Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Sunday Sermonette: A couple of good rules, then it goes way downhill

Deuteronomy 22 is actually notorious. It starts out well, then it gets weird, then it gets very, very ugly. I've gone with the Revised Standard Version here because it seems a bit more clear.


22 “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and withhold your help[a] from them; you shall take them back to your brother. And if he is not near you, or if you do not know him, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother seeks it; then you shall restore it to him. And so you shall do with his ass; so you shall do with his garment; so you shall do with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you may not withhold your help. You shall not see your brother’s ass or his ox fallen down by the way, and withhold your help[b] from them; you shall help him to lift them up again.

Okay, can't take issue with that. There's a group Facebook page for residents of my little country town and stray animals seem to be the most common topic.

“A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

Sorry RuPaul. Wingnuts like this passage but they conveniently ignore most of the rest of the chapter.

“If you chance to come upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; you shall let the mother go, but the young you may take to yourself; that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.

WTF? 

“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if any one fall from it.

This would seem to be the earliest example of a building code. We have recently discussed the justification for these, and it would seem that Yahweh is with us on that.Just in case you ever need some Biblical authority at the town meeting.

“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited to the sanctuary,[c] the crop which you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. 10 You shall not plow with an ox and an ass together. 11 You shall not wear a mingled stuff, wool and linen together.

This is just nuts. In the first place, interplanting is a very sound agricultural technique and can result in greatly improved yields. Blended fabrics can also have desirable properties. The big guy is just being a jerk, as far as I can tell.

12 “You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself.

Whatever. But now it gets really, really ugly.

Laws concerning Sexual Relations

13 “If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and then spurns her, 14 and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings an evil name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her the tokens of virginity,’ 15 then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the tokens of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate; 16 and the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he spurns her; 17 and lo, he has made shameful charges against her, saying, “I did not find in your daughter the tokens of virginity.” And yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. 18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him; 19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought an evil name upon a virgin of Israel; and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. 20 

The "tokens of virginity" would seem to be a bloody sheet. Of course that's easy enough to fake. On the other hand how would the woman's parents come to possess it, particularly under these circumstances?

But if the thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young woman, 21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has wrought folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father’s house; so you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.

It is not clear how the fact is to be established.  In practice, should this situation ever arise, I expect it would just come down to which family has more political power. That a man would want this to happen to a woman he has just married is obviously appalling in any case.

22 “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall purge the evil from Israel.

23 “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife; so you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.

Although the translation is "lies with her," the implication -- as in the case below -- is that he rapes her. 

25 “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. 26 But to the young woman you shall do nothing; in the young woman there is no offense punishable by death, for this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor; 27 because he came upon her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.

28 “If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, 29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her; he may not put her away all his days.

Again, what this really means is that if a man rapes a virgin, she has to marry him. That's his punishment, along with a 50 shekel fine.

30 [d] “A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor shall he uncover her who is his father’s.[e]

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 22:1 Heb hide yourself
  2. Deuteronomy 22:4 Heb hide yourself
  3. Deuteronomy 22:9 Heb become holy
  4. Deuteronomy 22:30 Ch 23.1 in Heb
  5. Deuteronomy 22:30 Heb uncover his father’s skirt

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