Deuteronomy 22:28-29
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
So, you may or may not have come across this image on Facebook, Tumblr, or some other social network.
If you haven't, well, now you've seen it up close and personal. I'm not going to pretend I know everything about the Satanic Bible, nor the Quran. However, I am a Christian and I know a thing or two about the Holy Bible. So, without further ado, I am going to go ahead and elaborate.
Deuteronomy is the fifth book in the Old Testament. The Old Testament contains around 40 different books. So, judging that the New Testament takes place about 2,000 years ago, can you imagine how long ago the book of Deuteronomy took place?
Based on that, you should know that this was so long ago that things have changed. All ancient civilizations had practices that we, several thousands of years later, would consider somewhat peculiar. So, why would they "sell" a woman to her rapist? I'm glad to explain, because there are too many people who don't understand the concept of why it was done and how it was actually more helpful than hurtful.
Back in those days, women did not have the same rights as women do now. As an example, women in the United States couldn't even vote until the early 1900s. To compare the way women are looked at now to the way women were looked at then is unrealistic.
With all the equal rights hoopla going on right now, it's hard to imagine a world where women could not support themselves. However, back in that time, a woman was looked at like property and she had to marry to be supported. Not only that, but if she were to become impure by sexual assault, nobody would marry her. Ergo, she would not be able to support herself. She would starve and die.
The idea of her being "sold" to her rapist was basically a form of "You break it, you buy it." The purpose of this standard was to hold the man responsible for his actions, to ensure support for the woman, and to act as a deterrent to rape in that society.
"...he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver." The rapist was not allowed to just rape her and walk away. Since he violated her, he had to face her father, pay the full price for her, and then treat her with honor for the rest of her life. For the rapist, that would be a major social embarrassment, which is why it worked as a deterrent.
To take these verses out of context and construe them as some sort of injustice to the victim is an incorrect interpretation of the passage. God put this law in place as a protection to the women, not as a punishment.
This viral image was clearly made under the influence of the father of all lies.
