge has increased and people value their emotional intelligence. So, what people want today is that once a person is raped the victim should get justice, and because of the emotional value no one will want to marry a rapist rather they will desire justice for that absurdity. 

In addition, people will be ashamed of getting married to someone who raped them and that is why majority of the time the victim's face is not revealed to the public because of the emotional side of it. 

To add to this again, something like this happened in my community some years back. But the parents of the victim decided to cover it up because of the shame, and secondly they didn't have money to pursue the case. 

These days people don't value virginity as of old. That is why you see unimaginable increase in the numbers of single mothers in our society.

Bro Dimas: another verse that is similar to Deuteronomy 22:28  is Exodus 22:16 stated that...  And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife

17  if her father utterly refuse to give unto him, he shall pay money according to the to the dowry of virgins

Since the rapist can't be forced to marry the victim in our generations may be because of one reason or the other ( in case of different faith)  then the rapist is liable to compensate (pay the damage) because he had tarnished the image of the victim.

My understanding sir.

Bro Orekoya: please, Olayiwola I.D, i still want your final conclusion on the subject because it's an important matter in the society.

Sister Promise: See that exodus 22: 17, bible stated that the rapist should pay, that is exactly what is happening these days, they are made to pay.

I think when it comes to a case like this, we should keep quiet and let the families sort themselves out, personally I see a rapist as a wicked and someone out of his mind.

Olayiwola I.D: Bro Dimas and Sister Promise are just getting the point of interpreting this LAW. 

That law of rape given to Moses by God enforced the Rapist to "pay" for his wrong based on what the society valued at that time. 

Invariably, the law then does not need to change to make the rapist "pay" according to our values in this present time.

Are we now on this same page?

Can we all now see that nothing is wrong with that law?

You just have to interpret the law base on the values inherent in the society you are in.