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Crimes in the Bible
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Religion, including Christianity, facilitates social order by enlisting the moral rights and
wrongs that advise the conduct of its followers. The primary Christian manuscript, the Bible,
provides such guidelines by outlining various crimes and the punishment for committing them.
Such sins include rape and genocide. This discussion analyzes the two crimes in relation to
modern criminal justice approaches in Mississippi.
Rape
Rape is a form of sexual violence involving forceful or unconsented sexual intercourse or
sexual activities against the person’s wishes. It consists of the use of force or coercion to
perpetrate unwanted sexual acts. The Bible talks about rape in various instances, including
narrations of such events and mosaic laws. Deuteronomy 22:25-29 highlights rape as a sin and
the punishments for it. For example, the bible verse highlights that if a man finds an engaged
woman in the fields and rapes her, he must die for the crime to be fully settled (Graybill, 2021).
Similarly, in Exodus 22:16-17, the Bible asserts that if a man rapes a woman who is not engaged,
he must marry her if her father agrees and pay the bride price.
This perspective differs entirely from the current laws in Mississippi about rape and
sexual violence. According to statute 97-3-65 in Mississippi, the crime is punishable by life
imprisonment and a minimum of five years in prison, and from $5000 to $10,000 in fines. This
crime should remain a crime despite the time or culture because it violates the victim's autonomy
and could have long-term implications.
Genocide
Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people from a particular ethnic
group or nation to eliminate them. The crime is highlighted in the Bible in Deuteronomy 19,
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which imposes a death penalty for premeditated murder, Lex talionis, and the establishment of
cities where victims of such crimes can seek refuge. Lex talionis is retribution in kind, meaning
“life for life, an eye for an eye” (Kessler, 2019).
The laws in Mississippi do not specify the punitive measures for genocide, although the
US Constitution explicitly highlights them. For instance, according to section 1091 of Title 18 in
the US Constitution, genocide is a crime punishable by imprisonment for not more than 20 years
or a fine or not more than $1,000,000, or a combination of both. The law highlights genocide as
violent attacks intended to destroy a religious, racial, ethnic, or national group, whether
committed during war or in times of peace. While the biblical and constitutional perspectives
differ, genocide should remain a crime because it involves mass murder and the attempted
eradication of entire diverse groups.
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References
Graybill, R. (2021). Texts after terror: rape, sexual violence, and the Hebrew Bible. Oxford
University Press.
Kessler, G. (2019). Teaching Rape, Slavery, and Genocide in Bible and Culture. Rape Culture
and Religious Studies: Critical and Pedagogical Engagements, 55-72.
