How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture

by Dan Kimball

With all of this in mind, it is important to note that the law requiring a rapist to marry his victim was not forced on the woman. It was the woman’s legal right, if she chose, to pursue the law and request marriage or to reject it. What we read here is the command given to the rapist (not the woman), that he must pay fifty shekels, which was the normal bridal dowry for a wedding at that time, demonstrating that her value hadn’t decreased due to the rape. These commands are given to the man, not the woman. This is what he must do; it does not say it is what she must do. We read in other parts of these early books of the Bible* that the woman could communicate through her father, who was the one responsible for her care, and choose not to marry her violator.