Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] bethulah equals virgin?

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] bethulah equals virgin?
  • Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 23:29:06 -0400

Unmarried women were allowed to be concubines without being denigrated.

There were rules there, too - the man had to support their children, and the woman couldn't be with another man.

Furthermore, if an unmarried woman has a child, that child is not denigrated by the community, and is not considered a "mamzer"

The unaccepted behavior, is for a MARRIED woman to be with another man - there was not a stigma for an unmarried woman to be with a man, it was acceptable if she stayed with the same person....

Shoshanna





By the way, I don't think that the Torah
considers an unmarried woman who is not a virgin to be "unvirtuous". If
she
married passing herself off as a virgin, that makes her a liar.

In the very verses we were discussing, Deut 20:13-21:
1) the man is punished for bringing an evil name upon a virgin in Israel.
The evil name is not that she was a liar, but that she was not a virgin when
he married her.
2) the woman is stoned, not for lying, but "because she hath wrought folly
in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil
away from among you."
-Steve Miller

_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page