God’s creation of men and women and His gift of sex to them within the moral context identified, reveals how the act of rape is clearly condemned. However, there are sections of the Bible which, it is claimed by atheists and feminists show a justification for rape. One of these is in Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the Old Testament.

This book continues to document the history of God’s chosen people: Israel. Deuteronomy relates how Moses reminded the new generation of what God had done for their parents in rescuing them from their slavery in Egypt. Their lack of obedience however had led to them ‘wandering’ in the desert for forty years.

In Deuteronomy we read of how Moses then reminded the people of God’s moral laws in the concise form of the Ten Commandments and numerous civil and ceremonial regulations. The distinction between moral, civil and ceremonial laws in the Old Testament is fundamental to an understanding of the verses concerning rape.

In Deuteronomy Chapter 22, various laws are expressed including those relating to sexual behaviour. Verses 28-29 reads:

If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and is discovered, he shall pay the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

Initially this verse may seem difficult to understand, let alone accept. If Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, then is He showing no real concern for the rape victim? Is she really an object owned by a male head of household whose monetary compensation, rather than her welfare, is the prime concern? Marrying a rapist! Is this not the final ‘nail in coffin’ of a woman’s dignity?

As stated previously, to really make sense of such verses one has to consider the distinction between the moral, civil and ceremonial laws revealed initially in the Old Testament:

·        The Moral Law is the guidance for living which expresses the moral character of God. These are found most clearly in the Ten Commandments. These laws are binding across time and place. We however are unable to fully keep such laws in our own strength. These laws reveal the sin that, until we are given salvation in Christ, imprisons us.

·        The Ceremonial Law is the guidance concerning the many rituals undertaken as sacrifice in order to cleanse people, before God, of their sin. Hebrews 10:1 tells us, “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves.’. These rules were a representation of the future sacrifice of Christ for the sins of all who would believe in him. For Christians, now Christ has come to earth, died and been resurrected, these rituals are no longer needed. The perfect sacrifice has now been presented to God the Father.

·        The Civil Law is the guidance given to Israel concerning its social and economic affairs. This included its criminal law. These laws were identified to provide a necessary form of social control for the people of Israel forming a society at that particular historical, social and cultural juncture. The civil law in that sense is relative. However, any society seeking to be obedient to God will have a civil law which reflects the moral law of God. As sinners by nature no human society will ever fully achieve this since the moral law of God can ultimately only be fulfilled by Christ Himself (and humans governed by Christ’s Spirit, but not even then on this side of heaven).

Back to the verse: God’s rules concerning the dealing with this particular type of rape offence reflect, firstly, His moral laws concerning sex outside of marriage and the need for self control. The man has obviously infringed these. He will be punished. The punishment however reflects, secondly, the civil laws relevant and applicable in that particular society, at that particular point in time. They would not be applicable today though the essence of the immorality of rape remains. The punishment: An inability to ever be freed from the responsibility of materially providing for the woman and any child which might have been the result of the rape. He has no choice but to marry her and to then obey all the requirements of the marriage bond. Women today, in a society where marriage is no longer absolutely essential for physical survival and social acceptance, would not of course benefit at all from such an arrangement. Women at that time however would suffer not only the indignities of rape, but the indignity of never being accepted as a wife because of no longer being a virgin and therefore social and material destitution. God’s anger at rape is therefore revealed in the providing for her material needs. The payment of 50 shekels of silver was very punitive and would be paid regardless of whether she married the offender.  This would be on top of the usual dowry expected at that time. The rape is condemned in these verses, the punishment understandable in the civil context of that time-but not applicable today.

A second example is in Numbers, the fourth book of the Old Testament. In chapter 31, vengeance taken by Israel against the Midianites, under the direction of God, is documented. The Midianites were a nomadic pagan people whose worship included temple prostitution and the burning alive of their sons and daughters as a form of sacrifice to their false gods.  They enticed the Israelites into such worship and God brought divine judgement against them; through the Israelites declaration of war, he condemned them to destruction. However, Moses’ men did not completely obey and kept the children and women alive; in doing so, complete destruction, as demanded, was initially unfulfilled. Verses 15-18 record the response of Moses:

Have you allowed all the women to live?...They were the ones who…were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD…Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

Does this verse imply, as some have suggested, that Moses was encouraging his men to capture virgins for their own pleasure-to rape them? Such an interpretation bears no weight. Moses had previously rebuked them for sexual immorality-such actions would have breached God’s law concerning sexual relations. The civic law governing war at that time allowed for the taking of slaves from the population of defeated people. Female slaves were of value to Israelite women in terms of household tasks. Furthermore, virgins could be fully assimilated into Israeli society through provisions of marriage which provided for a woman’s dignity in terms of mourning, financial and social safeguarding and freedom from slavery (Deuteronomy 21:10-14). Midianite women who were not virgins could not be so assimilated and furthermore were more likely to have been involved in the enticing of Israelite men into sexual forms of worship which violated God’s moral law.

God takes rape seriously. He is not silent on it. It is condemned because by its very nature it contradicts God’s moral law concerning sexual relationships. The Bible records rapes by family members, gang rapes and the threat of rape. It records the social consequences of it. It reveals it to be an expression of the sinful nature of mankind and the levels of depravity which are within us all. Were it not that, in His common grace, God provides for some restraining influences in the form of contemporary civic laws and forms of retribution, the numbers of those who suffer from such sin would be magnified even further. The civic law at the time of the Old Testament provided the severest of punishments where it could be proven that rape had occurred-the death penalty. Breaching the moral law of God, the Bible declares that all such sin will be ultimately punished in eternity (Revelation 21:8; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). When the civic law of a contemporary society provides little protection and or justice for the victims of rape, we can know with absolute certainty that God is angry. 

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