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Sex Crimes
And Biblical Law

By Glenn Davis

How does the Bible view sex crimes? What are its requirements for the offender to make restitution?  How are we to treat sexual assault? [Note: Throughout this article, I will refer to the victim as female and the attacker as male, as this is the most common sex crime case - although, in the United States, one out of every ten rape victims is male - but the same laws apply in reverse cases or in the case of homosexual sexual assault.]

We will examine the Scriptures that address this topic. For a complete understanding, one must be familiar with the Biblical concepts of case law and minimum case law. These are covered in our free course, Master Life. If you have not yet taken it, please consider doing so.

Catagories Of Sex Crimes

In order to more easily understand how minimum case law works in this situation, I have broken sex crimes into different categories or types:

Type 1 - An unmarried [not engaged either] adult who is physically overpowered and forced into a sexual act by a person of the opposite sex.

Type 2 - A married or engaged adult who is physically overpowered and forced into a sexual act by a person of the opposite sex.  Note: If this is a husband or father abusing a wife or daughter, it automatically moves into the capital offence range.

Type 3 - A person of any age or marital status who is forced into a sexual act through threats of violence or use of weapons.

Type 4 - A person of any age or marital status who is forced into a sexual act and physically or mentally beaten or tortured.

Type 5 - Any minor forced or seduced into a sexual act.

Type 6 - Sexual Assault and Murder

Note 1: Types 3-6 include gang rape, with all present being equally guilty whether they were involved in the actual sex act or not.

Note 2: Types 1-2 have sex as the motive for the assault; in Types 3-6, sex may or may not be the motive for the attack. Any sex crime where sex is not the motive automatically moves into the 3-6 range.

Note 3: Homosexual rape is always in the Type 3-6 range.

Consensual Or Not?

"If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour’s wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you. But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die: But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter: For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her." [Deut. 22:23-27]

The first question facing a true court of justice in a sex crime is: was it consensual sex, or was it a sexual abuse? If it was consensual sex, then both parties are guilty of a serious criminal offence. If it was indeed a sex crime, then the victim is totally innocent of any wrongdoing. The Bible compares it to the case of murder. One person has been violated in a very intimate way against their will by another person.

Because Biblical Law is case law, it gives us a concrete example of the law in action from which we can draw the general legal principles. It is apparent that this is a Type 2 case. In establishing whether this was consensual sex or a sex crime, we have different guidelines for "in the city" and "in the field," which will help in deciding the case.

"In the city" - if she did not cry out, then it was considered consensual sex. How is this applied? The idea is that the woman could have gotten help, but chose not to. The first assumption is that the victim's life is not in danger if she calls out [Type 2, not Types 3-6]. In other words, someone has overpowered her for sexual reasons, but is not threatening her life. A second assumption is that help is available if called for. 

"In the field" - it is assumed that there is no one around to help. In both cases, the underlying question is: Could this person have knowingly gotten help to prevent the sex crime without endangering their life? If so, why didn't they? Innocence is assumed unless guilt is proven. Being able to get help safely and not doing so goes a long way toward establishing guilt.

Side Note: Biblical law requires standing on the side of justice and giving help as required. If the woman cried out, it was the responsibility of everyone [at least the men] within the sound of her voice to come to her aid. Today, it may be as simple as calling 911 or as difficult as providing physical assistance, depending on the case. But one thing is certain: if we do nothing, before God we are guilty of condoning the sex crime.

Restitution
For Sex Crimes

In our case law, we have a betrothed or engaged woman [Type 2]. The law is a minimum case law showing the extent to which it applies; therefore, it will apply to every Type above it as well. To commit a sex crime against a married or engaged woman is a capital offence, and this also makes a Type 3-6 attack a capital offence. As you can see, the Bible views it very seriously. To sexually assault an engaged or married woman is not only to attack the woman, but to attempt to hurt or destroy the woman's entire family or future family. It is an offence against many, not just one. Notice this is for a first offence - there are to be no repeat offenders. Also, the attacker's age is irrelevant. If he is strong enough [or has a weapon] to overpower his victim, he is old enough to stand the full penalty of the law.

There is one exception to the capital offence punishment:

"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; 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 days. [Deut. 22:28-29]

"And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins." [Ex. 22:16-17]

This is a Type 1 sex crime or perhaps even a seduction. Before we look at why the penalty is different, let's look at some conditions that would move even a Type 1 rape up to a capital offence:

1. The man must be single [i.e. able to marry]; therefore, if a Type 1 rape is committed by an engaged or married man, it automatically becomes a capital offence.

