by jimwalton » Tue Jan 10, 2017 11:07 am
Yeah, you have an imagination not fitting what the Bible teaches, and you haven't really looked into the text(s). God is not OK with rape; he's never OK with rape, and never commanded the rape of a city full of women. That would be morally reprehensible, and what you are querying about just isn't so.
You're probably thinking of Numbers 31. Let's really look at it responsibly.
1. It is quite clear and obvious that nothing is said in the text about rape. The word doesn't appear, the concept doesn't appear, and any reading into the text the concept of rape is exactly that: reading in something that isn't there.
Here's what the text (Numbers 31.18) actually says:
1. "Save": Any female who was still virginal could be spared.
2. "For yourselves": There is nothing in this term even implying sexual pleasure. In a *herem* situation in ancient Israel, all plunder was considered to be the possession of God, for the praise of his name and the benefit of the whole community. In Deuteronomy 21.10-14 it is explicitly against Israelite law for an Israelite soldier to use a female POW as a sex object. An Israelite male had to carefully follow proper procedures before she could be taken as a wife. In light the highly sensitive nature of sexual purity in Israel and for Israel's soldiers, specific protocols had to be followed. Rape was most certainly excluded as an extracurricular activity in warfare.
3. "Every girl": The term is used frequently in military contexts where the "little children" are to be protected or taken as spoils of war—a specific stipulation of the Law (Dt. 20.14).
4. "who has never slept with a man": The accusation that these girls were for sex slave purposes has no foundation in the text and contradicts what we know about the culture and about the event.
a. Girls were generally married off at puberty, roughly 12-14 years old. Pedophilia is unknown in ancient Israel. Children were taken into homes to be part of the economic assets of the household.
b. Unlike the Greeks and Romans, the ancient Near East was not very "into" using slaves/captives for sexual purposes. Their owners used them primarily for spinning and weaving.
c. Thee Israelites, in particular, believed in marital fidelity for both husband and wife.
d. Deuteronomy specifies the course of treatment for these girls: they were kept outside the camp for seven days in a kind of quarantine period. (Note that the usual incubation period for the kinds of infectious diseases which could conceivably have existed in this situation is two or three to six days [Eickhoff 1977].) Afterward, they thoroughly washed themselves and all their clothing before they entered the camp. This incident is hardly an expression of "raping women enslaved by warfare."
So, no, God never commanded the rape of a city full of women. That would be morally reprehensible. You just have your facts wrong and haven't done your homework, so I'm glad you asked. God is not OK with rape.