Today, many women suffer from gender inequality due to laws made from men. However, the suffering of women from inequality manifest all throughout the Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament was mainly written by men who were all Priest, Prophets, Kings and other scholars. Since then, women’s social status were in control from the hands of men. One historical issue in the Hebrew Bible is rape. The ideologies of rape mainly occur in the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy Is the fifth book of the Torah which set the laws for the new generation of Hebrews. Therefore, scholarly perspectives are made on the issue of rape depict that the laws of Deuteronomy focuses on men and ignore the value of women in their society.
Rape is defined differently throughout the Hebrew Bible due to the statements made in Deuteronomy codes.
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However, if the man doesn’t desire the woman anymore, the man may grant her freedom or keep her as slave since he has violated her. Furthermore, in the Deuteronomy 22, rape is designed to be “misuse of a woman” but, not sexual violence against women (Gravett, 2004). Plus, rape is in the context between two scenarios for Deuteronomy 22. The first scenario involves rape between a man and an engaged woman. If the women have not cried out for help during the sexual act, both man and woman will receive capital punishment because the women have given consent to the man to violate her which is an act of adultery. In addition, in the second scenario, if a woman is not married and was forced into sex with a man, the man must marry the woman, pay 50 shekels of sliver and can never divorce. Therefore, in Deuteronomy 21, and 22, Sandie Gravette criticized rape since the incidents of rape in the Hebrew Bible is limited. For instance, Gravette portay that the waiting period between women held captive during times of war and men for sexual encounters are
In the Hebrew Bible, adultery is considered a capital crime, punishable by the population stoning the adulterous wife and her lover to death. Deut. 22:20 commands this communal punishment in order to “sweep away evil from Israel.” The question remains as to why this crime was considered to be such a transgression. Several explanations exist to account for the seriousness of the crime.
The stories about women in the bible illustrate the importance of their role and contribution to society. Women were slaves, concubines, and child bearers; they were also wives, matriarchs, and prophets. Although, some women had less important titles than others each served a purpose. Even if the Bible does not explain God’s relationship with women as with Moses and other prophets, it illustrates the love and dedication women had for Him. The scriptures describe brave, nurturing, and God fearing women whose decisions impacted the existence of the Israelites.
However, more progressive theologians believe otherwise. Robert K. Gruse analyzes the events of Genesis 19 in contrast with the events of Judges 19. In both stories, travelers are taken into the homes of fellow outsiders. There is a clear indication among the masses that the men of either city wish to rape the travelers. Therefore, the host offers the ravenous men the chance to do whatever they wish with two virgin women (Lot’s daughters in the story of Sodom). However, the men refuse, and take offense at the host’s offer because they wish to rape the strangers, probably to interject a sense of power over them (Gruse 2015,
The law of the levirate was a standard male-centered practice in ancient Israel. It also was the only way that Tamar could ensure her dependent status within her late husband’s family and evade the shame of returning home. The WBC explains her predicament precisely, “Even more anomalous is the young childless widow who has no hope of becoming a fruitful member of her husband’s clan once the husband is dead. Indeed, she has altogether lost her tie with that clan. Yet she, like the barren wife, no longer belongs in her father’s household.” So even though the law of the levirate was superficially misogynistic, it benefited women almost, if not more than men (WBC 25).
Looking back through many historical time periods, people are able to observe the fact that women were generally discriminated against and oppressed in almost any society. However, these periods also came with women that defied the stereotype of their sex. They spoke out against this discrimination with a great amount of intelligence and strength with almost no fear of the harsh consequences that could be laid out by the men of their time. During the Medieval era, religion played a major role in the shaping of this pessimistic viewpoint about women. The common belief of the patriarchal-based society was that women were direct descendants of Eve from The Bible; therefore, they were responsible for the fall of mankind. All of Eve’s characteristics from the biblical story were believed to be the same traits of medieval women. Of course, this did not come without argument. Two medieval women worked to defy the female stereotype, the first being the fictional character called The Wife of Bath from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The second woman, named Margery Kempe, was a real human being with the first English autobiography written about her called The Book of Margery Kempe. In these two texts, The Wife of Bath and Margery Kempe choose to act uniquely compared to other Christians in the medieval time period because of the way religion is interpreted by them. As a result, the women view themselves as having power and qualities that normal women of their society did not.
