This, of course, leads to a rather interesting conundrum. I'm not overly familiar with Jewish civil law at the time Deuteronomy was made up, but consider this:
A man rapes a virgin, pays 50 shekels (which is the equivalent of roughly NZ$700) and marries the girl. What happens if six months later, he rapes a second virgin? He can pay the fine, sure, but Jewish law forbids plural marriage (unless you're lucky enough to be king, I mean), so he can't marry the second girl, since he isn't allowed to divorce the first one. Can he kill the first one, pay some sort of a murder fine, and marry the second one. If he can't, who is going to marry the second one? Does she have to go out and find a single man to rape her so she can get married (although this is problematic, since she's no longer a virgin)? If she does, will her da have to refund the 50 shekels paid to him by the first rapist? If there is a gang rape, do the gang pay 50 shekels each, or can they pro-rate it? And which one is going to be forced to marry the girl?
Geez, who knew that treating women like commodities would be such a pain?
Boru
A man rapes a virgin, pays 50 shekels (which is the equivalent of roughly NZ$700) and marries the girl. What happens if six months later, he rapes a second virgin? He can pay the fine, sure, but Jewish law forbids plural marriage (unless you're lucky enough to be king, I mean), so he can't marry the second girl, since he isn't allowed to divorce the first one. Can he kill the first one, pay some sort of a murder fine, and marry the second one. If he can't, who is going to marry the second one? Does she have to go out and find a single man to rape her so she can get married (although this is problematic, since she's no longer a virgin)? If she does, will her da have to refund the 50 shekels paid to him by the first rapist? If there is a gang rape, do the gang pay 50 shekels each, or can they pro-rate it? And which one is going to be forced to marry the girl?
Geez, who knew that treating women like commodities would be such a pain?
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
