So before engaging in this conversation I ask that you use wisdom. To use wisdom means to read the whole post and then respond by either agreeing, by asking clarifying questions, by disagreeing by countering my points or either by further elaborating on the story. Trigger warning for the sensitive here. This disagrees with biblical inerrancy. This post will be made in three sections. The scriptures, the errors in the scriptures and lastly a healthier understanding of what it could mean.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Scriptures.
Deuteronomy 22:13-21
New American Standard Bible
Laws on Morality
13 “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then turns against her, 14 and he charges her with shameful behavior and publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her to have evidence of virginity,’ 15 then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. 16 And the girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he turned against her; 17 and behold, he has charged her with shameful behavior, saying, “I did not find your daughter to have evidence of virginity.” But this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread out the garment before the elders of the city. 18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man and rebuke him, 19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he is not allowed to divorce her all his days.
20 “But if this charge is true, and they did not find the girl to have evidence of virginity, 21 then they shall bring the girl out to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death, because she has committed a disgraceful sin in Israel by playing the prostitute in her father’s house; so you shall eliminate the evil from among you.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Errors.
So there are two main things wrong with this. One is the scientific errors of virginity and the other is the issue of woman abuse and murder.
Claim one.
It says that if a man does not find evidence of his newly wed virgin wife then her parents are given the chance to collect evidence themselves and bring it before the priest or else the woman is to be stoned to death.
What’s the evidence? It can only be one thing. The parents are going to the bedroom to find bloody sheets. See ancient Jewish people believed that all virgins bleed every time. That if a woman did not bleed, then it meant that she was not a virgin and that meant she must have willingly had sec with another man. But as many women, scientist and medical experts can attest to, that’s not true. Not all women bleed the first time. Hymens could be naturally different from broth. Hymens can be broken by riding horses, donkeys, camels and so on. They can be broken by being sexually abused as kids by their fathers , or they could have been raped and so on. But it’s simply not true that all virgins bleed the first time. This is wrong.
Secondly it’s always evil to kill innocent , non threatening people. It’s vile. Any Jewish men that murdered their probably underage wives were garbage. All the Jewish men that took concubines as their sex slaves were garbage. Rape is always wrong. No matter what. Killing a 16 year old just because she was molested as a kid and had a broken hymen or even if she slept with someone else before getting married, is evil.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Healthier Biblical Hermeneutics
All of the collective scriptures are known as meditation texts. Jesus himself says to mediate on the word of God. You read the Bible front to back, back to front, side to side and pick up biblical tropes, patterns and hyperlinks. We know that Yahweh hates human sacrifices and that he abhors the murder of innocent people.
So we must view all these passages through the corrective lens of Jesus. We must view all of these passages by knowing Yahweh desires mercy and compassion and love. So if you are two parents and you just heard your daughter has been accused of fornication by her newly wed husband and that she was soon to be murdered by people throwing rocks at her until she died what would you do? Well you would want to save her.
When reading those passages we see something that should make us think of something earlier. What did these parents witness and grow up hearing from the Bible about kids being murdered? They would think of the exodus. The angel of death. A Christian should also see Christ in this story. In all these stories we know shed blood equals protection from death. To save their kids from the angel of death they smeared blood up and down their houses posts.
One thing to pay attention to is that the parents were the only ones that could collect the evidence. Not the priests, not the judges and not the husband. Only the parents. They had to collect it and bring it before the priests. So remembering the previous story would mean the parents had plenty of time to collect blood of a lamb and spread it on the garment saving their daughter. Just like a
Rahab lied to save then others. We know lying out of love to protect someone is not bad. We know Jesus was against stoning a woman. We know God hates human sacrifice. So the parents would collect the garment, put blood on it and then bring it before the priests.
so why would god say that? It’s to protect women. Yahweh inspired mankind through their paradigm. It’s why in Joshua the sun moves while the earth stays still. God wanted to reach mankind in a way they could understand .
This was the first post of yours that I’ve read. I like your inquisitiveness and the way you framed the discussion and I’m sorry it has t resulted in much of one. Mostly just people posturing as would be expected when honest inquiry meets uncomfortable belief.
It’s actually commendable. It’s the Berean approach, where one ‘examines the scriptures to see if these things are true’ - the default reason must be that sometimes the premise or understanding / isn’t.