Regarding Deut 21:11-14, Burgy wrote,
<< My point was twofold:
1. Did God see women in those days as property?
2. Does he see women as property today?
The verses I cited seem to convey a "yes" answer to #1.
Various NT verses seem to convey a "no" answer to #2.
I am unable to reconcile these two except by assuming it was Moses, not God,
speaking in those verses.
>>
I agree the woman is seen as property, but this is not a sufficient basis for
making your argument because she was by right of capture a slave, and a slave
is by definition property. It is not a matter of gender. Nonetheless, I
agree there is a conflict between the practice allowed but regulated in Deut
21:11-14 and the ethical standards of the NT. Further, it may appear from the
statement of Jesus concerning the easy divorce allowed but regulated in Deut
24:1-4 ("Moses for your hardness of heart suffered you to put away your
wives: but from the beginning it hath not been so." ) that Jesus was opposing
the words of Moses to those of God, thus we are to separate out the cultural
accommodation from the divine revelation as the former from the mind of man,
Moses, the latter from the mind of God. And, pragmatically that is how it
comes out basically anyway; but, I think that theologically we should be a
little more nuanced. I do not think Jesus was denying the divine inspiration
of Deut 24.
Deut 21 like Deut 24 goes back to Deut 5:31-6:1, wherein the claim is made
that all of the laws given in Deut are directly from God; and this is in
accord with 2Tim 3:16 that _every_ passage of Scripture is God-breathed, as
an oracle. So, that it is indeed God who has spoken Deut 21, but in partial
accommodation to the heart of man. It is as George mentioned some time ago, a
part of God's really entering into history, really revealing himself to real
people, who had ideas so culturally ingrained that it simply was not feasible
to try and override them wholly and instantly---as if the people were just
magnetic discs that could be erased and instantly reprogrammed with new ideas.
There is revelation in Deut 21 as I expounded earlier. The law mitigates an
evil. The captured woman is better off because of the law. But even the
accommodated part of Deut 21 is a part of God's grace as a Father and
Teacher, accepting the children where they are (primary schoolers) and making
the law a temporary "tutor" for them (Gal 3:24). Moses is just God's
mouthpiece. The law is _all_ from God---but, as you perceive, not all in
perfect accord with the perfect will of God. That had to wait until the
children graduated from primary school (Gal 3:25).
Paul.
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