Old Testament Laws Regarding Rape And Pedophilia
Old Testament law addresses sexual offenses, including those that can be understood as rape, with specific legal and social consequences. The Mosaic Law prohibited adultery, defining it as sexual intercourse between a married woman and a man who was not her husband, with the penalty for both parties being stoning [3]. Josephus notes that Moses "forbade [adultery] entirely" and also condemned incestuous relations, such as lying with one's mother, father's wife, aunts, or sisters, as "abominable wickedness" [1].
Deuteronomy 22:28-29 outlines a specific case: if a man rapes a virgin who is not betrothed, he must pay her father fifty shekels of silver and take her as his wife, never being permitted to divorce her. This passage is central to rabbinic discussions on rape [5, 6, 8]. The Babylonian Talmud discusses the nuances of this law, noting that the payment of fifty sela (shekels) is a fixed fine for both rape and seduction, regardless of the woman's social standing, though additional payments for humiliation and degradation are assessed based on individual circumstances [10, 11, 12].
The concept of "pedophilia" as a distinct legal category does not appear in the Old Testament in modern terms. However, the laws concerning sexual offenses against virgins, particularly those not yet betrothed, would apply to younger individuals. The emphasis in these laws is on the violation of the woman and her family's honor, as well as the economic implications for the father [2]. The law in Deuteronomy 22:28-29 effectively forces the perpetrator to assume responsibility for the woman he violated, preventing her from being left without a husband or social standing.
Later Jewish tradition, as seen in the Talmud, further explores the implications of these laws, including prohibitions against marrying a daughter born from a rape victim [7]. While some judicial laws of the Old Testament were specific to the ancient Israelite theocracy, others, particularly those concerning marriage and sexual morality, are considered by some traditions to be founded on permanent human relations and thus of perpetual obligation [4, 13]. Thomas Aquinas, from a scholastic perspective, categorized rape as a species of lust, sometimes coinciding with seduction, and involving force against the virgin or her father [9].
Sources
- Project Gutenberg “Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, CHAPTER 12, section 1: . Several Laws. 1. As for adultery, Moses forbade it entirely, as esteeming it a happy thing that men should be wise in the affairs of wedlock; and that it was profitable both to cities and families that children should be known to be genuine. He also abhorred men's lying with their mothers, as one of the greatest crimes; and the like for lying with the father's wife, and with aunts, and sisters, and sons' wives, as all instances of abominable wickedness. He also forbade a man to lie with his wife when she was defiled by her nat”
- Project Gutenberg “Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, CHAPTER 8, section 13: from the prostitution of her body, God will not receive; for by these means the dispositions of the children will be liberal and virtuous; I mean, when they are not born of base parents, and of the lustful conjunction of such as marry women that are not free. If any one has been espoused to a woman as to a virgin, and does not afterward find her so to be, let him bring his action, and accuse her, and let him make use of such indications 24 to prove his accusation as he is furnished withal; and let the father or the brother of th”
- Smith's Bible Dictionary “Smith's Bible Dictionary: Adultery — (Exodus 20:14) The parties to this crime, according to Jewish law, were a married woman and a man who was not her husband. The Mosaic penalty was that both the guilty parties should be stoned, and it applied as well to the betrothed as to the married woman, provided she were free. (22:22-24) A bondwoman so offending was to be scourged, and the man was to make a trespass offering. (Leviticus 19:20-22) At a later time, and when owing, to Gentile example, the marriage tie became a looser bond of union, public feeling in regard to adultery changed, and the pena”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 39: The right of property need not have existed. God might have made all things as common as sun-light or air. Men might have been as angels, neither marrying nor giving in marriage. Under such a constitution there would be no room for a multitude of laws which are now of universal and necessary obligation. 3. A third class of laws have their foundation in certain temporary relations of men, or conditions of society, and are enforced by the authority of God. To this class belong many of the judicial or civil laws of the ancient theocracy; law”
- Babylonian Talmud (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 128b.42:14: And from where do we know that the verse is written with regard to a woman raped by his father? As the previous section, juxtaposed to it, deals with the laws of rape: “And the man who lay with her must give her father fifty shekels…because he has violated her” (Deuteronomy 22:29).”
- Babylonian Talmud (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 128a.42:14: And from where do we know that the verse is written with regard to a woman raped by his father? As the previous section, juxtaposed to it, deals with the laws of rape: “And the man who lay with her must give her father fifty shekels…because he has violated her” (Deuteronomy 22:29).”
- Babylonian Talmud (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 87b.1: for example, the halakha of the prohibition against engaging in intercourse with one’s daughter born from the victim of his rape.”
- Babylonian Talmud (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 21b.14: And from where do we know that the verse is written with regard to a woman raped by his father? As the previous section, juxtaposed to it, deals with the laws of rape: “And the man who lay with her must give her father fifty shekels…because he has violated her” (Deuteronomy 22:29).”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Second Part of the Second Part (Secunda Secundae), Of the Parts of Lust, Art. 7: Article: Whether rape is a species of lust, distinct from seduction? I answer that, Rape, in the sense in which we speak of it now, is a species of lust: and sometimes it coincides with seduction; sometimes there is rape without seduction, and sometimes seduction without rape. They coincide when a man employs force in order unlawfully to violate a virgin. This force is employed sometimes both towards the virgin and towards her father; and sometimes towards the father and not to the virgi”
- Babylonian Talmud (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 68a.28:22: MISHNA: There are halakhot with regard to a rapist and with regard to a seducer that are lenient and others that are stringent; how so? Both one who raped or seduced a young woman who is the most prominent in the priesthood and one who raped or seduced a young woman who is the lowliest among the Israelites gives the payment of fifty sela , the fine stated in the Torah (see Deuteronomy 22:29). And the payments for humiliation and for degradation resulting from being raped or seduced are assessed differentially; it is all based on the one who humiliates and ”
- Babylonian Talmud (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 68b.28:22: MISHNA: There are halakhot with regard to a rapist and with regard to a seducer that are lenient and others that are stringent; how so? Both one who raped or seduced a young woman who is the most prominent in the priesthood and one who raped or seduced a young woman who is the lowliest among the Israelites gives the payment of fifty sela , the fine stated in the Torah (see Deuteronomy 22:29). And the payments for humiliation and for degradation resulting from being raped or seduced are assessed differentially; it is all based on the one who humiliates and ”
- Babylonian Talmud (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 14b.22: MISHNA: There are halakhot with regard to a rapist and with regard to a seducer that are lenient and others that are stringent; how so? Both one who raped or seduced a young woman who is the most prominent in the priesthood and one who raped or seduced a young woman who is the lowliest among the Israelites gives the payment of fifty sela , the fine stated in the Torah (see Deuteronomy 22:29). And the payments for humiliation and for degradation resulting from being raped or seduced are assessed differentially; it is all based on the one who humiliates and the”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 39: Church without being impressed with the dreadful evils which have flowed from this mistake. On the other hand, there are some of the judicial laws of the Old Testament which were really 269 founded on the permanent relations of men, and therefore, were intended to be of perpetual obligation, which many have repudiated as peculiar to the old dispensation. Such are some of the laws relating to marriage, and to the infliction of capital punishment for the crime of murder. lf it be asked, How are we to determine whether any judicial law of th”