Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Eric Forster" <eric.forster AT ca.rr.com>]

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Bill Rea" <bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz>
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: 1/16/2008 12:44:47 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] xrm and the Canaanites' VIP treatment

You wrote:

*I gave you an example. Read it. Its offensive to most modern people. 
*A
*woman gets raped and the rapist has to marry her with no chance of
*divorce. Who's that punishment for? Here if you did what's in those 
*verses
*you could been facing time in the slammer if your lawyer doesn't 
*defame
*and slander the victim sufficiently well to convince the jury she was a
*slut. I doubt you could even find on New Zealand's statute books a law
*which forbids a man to seduce a married woman. Morally its still 
*wrong,
*but not legally. The laws in the Torah aren't there to look pretty. They
*were living law codes which were actually used. 

It is safe to say that the concepts of rape and adultery have evolved quite a 
bit since the Torah was written.  Our present-day notions of what adultery is 
would probably look quaint or totally out of touch to the Israelites, and 
well they should.

Eric Forster


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