What does the Bible say about rape? A lot of Christians don't read the Bible so they don't know, but they assume that somewhere in there is an explicit statement that rape is always immoral. And of course, if we do a little digging, we're bound to come up with something like that...right?

The closest I could find was this passage from Deuteronomy 22, where God is laying out his laws to the Israelites and instructing them on how to deal with cases of rape.
If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.

If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;

Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you.

But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die.

But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:

For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her.

If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;

Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.
A few comments on this verse. First of all, if the woman is raped and does not scream loud enough and she is in a populated area, she is to be killed. This was because it would be presumed that she willingly had sex with the man, and they had some strange idea that having sex for fun is bad and people who do it outside the context of marriage should be killed. Obviously this cannot be a law that was cooked up by a moral being, yet the Bible is claiming these are the words of an infinitely moral God. How can that possibly be?

If the woman is married, it is considered a serious crime worthy of the death penalty for the rapist. Why? Because in ancient Israel, wives were basically considered property. If you read the Old Testament through, this is very clearly what marriage means in their society. Women are property, and if you rape another man's wife, that is defiling his property. Nobody cares about the woman, but defiling another man's property is considered a serious offense.

As if to prove this point, it goes on to say that if the woman is not married to anyone, the punishment for the rapist is to pay her father some money (daughters as well as wives are considered property), and then the woman is bound to be married to the rapist.

How come God doesn't come out and say "Thou shalt not rape"? In his list of Ten Commandments, he considers it important to prohibit breaking the Sabbath or coveting your neighbor's donkey, but he doesn't consider it important to prohibit sexual abuse? How come? If I were pressed to come up with a list of ten laws I wanted everybody to follow, surely "don't rape people" would be more important than "take one day out of seven to worship me" or "don't want things other people have, even though humans are incapable of exercising conscious control over their desires". Why is rape not on that top ten list? Why isn't it ANYWHERE? Surely everyone agrees rape is one of the most immoral possible actions a person can do. Why is the Bible completely silent about it?

Three to six percent of the Catholic priests in this country are raping children. USCCB - The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States I don't think that's a coincidence. I think that number would be much lower if God explicitly condemned rape a few times in these priests' scriptures, and especially if a prohibition on rape was on that list of Ten Commandments they clergy's got plastered everywhere.

The fact that the Bible does not condemn rape (or slavery for that matter) is one of the most obvious reasons, to me, that it could not have possibly been penned by a moral genius of any sort. It is simply a compilation of common moral beliefs of the time, before we ourselves, without the help of God or the Bible, advanced our own moralities to the point that we all now abhor rape and slavery.
Oneironaut Reviewed by Oneironaut on . Why no commandment against rape? What does the Bible say about rape? A lot of Christians don't read the Bible so they don't know, but they assume that somewhere in there is an explicit statement that rape is always immoral. And of course, if we do a little digging, we're bound to come up with something like that...right? The closest I could find was this passage from Deuteronomy 22, where God is laying out his laws to the Israelites and instructing them on how to deal with cases of rape. A few comments on this verse. Rating: 5