Sexism
The Old Testament is systematically sexist in a way that is inconsistent with my
belief in fairness.
There are too many cases to cite; you can randomly open the Book to any
page to find examples. Deuteronomy, as
well as other books, contains various laws pertaining to sexual purity and
rape. Of course, the laws regarding sexual
purity apply only to women, and not to men. The following examples
Here we return to the key questions of this blog. Does the Bible represent the word of God? Is misogyny fair, just and reasonable? If the word of God is not fair, just and reasonable, why should we believe in God?
Judah and Tamar, by Arent de Gelder, 1661
Sexual Purity of Women
Deuteronomy 22 considers the situation where a young man no longer
wants a woman he has married, and claims that she was not a virgin at the time
of the wedding:
20 “But if the charge is true
and there is no proof that she was a virgin, 21 then they are to take her out
to the entrance of her father's house, where the men of her city are to stone
her to death. She has done a shameful thing among our people by having
intercourse before she was married, while she was still living in her father's
house. In this way you will get rid of this evil.
Of course, there is no corresponding proscription on behavior or punishment for men.
Rape and Ownership of Women
There are also laws concerning rape in Deuteronomy 22. The penalties for rape vary according to the
status of a woman. If a woman is engaged
to another man, the penalty is much more severe – death. Presumably, the harsher penalty is not
because the woman was violated, but rather because her fiancé was violated by
the attack. If a woman who is not
engaged is raped, the penalty is fifty pieces of silver, to be paid to the
father of the woman. The woman is given
to her rapist to be his wife.
25 Suppose a man out in the
countryside rapes a young woman who is engaged to someone else. Then only the
man is to be put to death; 26
nothing is to be done to the woman, because she has not committed a sin worthy
of death.…27 The man raped the engaged woman in the countryside, and although
she cried for help, there was no one to help her.
28 Suppose a man is caught
raping a young woman who is not engaged. 29 He is to pay her father the bride
price of fifty pieces of silver, and she is to become his wife, because he
forced her to have intercourse with him. He can never divorce her as long as he
lives.
The sense of these passages is that a woman is chattel, property with
no more rights than a slave or an animal.
If she is violated by rape, the only concern of the Bible is how her
owner – her father, her fiancé or husband – has suffered by the damage to his
possession.
Women Captives by War
[Deuteronomy 20]
10 “When you go to attack a
city, first give its people a chance to surrender. 11 If they open the gates
and surrender, they are all to become your slaves and do forced labor for you.
12 But if the people of that city will not surrender, but choose to fight,
surround it with your army. 13 Then, when the Lord your God lets you capture
the city, kill every man in it. 14 You may, however, take for yourselves the
women, the children, the livestock, and everything else in the city. You may
use everything that belongs to your enemies. The Lord has given it to you. 15 That is how you are to deal with those
cities that are far away from the land you will settle in.
The treatment of women who are captured in war
is different than the treatment of men.
Men are to be enslaved, if the city submits, or killed. Women, are to be taken, and used, like
everything else that belonged to the enemy.
This underscores the idea that in biblical tradition, women are
possessions of men.
[Deuteronomy 21]
10 “When the Lord your God gives
you victory in battle and you take prisoners, 11 you may see among them a
beautiful woman that you like and want to marry. 12 Take her to your home,
where she will shave her head, cut her fingernails, 13 and change her clothes.
She is to stay in your home and mourn for her parents for a month; after that,
you may marry her. 14 Later, if you no longer want her, you are to let her go
free. Since you forced her to have intercourse with you, you cannot treat her
as a slave and sell her.
A woman captive may be required to marry one of her captors. The same tradition exists today in extreme
Islam, in ISIS or Boko Haram. The woman’s
rights are still minimal, but a woman granted status as a wife cannot later be
treated as a slave. If the husband no
longer wants the captive wife, she is to be freed.
Ritual Poisoning of Women
Suspected of Infidelity
In Numbers 5:1-30, if a husband believes his wife is unfaithful but has
no proof, or has feelings of jealousy about his wife, she is to be ritually
poisoned.
Numbers 5: 12 - 28
It may happen that a man becomes
suspicious that his wife is unfaithful to him and has defiled herself by having
intercourse with another man. But the husband may not be certain, for his wife
may have kept it secret—there was no witness, and she was not caught in the
act. Or it may happen that a husband becomes suspicious of his wife, even
though she has not been unfaithful. 15 In either case the man shall take his
wife to the priest. He shall also take the required offering of two pounds of
barley flour, but he shall not pour any olive oil on it or put any incense on
it, because it is an offering from a suspicious husband, made to bring the
truth to light.
16 The priest shall bring the
woman forward and have her stand in front of the altar. 17 He shall pour some
holy water into a clay bowl and take some of the earth that is on the floor of
the Tent of the Lord's presence and put it in the water to make it bitter. 18
Then he shall loosen the woman's hair and put the offering of flour in her
hands. In his hands the priest shall hold the bowl containing the bitter water
that brings a curse. 19 Then the priest shall make the woman agree to this oath
spoken by the priest: “If you have not committed adultery, you will not be
harmed by the curse that this water brings. 20 But if you have committed
adultery, 21 may the Lord make your name a curse among your people. May he cause
your genital organs to shrink and your stomach to swell up. 22 May this water
enter your stomach and cause it to swell up and your genital organs to shrink.”
The woman shall respond, “I
agree; may the Lord do so.”
23 Then the priest shall write
this curse down and wash the writing off into the bowl of bitter water. 24
Before he makes the woman drink the water, which may then cause her bitter
pain, 25 the priest shall take the offering of flour out of the woman's hands,
hold it out in dedication to the Lord, and present it on the altar. 26 Then he
shall take a handful of it as a token offering and burn it on the altar.
Finally, he shall make the woman drink the water. 27 If she has committed
adultery, the water will cause bitter pain; her stomach will swell up and her
genital organs will shrink. Her name will become a curse among her people. 28
But if she is innocent, she will not be harmed and will be able to bear
children.
29-30 This is the law in cases
where a man is jealous and becomes suspicious that his wife has committed
adultery. The woman shall be made to stand in front of the altar, and the
priest shall perform this ritual. 31 The husband shall be free of guilt, but
the woman, if guilty, must suffer the consequences.
The poison will cause great suffering, and leave her unable to bear
children. If she has been faithful, God
will protect her and she will be unaffected by the poison. Would any reader volunteer for this test, deliberately
taking poison, and trusting to God’s timely intervention?
These passages represent unmitigated misogyny. If this is the word of God, we should ask ourselves if God is real.
