John D. Brey
Well-Known Member
The bible is no exception to this ancient practice. In Deuteronomy 22:13-21 it says:"If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and detests her, and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings a bad name on her, and says, 'I took this woman, and when I came to her I found she was not a virgin,' then the father and mother of the young woman shall take and bring out the evidence of the young woman's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. And the young woman's father shall say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter to this man as wife, and he detests her. 'Now he has charged her with shameful conduct, saying, "I found your daughter was not a virgin," and yet these are the evidences of my daughter's virginity.' And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. Then the elders of that city shall take that man and punish him; and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife; he cannot divorce her all his days. But if the thing is true, and evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father's house. So you shall put away the evil from among you"
As I hope you all understand by now, this is totally bull****.This woman's life relies on a completely inaccurate test. How many women do you suppose were stoned after their virginity was called into doubt because some completely unrelated activity tore the hymen? Or because the hymen was simply not broken during sex?
Or how many women were saved, not because they didn't commit adultery, but because their hymens healed and tore again?
Christians are quick to point out that this scripture is part of the old covenant and not enforceable by Christians today. Fewer doubt, however, that the old covenant was indeed handed down by God to the ancient Israelites. But my question to you is...why in the world would God give this instruction in the first place? I'm assuming he would have known this bit of female anatomy trivia already. So why make a completely bonkers test that could easily end with an innocent woman getting killed? The only thing that makes sense to me is this wasn't written by a divinely inspired author, but was a hold out of the cultural misconceptions that have endured in some places even to this day.
Circumcision was originally a part of the marriage ceremony. The father-in-law (xothen, same word used for "circumciser") ritually emasculated his son-in-law, the bridegroom (xathan, same word used for "circumcised") to ensure that his daughter, the bride, would remain a perpetual virgin. The firstborn would of needs be born of a virgin such that he would "open the womb" (Exodus 13:2) that would have typically beeen opened by the Gentile organ of regeneration had his father not been ritually emasculated under the chuppah.
The cloth spoken of in Deut. (which you quote) is the cloth wrapped around the bleeding organ that was cut under the chuppah by the father-in-law. It signifies the perpetual virginity of every Jewish bride. This cloth was given to the father-in-law as a gift such that he could always prove that his daughter was a Jewish bride, and thus a perpetual virgin (ritually at least) since her husband was ritually emasculated (circumcised) under the chuppah. . . Not only did the xothen perform the ritual emasculation of his son-in-law, but he retained the cloth with the blood of the circumcision as a proof that his daughter was a Jewish bride, which is to say a perpetual virgin, since he himself unmanned (ritually) his son-in-law, and retained the proof of this sacred emasculation.
The blood of a niddah is unclean and can't be given as a gift, nor can it be stored or saved as is the case with the cloth spoken of in Deut.. On the other hand, the blood of circumcision is clean. It can not only be given to the father-in-law as a gift, but it is often used to wrap Torah scrolls, or used in other sacred ways.
A person knowledgable concerning these things knows that there are three parts to the ritual circumcision performed under the chuppah. Periah, the second stage, is when the male hymen is torn by the fingernail of the mohel. It is this severing of the hymenal membrane that is the source of virginity in Judaism and not the tearing of the female membrane.
John
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