Hm, still an Atheist, but I'll voice my thoughts some.
Well, for one, didn't Jesus not follow some or other laws exactly,
"Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
Mark 2:27
Don't Christians believe Jesus fulfilled the New Testament or place the New Testament above the Old Testament or something?
Hence why Christians don't follow all Old Testament laws or something. Like when Christians eat pigs.
Becomes a bit guidelines.
Besides what 'is the Bible?
Maybe a bunch of history, laws in different places and times of history and geography, poetry, wisdom, stories of the folly of man sometimes.
. . .
She doesn't 'have to marry him.
"If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins."
Exodus 22:17
Women didn't have the rights they have today,
People didn't have the food, safety, infrastructure, medicine, so on, that we have today.
Harder for a non-virgin to get married,
Hard for a woman to be a spinster maybe.
Hard for the family if she get's pregnant maybe, even bigger burden.
Even if the girl is lame, blind, or afflicted with leprosy, he is forced to marry her and he may never take the initiative in divorcing her, as [the above verse continues]: "He may not send her away as long as he lives."
"But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die."
Deuteronomy 22:25
I don't speak or read Hebrew
"The word יְפַתֶּ֣ה used in Exodus 22:16 means entices or persuades.
You'll also notice the language used in 22:25 for rape ( וְהֶחֱזִֽיק) differs from the term used in 22:28 ( וּתְפָשָׂ֖הּ). The language in 22:25 must denote force, while the language in 22:28 is softer. I don't disagree that the word וּתְפָשָׂ֖הּ may connotate an element of force, but it is not assumed."
. . .
"Such laws were common around the world until the 1970s."
"Traditionally, the marriage of the perpetrator and the victim after the rape was often seen as an appropriate "resolution" of the situation. Among ancient cultures virginity was highly prized, and a woman who had been raped had little chance of marrying. These laws forced the rapist to provide for their victim."
"Scholars such as Susanne Scholz (2021) have pointed out that the meanings of words in the Hebrew Bible always depend on their context, and Bible translators or commentators often misinterpret terms, miss important nuances, or use euphemisms for sexual violence. Even in modern English, the verb 'to rape' does not necessarily always refer to sexual violence, but could be used metaphorically to describe being subjected to a deeply unpleasant yet non-sexual experience.[11] Similarly, a Hebrew verb such as עָנָה anah usually means 'to rape, to force/violate sexually', but in some non-sexual contexts is best translated as 'to oppress', 'to weaken', and so on. On the other hand, normally non-sexual words may sometimes describe something sexual; a verb such as עָשַׁק 'āšaq usually means 'to crush, to destroy, to oppress', but in one particular Bible verse (Isaiah 23:12) may actually mean 'to rape' in connection with the term 'virgin daughter', as the latter has a special sexual meaning.[12] Biblical Hebrew is also full of euphemisms and sexual slang that may be difficult for modern readers to understand. 'To lie with', 'to know', 'to come to', and 'to uncover the nakedness of' are such examples which, in particular contexts, mean 'to have sex'. Such phrases do not necessarily imply that this sex is forced by one person upon another, and could actually describe consensual sex, but especially if the context of the narrative adds forms of coercion (such as violence and intimidation) upon someone, or claims that this serves as a 'punishment', then 'to rape' becomes a plausible translation."
. . .
"Franca Viola (born 9 January 1948) is a Sicilian woman who became famous in the 1960s in Italy for refusing a "rehabilitating marriage" (Italian: matrimonio riparatore) to her rapist after being kidnapped, held hostage for over one week, and raped frequently. She is considered to be the first Italian woman who had been raped to publicly refuse marriage. She and her family successfully prosecuted the rapist. The trial had a wide resonance in Italy, as Viola's behavior clashed with traditional social conventions in Southern Italy, whereby a woman would lose her honour if she refused to marry the man to whom she had lost her virginity. Franca Viola became a symbol of the cultural progress and emancipation of women in post-war Italy.[1][2][3]"
. . .
"This also comes from a time where rape could also be defined where the woman can consent but her father does not, keep that in mind as well (Heck, rape can even mean him not being a Hebrew makes the act against the statute). Our laws still have a concept like this: statutory rape.
If we abstract a little from the concrete and cultural details and look at the more general precept around it, this law is analogous to our own laws, where the 30 skekls is analogous to how rapists can be obligated to give financial restitution to their victims, and the requirement to marry the victim and can never divorce her can be seen as similar to our own laws that can require a rapist to pay child support if a child results from the rape, that is, that the crime forces its perpetrator into a perpetual obligation to their victim. When interpreted like this, such a law should not seem very strange and disgusting to us."
