[OnyxCougar]

"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives." Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NIV

28: 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;
29: 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. Deuteronomy 22:28-29 KJV

28Suppose a woman isn't engaged to be married, and a man talks her into sleeping with him. If they are caught,
29 they will be forced to get married. He must give her father fifty pieces of silver as a bride-price and can never divorce her. Deuteronomy 22:28-29 CEV

28 If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged to be married and coerces her into lying with him, and people find out about it,
29 the man must pay the girls father about one and one-fourth pounds of silver. He must also marry the girl, because he has dishonoured her, and he may never divorce her for as long as he lives. Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NCV

I understand what you're saying, but due to the vastly different versions of this passage, it is unclear to me whether it's rape or seduction. If you look in the preceding verses, it talks about if a man rapes an engaged woman, but the orginal word is a different word than the word used in the verses above. Since I can't read aramaic, hebrew or greek, I can only go by 4 or 5 different sites on the internet on this, but it is possible to see the words used in the original language, and it IS different from one verse to the other, suggesting to me, different meaning.


BTW: The laws of this chapter were Mosaic law, which, as you probably know, were overturned in many instances due to Jesus' role in salvation and redemption. Just to note: this will be my argument in probably any OT subject. Since Christians are by definition redeemed by Jesus, please limit debate to NT scripture.