From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] virginity
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:25:33 -0500
Sorry about the double mailing
Dear Shoshanna,
No it is not - where is viginity a moral issue in the Bible?
Nowhere. There is a list of prohibited relationships, which are
serious transgressions, that is all.
HH: It is a moral issue in the passage that we
have been discussing,
Deut 22:13-21. This is the main passage on the
subject. It is talking
about a moral issue, that of sexual purity. The
idea is that men wanted
pure wives, not women that other men had possessed
sexually. Virginity
is also a moral issue in other biblical laws: Deut
22:23-24, Deut
22:28-29. There is an implied moral element in Lev
21:14. The issue of
virginity probably lies behind the words in Song
of Solomon 8:8-10. One
of the Shulamite's attractions for Solomon was the
purity of her virginity.