Novelist Margaret Atwood once asked a male friend why men feel threatened by women. He replied: “They are afraid women will laugh at them.” She then asked a group women why they felt threatened by men. They answered: “We’re afraid of being killed.” Approximately three thousand years has elapsed since the various depictions of rape in the Hebrew Bible were transcribed, perhaps the earliest recorded. The subject is still a difficult one which continues to confront notions of an ideal and just world. How else would sexual violence come to be known as a ‘culture’? Sadly, it was not until the 12th-century Codex of Gratian that a clear distinction was made between abduction and rape, with the latter defined as "forced sexual intercourse". At …show more content…
Those are words that hundreds of years later can still be used to describe the problem of rape in many cultures. The Hebrew Bible contains quite a few instances of rape, but the focus of this paper will be Tamar and Dinah. They are chosen because they are two victims which have stories that resonate with modern times, and they have often been singled out by scholars and feminists. As it will be shown, the former has sometimes defended the depictions while framing them differently, while the later has been provided ample ammunition with which to analyze and dismantle patriarchal oppression. The texts will be examined followed by theological commentary on the texts along with feminist opinions, including those within the Judeo-Christian tradition. The aim is to demonstrate that how we read the Bible’s questionable stories still matters. There have been apologetics written to sweep the matters under the carpet, just as today, when people speak of what is a “legitimate” rape. The stories such as these in the Hebrew Bible highlight the situation of women in the ancient world while showing that