Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard1965
You're correct, I looked and did not find that...I wonder why that act was not covered...Well, I guess it was, seeing that the man and the unbetrothed virgin must marry and he has to pay her father a dowry...But what if neither of them are virgins...Or maybe both are widow and widower?...
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Its hard to say since there is no Torah law about these situations, but we do know that Polygamy and concubinage were allowed at the time and certain OT heros like Judah and arguably Samson were never directly condemned for their activity with a prostitute. It might be a good idea to check the "Hammerabi Code" that the Israelites would have followed before they left Egypt (some scholars suggest God gave the Hebrews the Torah as amendments to that code). I'll have to take a look at hat again sometime. The reason a father could get alot of money from the dowry is because he Groom was in a sense paying for a pure lineage. It should also be noted that the father had the right to refuse to allow the marriage, but the dowry still had to be paid or it would probably be viewed as theft. Sadly, that was the biggest role of women at the time because in that society since Women could not inherit property almost any situation (I think the could if the father had no son, but I forget ;p ).
While are no actual rules in the Torah about non-virgins or widowed on this topic, but most women who did not have a man and were not under someones authority were likely assumed to be prostitutes because here were few other ways for them to make a living. Prostitution is certainly looked down upon in the Old Testament, but was never directly called a sin or demanded a blood sacrifice of any kind and its probably because of the reason I stated in the last sentence.
Indeed, in the Torah law, it was a sin for parent force daughters into prostitution (lev 19), it was a sin for a priests daughter to be a prostitute of any kind (Lev 21), and there were not to be any "kedeshah" (which means "cultic or holy" prostitutes and usually associated wih Canaanite worship) among the people of Israel. Logically speaking, if just "being" a normal "zanah" non-cultic harlot was a sin, King Solomon what have cut the two harlots in half rather than threaten to cut the real mothers baby in half and Hosea wouldn't have had an Israelite prostitute to marry ;p The New Testament is seems uses the word porneia (prostitution/ sexual immorality) in a very negative and often sinful sense, though not entirely clear if the prostitutes being referred to were all cultic or regular or both and since at least once in
1 Corinthians 10:8 in discussing porneia, Paul references to Numbers 25:1-9 where there was cultic prostitution going on.
Hope that helps give you an idea of how the rules might have applied, though obviously its not certain. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go scrub my brain from all this prostitute talk 
lol
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