Sex, Lies, and Virginal Rape: The Slandered Bride and False Accusation in Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 22:13-21 recounts a statement that a newly married husband makes concerning his wife.1 The scandalous nature of the statement has led some to dub this text "the case of the slandered bride."2 The gist of the statement is that the woman was not a virgin at the time of the wedding, as the man expected her to be. The main section of the text (w. 13-19) prescribes a course of action if the husband is lying and his statement turns out to be false. The two concluding verses (w. 20-21) stipulate what to do if the husband is telling the truth. The text states:3 13If a man takes a wife and sleeps with her, but then hates her 14and brings charges against her and causes an evil name to come upon her, saying, "I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find in her the signs of virginity," 15then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take the signs of her virginity and bring them to the elders of the city at the gate. 16The father of the young woman shall say to the elders, "I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, and he has hated her. 17See, he has brought charges against her, saying, 'I did not find in your daughter the signs of virginity.' But these are the signs of my daughter's virginity." And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. 18Then the elders of the city shall take the man and flog him, 19and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has caused an evil name to come upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife; he may not divorce her for the rest of his days. 20But if the charge is true-signs of virginity were not found in the young woman-21then they shall bring the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death, because she has committed a shameful act in Israel by prostituting herself in her father's house. Thus you shall purge the evil from your midst. Most analyses of this passage, for both rhetorical and source-critical reasons, maintain a distinction between the pericope's two basic parts: w. 13-19 (part A) and w. 20-21 (part B).4 The first section, part A, describes the husband's negative conclusions regarding the condition of his wife. The implication is that another man has had sexual intercourse with her, thereby depriving the groom of exclusive right to the woman's sexual and reproductive services.5 The woman's parents go before the elders of the city and present the evidence necessary to disprove the charge.6 The text then lays down a threefold penalty for the man: a flogging, a fine of one hundred shekels of silver, and a prohibition against divorcing this particular woman.7 The second section, part B, describes what should happen if the man's suspicions turn out to be true. If the woman was not a virgin at the time she was given to the man for consummation of the marriage, the text calls for her death by stoning in front of her father's house. I. The Passage about the Slandered Bride and the Law of False Accusation The punishment inflicted on the man in part A appears to differ significantly from the punishment inflicted on the woman in part B. The former seems much less severe than the latter. This presents a difficulty in light of the law in Deuteronomy that governs false accusation.8 Since the husband, as described in part A, would seem to be a false accuser, one would expect the law of false accusation to apply in this situation. This law occurs in Deut 19:16-21: 16If a malicious witness rises against another to accuse the other falsely, ''then both parties to the dispute shall appear before Yahweh and before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused the other falsely, 19then you shall do to the witness just as the witness intended to do to the other person. Thus you shall purge the evil from your midst. …