Although the purpose of the Bible is to teach us the right way to live with its numerous rules, the book “The Year of Living Biblically” by A.J. Jacobs, exposes the less publicized rules and how contradictory some of them can be. The main propose of the author of this book is not to criticize or make fun of religion in his quest to “follow the Bible as literally as possible”, but to demonstrate that he enjoys the learning experience. A.J. Jacobs suggests that people claim to be religious when in fact, they only take the rules and ideas they want, this is the reason why I think gender inequality continues to penetrate society today.
Since the biblical days, society was very structural with the role of the “Man” and the “Woman.” This concept came to be known as the term gender roles, referring to the significant differences between men and women due to an established role and expectation created by society itself. Society’s expectations of the man’s character were assertiveness, analytical, and unemotional. These characteristics, collectively, coin the term masculine for men. And society’s expectations of the woman’s character were sensitivity, nurturing, and emotional, which together coined the term feminine. Along with the standards of feminine and masculine came responsibilities both the man and the woman. The male had economic responsibilities and the female had domestic
One night Tamar was called to her brother room to feed him from her hand and he lay with her. Amnon had a lust for his own sister and took advantage of an opportunity to be with he in a sexual way. All to often women are victims to rape, I know people who are very close to me who have fallen victim to this act. It is an unfortunate, and degrading act. Rape as defined in our text is the “unlawful sexual intercourse with a female without her consent.”(Cry of Tamar, 109). Now I would have to disagree somewhat with this version of the definition, being that rape can happen to men and women. Most cases are involving women but very few times men can fall victim to rape as well. For example his father’s friend victimized my cousin’s son sexually. It was unlawful sexual intercourse but not with a woman, is that still not rape? I’ve never had to go through something so traumatizing, however like Mrs. Rape is often not able to be accurately calculated because “ women are often reluctant to report the incident to anyone.” (Cry of Tamar, 107). Rape victims feel embarrassed or fear victimization by the victimizer so some refrain from reporting it to anyone. That is why it is important for churches or peer groups to be able to help these victims open up and cope with their
Trible has three main focuses in her article that include, “the inferiority, subordination and abuse of women in ancient Israel”, “the counter literature that is itself a critique of patriarchy”, and “the stories of terror about woman” (Trible). Each one sums a different oppression that women in the Bible faced. These ideas suggest that the overall purpose of her article is to identify that while women were viewed as a “helper” to men, God viewed them as much more (Trible).
Rape is non-consensual sexual intercourse that a male performs against a woman whom he is neither married to or cohabiting with. The definition of rape changes by geographic location. In some countries a woman must prove she is pure in order to find the perpetrator guilty. Rape used to be more of a violation to the man than to the women. It was a violation of the man’s rights if his wife or girlfriend was raped. When a woman is raped her devotion to her family is questioned. Rape is a violent act, an act of possession, not a sexual act. The myth that men who rape women are sexually pathological has begun to be dispelled and replaced with an understanding that rape is an act of anger, power and control rather than lust.
According to an article, Rape: A Weapon of War, by the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (2013):
possession of men and would have to endure childbearing pains. The man’s punishment entailed manual labor for the rest of his life and that he was to be considered impure (Genesis 3).
Rape is among the more horrific violations of human dignity imaginable. It is a crime committed by the male, not the female—and certainly not by the child it might produce. When rape results in pregnancy, the baby has the same right to life as any child born by mutually loving parents. Only the Nazis would execute a child for the crimes of his or her father.
As we live within the new covenant, it can be easy to brush over code laws from the Old Testament. However, readers can see a picture of God’s grand plan for redemption by studying the story of the Israelites. Professor Yarchin has pointed out that the greatest mistake in interpretation happens when we force our cultural context on the culture and time period depicted in Deuteronomy. So, modern day readers are presented with an extremely complex challenge: How are we to learn f...
Scholz, S. (2014). Feminist Scholarship on the Old Testament: Introduction. Available: http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0020.xml. Last accessed 19th March 2014.