A Bible verse we will never hear quoted by any politician

[happyslug]

52. That law, existed in SEVERAL CULTURES, including pre-christian ones

The Classic situation was Elanor of Aquitaine. By inheritance she ruled and owned Aquitaine in the 1100s (and at that time, the richest province in France). While still a Teenager she worried about being "Raped" so someone can claim her AND HER LANDS, for the Ancient Franks had a similar law and still applied in the 1100s.

The Catholic Church attacked that tradition (and address the issue in Deuteronomy as something reserved to Jerusalem NOT the rest of the world) and the world was moving away from such "acts" of marriage at that time (Till the Reformation most marriages in Catholic Europe were informal, i.e a couple announced to each other there were Man and Wife, they then went into the village church for the Village priest to bless the marriage).

"Rape" was also a wider term at that time period, it included consensual sex with a virgin. The reason was simple, having sex was a way a couple could show they were married. Thus"Rape" of a Virgin, could be nothing more then a couple deciding to have sex.

Let me make one more statement, this "payment" of money and agreement to "keep the woman" had to be done with some consent of her family. If no consent, you just have a feud. One part of the Hatfields and McCoys feud in West Virginia involved such a couple. i.e man and woman from each family meet and had sex, viewed as married by her family. When the man rejected that concept, her family called it rape and the feud intensified. Such feuds was the chief reason for this rule in the bible. It was a way for both families to solve the dispute that was the result of the sex.

Much of Deuteronomy is that, old rules to resolved disputes between extended families. Prior to Social Security and the "Welfare State" extended families were the main form of "safety net", thus people would protect others in their extended families. These feuds could be nasty (Hatfields and McCoys is just the most famous).

Most of these rules were "forgotten" or outright outlawed with industrialization and the movement to the Nuclear Family being more important then the Extended Family (IT is easier for Nuclear Families to move to where the jobs are, as opposed to Extended Families). Thus industrialization and urbanization were the driving force for the change through the extended family did survive as equal to the Nuclear Family till Social Security and the "Welfare State" replaced the Extended Family as people's main safety net.