Early Hebrew Women Of The First Law Era

Dating And Marriage

Abraham was a follower of God. He was from the Hebrew race, a chosen people that no longer exist today. No one in the world has Torah-required genealogical register. They dissolved after the destruction of the temple and Titus. Nevertheless, their laws and the fulfillment through Jesus Christ are the basis of holy civilization today.

First Law Era: Dowry Bride Seduction

So what were the early Hebrew women like and what were the requirements of the first era law for marriage? Evidently, virgin women expected to be married and their fathers given a dowry price. The virgins who were not betrothed (formally engaged to the extent of being accepted as a wife but yet having to await consummation) were able to meet men preferably of their same tribe (Nu. 36:5-13) and have conversations with them. They were able to make romantic decisions and implicitly were even at times “enticed” by men to go to bed. Exodus 22:16 tells us:

¹⁶ And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. ¹⁷ If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.¹

Parental Decision

However, the father of the girl was the one who decided whether a marriage was to be accepted. It seems he had the choice of determining his daughter's future (almost as if she were property) whether she agreed or not. If he did not give his daughter in marriage after a man had sex with her (taken her virginity), the rejected man was still responsible for his actions and had to pay money even though he could not get the woman he had sex with for a wife. Of course, this would leave the daughter in an unchaste condition, a very hard way for a woman to live. So, it would probably take an undesirable or seemingly worthless man to cause her father to commit his daughter to living unchaste and never able to marry as a virgin (note v. 20, 21).

Howbeit, seduction instituted marriage upon the positive decision of the father: One translation of the word yefateh (seduces) means that he speaks to her heart until she consents. Another translation is "to persuade." Another means "to deceive." The seduction of a virgin female who was not engaged to anyone determined that the male must marry the girl. Hypothetically, if a girl was induced to have intercourse by the male's promise to marry her, or without such promise she would not have consented to have permitted carnal knowledge with her; or not; is not relevant: the determining factor is that the virginity of the girl was violated through seduction (regardless of what the means of persuasion or enticement may have been).

Second Law Era (Deuteronomy to Malachi): Dowry Bride Law As To Male Choice And Female Consent

The Hebrew community in the second law era were under holy, female virgin marriage law also as the first law era. Parents and their fellow neighbors agreed to take care of and guard their children in the same way: the protection of female virginity was upheld even as in the first law era. Further stipulations were made in case a man who had sex with a man's daughter and hated her afterward even to the extent that if he would make a false accusation (v. 14) and say that the daughter was not a virgin when he slept with her – to relieve him of the responsibility of taking the virginity of a daughter of a man of the Hebrew community.

¹³ If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, ¹⁴ And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: ¹⁵ Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel’s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: ¹⁶ And the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; ¹⁷ And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.²

However, proof of hymen bleeding was demanded and acceptable to the community (vv. 15-17). If after the elders of the community saw the bloody evidence and found that the man was untruthful and had made false statements, they made him pay a price of money and gave it to the father of the former virgin for retribution of the slander (v. 19) of a virgin (a woman honoring God and chastity) of Israel (the whole religious environment). The man who took her virginity was also ordered to receive her as a wife under the condition that he could never divorce her. (v. 19)

¹⁸ And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; ¹⁹ And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.³

Sexual Folly

However, in a case or situation wherein a man who had sex with a daughter of a man and found out that she was not was a virgin, and the girl's father could not make a credible case (having proof of vaginal blood on a garment) with the community (v. 20), the man was not responsible to be a husband to her. Actually, as a penalty of the treachery (folly) of the woman attempting to marry without proof of virginity, she would have been sentenced to death (capital punishment). The community was expected to bring the girl out to the door of her father's house and stone her to death (v. 21). Implicitly, the beauty of expensive doors and luxury houses as people live in today were not available or considered in those days under such situations. This type of execution would seem traumatic today!

²⁰ But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: ²¹ Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.⁴

So, we see that virginity was expected from dowry brides, and that there was strong penalty for unfaithful acts toward the man who attempted to escape marriage through slander and also for a woman who attempted to fake her chastity.

Second Law Era: Dowry Bride Through Rape

Actually, rape of a non-betrothed virgin was a less expensive violation than slander, but the male responsibility to marry and never divorce her was the same.

²⁸ If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; ²⁹ Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days⁵

Third And Fulfillment Of The Law Era (New Covenant Era)

We find that dowry bride law came into being through consent, seduction and even rape in the first and second law eras. These were marriages wherein virginity was rewarded and protected. The female virgin obtained through the marriage (unity of one flesh) a one-male cognizance as Eve, the wife of Adam. Jesus Christ referred to their honorable (Heb. 13:4) marital unity when he reproved the Pharisees. Chaste female marriages as these are what is expected of a female in our New Covenant era today.

Links:

ILLUSION: Biblical principles of chaste marriage explained

Non-dowry bride marriages of the first and second law eras