Difficulty of Deuteronomy 22:13-21

Deuteronomy 22:13-21 is a difficult text indeed, especially to our modern western ears. It was presented to me this week as food for thought. It was stated like this:

{Claims by Christians

1. The Bible is the Word of God.

2. God is a loving and just God.

3. God is an all-knowing God.

The Word of God (the Bible), as it says in Deuteronomy 22:20-21: a woman on her wedding night is found to be without evidence of her virginity (no bleeding). Then the men of her town shall bring her out to the entrance of her father's house and stone her to death because she committed a disgraceful act in Israel by prostituting herself in her father's house. The “proof” of virginity was traditionally understood to be a bedsheet with bloodstains from the wedding night.

Approximately 63% of women do not bleed the first time they have sex, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. This figure is supported by multiple sources indicating that a significant majority—between 63% and 80%—of women do not experience bleeding during their first intercourse. 

Considering the information above, how can anyone state God is a just, loving, and all knowing God? God didn't know all women don't bleed the first time they have sex? Stoning to death women who were innocent but found guilty on false evidence is okay with God?}

Most unbelievers couldn't care less about a statement lodged somewhere in the Old Testament literature, but others take offense in the character of the Christian God and statements like this made in the scriptures. It is presented in most cases as a gotcha question. However, there is nothing unloving or unjust in the scripture being presented. Those who present this as an argument, by doing so, demonstrate they don't know the God of the Bible. They present to you a god of their own making, one who is not loving and one who doesn't know the physical properties of the woman he created. 

They say they don't believe in the God of the Bible, yet to refute Him and make an argument against Him, they invent one they can criticize. The God of the Bible choose this people referenced here in Deuteronomy out of slavery, delivered them by mighty signs and wonders. (Exodus Chapter 7 through 11) He divided the sea for the people to walk through on dry ground and drowned the Egyptians who tried to pursue. He brought water out of a rock in abundance enough to supply a whole nation of people. Yet, the critics present to you a god who can't even regulate the breaking of the female hymen. If He can control wither a female egg is fertilized, He can certainly control the breaking of the hymen at the appropriate time.  [Gen 30:22 ESV] 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. It would certainly be understood in the text sighted, no misjudgment would be made in the system God had instituted for this people. I'm sure the 63% to 80% statistic has merit in today's society, but the account they are critiquing is within the confines of a supernatural environment created by God for a special people, purpose, and time. 

It is strange how God is made to be the bad guy when all the transgressions were committed by the husband or the wife.

[Deu 22:13-14 ESV] 13 “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her 14 and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, 'I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,'

Here we have either an unfaithful wife, or a lying husband. [Deu 22:13-17 ESV] 13 “If any man takes a wife and goes into her and then hates her 14 and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, 'I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,' 15 then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence 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 marry, and he hates her; 17 and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.' And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. It is the father, not the husband, who is the Plaintiff that takes the case to court to defend his daughter's honor as well as the honor of his family. “I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; 17 and behold, he has accused her of misconduct”. The Jewish commentary in the Tanakh states this to be symbolic. “And they shall spread the garment. This is a figurative expression, meaning: they shall clarify the matter as [“clear”] as a [new] garment. — [Sifrei 22:92, Keth. 46a]”.  וּפָֽרְשׂוּ הַשִּׂמְלָה.  הֲרֵי זֶה מָשָׁל, מְחֻוָּרִין הַדְּבָרִים כַּשִּׂמְלָה (שם; כתובות שם): 

Gill's English commentary also acknowledges this: ''Indeed there are some Jewish writers, that interpret this cloth in a parabolical and allegorical sense, and understand by it witnesses that; would make the case as clear and plain as the spreading out of a cloth or garment. They suppose that before the damsel was lain with she was examined by several matrons, who declaring her to be a virgin, gave it under their hands in writing to her parents, which they were capable of producing in court when there was occasion for it; so Jarchi says, this is a parable; the meaning is, they made things as clear and as plain as a new cloth; with which agrees the Talmud which he seems to have taken it from, where on these words, and they shall spread the cloth, this remark is made; but the literal sense seems best.” 

 

What the critics have seized upon is a 3 thousand 5 hundred-year-old law instituted for a specific time and purpose among a specific people. If it is to be taken literally or figuratively, bares little difference upon the issue at hand, God's justice. There is no record of this law ever being acted upon within the closed community of this people, but we can be assured if it ever was, an all-knowing and all powerful God would have upheld justice and righteousness. These laws were instituted in this special closed community of God's people, of which He was supernaturally dwelling among them.  [Exo 25:8 KJV] 8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.  

Take a look around you, what does your world look like? Are the crimes committed by a great unknown deity or fallen human beings? The God of the Bible has looked upon a world that hates Him, Atheist that malign Him, and all manner of people that commit depraved acts of debauchery continually every moment of every day. For no reason other than His own glory and goodness, He has provided redemption through the work of Christ and made an offer of eternal life to all who would simply believe and turn from their wicked ways.

Hope this was encouraging,

David