So in Deuteronomy 22:28-29, it says “If a man finds a girl, a virgin not engaged, and lays hold on her, and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife. Because he has humbled her, he may not put her away all his Days” That verse doesn’t make sense, is God saying that if a girl gets raped then she should marry the rapist? Please explain.<\/p>\n\t
There are two passages that need to be considered together in order to get a complete picture of what the Old Law taught.<\/p>\n
“If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride-price for her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the bride-price of virgins<\/em>” (Exodus 22:16-17).<\/p>\n
“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<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 22:28-29).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Neither passage deals directly with rape. A situation is described where a man has sex with a woman who is unmarried, not engaged, and has not engaged in sex with anyone else. The act of sex between the couple could have been willingly done or unwillingly done. Willingly done, it would have been an act of fornication. Unwillingly done, it would have been an act of rape. In either case, the man must pay the woman’s father a dowry of 50 shekels of silver. A dowry is money or things given to the woman’s parents for the privilege of marrying their daughter. The man was expected to marry the woman unless the woman’s father absolutely refused. One would assume that in the case of rape, the father of the woman would rather throw the man out on his ear than let him marry his daughter. But if his daughter was committing fornication with a man because she thought she was “in love” with him, then he might agree to the marriage and force the couple to do what was right. In addition to the required marriage, the man lost any rights to divorce his wife. Even if the father refused to allow his daughter to marry the man, the man still had to pay the dowry.<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Thank you for clearing that up for me.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: So in Deuteronomy 22:28-29, it says “If a man finds a girl, a virgin not engaged, and lays hold on her, and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife. Because he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1572,115,163],"class_list":["post-32283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-fornication","tag-old-law","tag-rape"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33125,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-any-examples-of-a-woman-being-forced-into-a-marriage-that-she-objected-to\/","url_meta":{"origin":32283,"position":0},"title":"Are there any examples of a woman being forced into a marriage that she objected to?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Are there any Old Testament examples where the future wife to be actually objected to the wedding but was forced into it?\u00a0 Just curious because I understand they were treated as property, but just wondering if there examples of a marriage where the wife objected beforehand.\u00a0 I know there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21597,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-child-bride-really-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":32283,"position":1},"title":"Is a child bride really married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Recently I was participating in a discussion with several Christians regarding biblical divorce. 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When I saw her, my spirit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7238,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-getting-a-girl-pregnant-and-promising-to-marry-her-later-make-us-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":32283,"position":4},"title":"Does getting a girl pregnant and promising to marry her later make us married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I was baptized in the Catholic Church. I had a girlfriend, with whom I had dry-humped. Two weeks before having sexual intercourse, I told her that I was thinking about break up with her because I didn't feel we should be together. After a week of sexual intercourse,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34279,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/islamists-stone-a-couple-engaged-in-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":32283,"position":5},"title":"Islamists Stone a Couple Engaged in Fornication","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Source:\u00a0\"Islamists in Mali stone young couple to death,\" The New York Times, 31 July 2012 \"Islamists stoned a young couple to death after accusing them of having children outside of marriage, said a local official who was one of several hundred witnesses. ... 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