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Women are property of men, just like donkeys!
Women are property of men, just like donkeys!
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Modern Christians are woefully misinformed about the Bible in many respects. In their attempts to make it fit modern sensitivities, they have tried to twist Scripture to make it support concepts like racial equality, human rights and freedom of speech, while in reality, the Bible is opposed to those concepts. Read more about the impossibility of reconciling the Bible with humanist morality here.
Anyway, one of the modern misconceptions is that the Bible would teach gender “equality,” or the idea that women would be equal to men, and that their bodies would be their own property (of course, they only say this because of a sick urge to abort as many God-created babies as possible
).This point of view is definitely unbiblical. Women are not the owners of their own bodies, but are just part of the possessions of their husbands (or in the case of unmarried women, their fathers). I will continue to show that the Bible indeed teaches this.
First of all, women weren’t intended to be equal to men in the first place. We all know how they were meant to be just a helpmeet to man:
Genesis 2:15,18,21-22:
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
…
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
…
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
After the woman caused the Fall of Man, God decided that this empty-headed, easily deceived gender would be unmanageable if she was allowed to make her own decisions and decide for herself how to live and whom to marry. Therefore, God commanded the woman to submit to the rule of her husband:
Genesis 3:16:
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Ephesians 5:22-24:
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Colossians 3:18:
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord
The Bible then goes on to make clear that women aren’t really of the same importance as men. To God, she is just part of the property of her husband, like slaves and cattle:
Exodus 20:17:
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
Deuteronomy 5:21:
Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's.
Strangely enough, false Christians still deny that women should be seen as property of men, even though it is in the Ten Commandments, one of the few parts they do claim to follow!
Anyway, the Bible leaves no room for doubt. It is interesting in this respect to study the laws against incest in Leviticus. You should not have intercourse with your father’s wife. Why not? Because her body is not her own, but your father’s. By having intercourse with her, you are damaging his property:
Leviticus 18:8:
The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness.
That’s right; the nakedness of your father’s wife is not her own nakedness at all, over which she would be allowed to decide what to do with it. It is not her, but your father’s nakedness. It is his property.
We see God repeating this important teaching a few times; sex with a married woman is bad because you damage another man’s property (the body of a woman he owns):
Leviticus 18:16:
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife: it is thy brother's nakedness.
Leviticus 20:20-21:
And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.
And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.
Deuteronomy 27:20:
Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; because he uncovereth his father's skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Clearly, a woman’s nakedness is something that belongs to her husband alone. He can exert legal rights over it.
In the Bible, men never ask women to marry them, they just take them:
Exodus 21:10:
If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
If anyone wants to marry a specific woman, it is a matter that should be arranged by the man who desires her and the woman’s father (or her owner, if she is a slave). Nowhere does the Bible ever require a woman’s consent before marriage.
Take for example the history of the tribe of Benjamin, who lost all of their women in a war, and then had to abduct women from Shiloh, to ensure survival of their tribe. Do the Israelites ever bother to consider the opinions or preferences of the girls? Of course not.
They do, however, consider possible complaints of their fathers and brothers, as they are the parties that possess property rights over these girls, and they should be negotiated with. This clearly shows that the giving and taking of women is purely an issue among men, and women themselves should not be allowed to have a say in the matter:
Judges 21:19-23:
Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.
Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty.
And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.
There are many ways of legally obtaining another wife. You can obtain a woman, for example, by capturing her in a war:
Deuteronomy 21:11-14:
When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,
And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;
Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.
And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.
Judges 21:10-14:
And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.
And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.
And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabeshgilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.
This is one of the easiest ways, of course. Captive women won’t cost you a shekel; just take whatever woman you fancy.
It is also allowed to buy women as slaves. Hosea, a prophet of God, bought a woman for fifteen pieces of silver and one and a half homer of barley. He did this on God’s explicit instructions:
Hosea 3:1-3:
Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.
A woman can also be obtained by purchasing her from her father, who is her owner before marriage. Jakob, for example, bought two of his wives from his uncle Laban by serving him fourteen years:
Genesis 29:20-21:
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.
And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her.
In marriage, it is the daughter that is given away by one party, and taken by the other party. It is a simple transfer of property:
Deuteronomy 7:3:
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
It is not the son that is “taken” or “given away,” but the daughter. Sons are autonomous persons, who will become the owners of their own households once they marry. Daughters aren’t.
Likewise, it is up to a man to decide what to do with his daughters.
We learn that Lot attempts to buy off a vicious, sex-crazed mob by offering his daughters to them to “do unto them as was good in their eyes.” Lot was a righteous man (2 Peter 2:7-8), and surely, a righteous man wouldn’t do this if he didn’t have the right to:
Genesis 19:6-8:
And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,
And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
Lot is not the only one who gives away a woman to be raped, very likely against her will. We see another example here:
Judges 19:22-25:
Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.
And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly.
Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.
But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go.
If a woman had any kind of right to her own body, she would have been consulted first before her father or owner offered her to be raped like this. As there is no indication that anyone did, we see that the property rights a man has over a woman’s body even extends to these extremes; if a man offers his daughter to be raped, it is within his right. That’s what the Bible teaches.
Another fine example we can find in the laws against rape. If a man rapes a woman who is neither married nor betrothed to anyone, he is to be punished. How?
A liberal false Christian might start lamenting the “gross infringement on the girl’s rights, dignity and bodily integrity,” stating that the girl should be recompensed, but the Bible takes a different angle; the rapist should pay 50 shekels to the girl’s father:
Deuteronomy 22:28-29:
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.
Why is this? Why isn’t the girl recompensed in any way?
Of course, it is because not the girl, but her father is the real victim here, because he loses a good opportunity to earn some money by giving away his daughter to a man.
As she isn’t a virgin anymore, she can’t be used anymore for this purpose, and like all other property-related crimes, the offender is required to recompense the father for the damage he has caused, which is fifty shekels.
Sons are not property in the way daughters are. Sons cannot be sold as slaves, but men can only become slaves by being captured in war, selling himself or being born to a slave. A man can sell his daughter, though:
Exodus 21:7:
And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.
As a final note, we must realize that God treats women as property of their husbands as well. It was God who gave David his wives:
2 Samuel 12:7-8:
And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
And if people commit sins, God will give away their women to others, as He does with their other possessions:
Jeremiah 6:12:
And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.
Jeremiah 8:10:
Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
So clearly, God approves of this situation, where women are considered property of men. It should be business as usual among God-fearing, Bible-believing True Christians™.
I hope I have made clear what the position of women in society should be, according to the Bible. Modern standards are radically different from the standards that were prevalent back in the days of Israel, but God never changes (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 1:12, 13:8), and neither do His Laws (Psalm 119:89, Isaiah 40:8).
I sincerely hope to see the reinstallation of Biblical Law and Morality again someday in America. Praise Jesus!
Yours in Christ,
True Disciple
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