2. The idea is that the man is in love with this specific woman and did not control his passions; therefore, if he is being charged with more than one sex crime, it is automatically a capital offence.

3. Because of point 2, if this is a second offence, then it automatically becomes a capital offence.

4. Again, because of point 2, if the motive of this rape was other than sexual [i.e. hatred, torture, humiliation, etc.], it automatically becomes a capital offence.

5. Keep in mind that if in any way this moves into a Type 3-6 case, it automatically becomes a capital offence.

As you can see, God requires the vast majority of sex crime cases to be potential capital cases. Let's look at the rare case in which it is not a capital offence.

The Assault Of An Unmarried Woman

Here we have a single man who sees, or perhaps has a relationship with, a lady and wants to have sex, but a) does not intend to marry her, or b) is not willing to wait until the wedding day. The lady does not consent to this sin and is either forced or seduced into a sexual act.

The punishment, although not capital, is very heavy.

1. Every man, before he married, had to pay his betrothed a dowry. This was given to her father to keep safe on her behalf. [If it was given directly to the wife-to-be, then the husband could use unfair advantage to gain control over it again.] It functioned as a kind of life insurance policy to protect her and the family in case of the death of the husband or in the case of divorce. Some have estimated that it was three years' wages for the average man. In the case of a Type 1 rape, the offender was fined the same dowry amount with no guarantee that he would be accepted as a husband. This was a heavy financial loss and would seriously delay or ruin any chances of marrying another woman [for he would have to work to earn a dowry all over again].

In an attempt to discredit the Bible, some people - who have put no study into the subject - twist these Scriptures to claim that the Bible forced a woman to marry her rapist.  While humanistic courts have unjustly forced victims and rapists together, that is the furthest thing from what the Bible teaches.  

2. What Exodus makes clear [although it is not stated in Deut. - which is why we have to compare Scripture with Scripture to get a complete picture] is that the father could refuse to allow them to marry. To understand this, we have to grasp the Biblical concept of Fatherhood. It was the father's God-given duty to act in his daughter's best interests. This means, among other things, that he would not attempt to force her to marry against her wishes [forced marriages are always in effect sexual assault]. So the first thing is that the father would not consent to this marriage unless his daughter was still in favour of it. If the daughter was still in favour of it, the father would then objectively examine the man's character to see whether this was a momentary weakness for which he was paying dearly and was genuinely repentant, or an indication of an evil character. He would then act accordingly. [This could set a principle for Type 1 rape victims being financially compensated by their attacker.]

3. If the marriage went ahead, the man [but not the woman] lost all right of divorce. No matter what his wife did in the future, he could never divorce her.

Innocent And Protected

In a true sex crime case, the victim is totally innocent of any sin or criminal act. In history and in some countries today, this is not always the case. In violation of Biblical Law, some try to blame the victim for what she wore, where she was, how she acted, or some other excuse. While the Bible requires Christian women to act and dress modestly, failure by any woman to do so does not justify rape. If it was not consensual sex, then the victim is innocent and should not be further humiliated in court [or elsewhere], but should be protected. In this area, as in many others, we have a long way to go before our societies move in the Biblical direction again.

It should also be noted that in a society that maintains God's standards of Biblical Law, serious crimes such as murder and rape would be very rare indeed. First, you would have no repeat offenders or professionals. Secondly, the "benefit" of the crime is far outweighed by the "cost" of the crime, so for most [but not all], the cost is too high to commit the crime. The righteous are then protected and the evil punished.

"When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting." [Pr. 11:10]

"It is not good to accept the person of the wicked, to overthrow the righteous in judgment." [Pr. 18:5]

One other thing I would like to mention.  The Bible states that capital punishment is mandatory in murder cases [Num. 35:31].  This has led some Bible commentators to the conclusion that when capital punishment is listed for other crimes [such as sex crimes], it is the maximum penalty, not the required penalty.  The victim would perhaps have some say in her attacker's penalty.  This would also be a protection for the victim, for if the penalty was always capital punishment, the attacker would have no motive for leaving his victim alive.  Whereas, if there were a possibility of a lesser penalty if caught with the victim participating in the sentencing, he would have a motive to restrain some of his actions.

Sexual Assult
More Information

Does The Bible Force A Woman To Marry Her Rapist? *** Did Jesus Condemn Adultery? *** What Does The Bible Say About Domestic Violence?

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