Modern Perspective On Biblical Sex Crimes

"Yet they watched diligently from day to day to see her." Essay by Alford D. Wayman http://blog.360.yahoo.com/wayman29 The text of Susanna in the Apocrypha has some interesting events occur that warrants more attention then most scholars give it. It is not the only one of many stories that portrays the intelligence and righteousness of the hero and prophet Daniel out smarting those in power. It also portrays how sexual crimes may have been carried out at that time. One topic of interest is the sexual characteristics of the two judges who try to conspire to trap Susanna into committing fornication with them by threatening her with the death penalty, and the criminal acts they use to carry out the crime. If it were not for the quick thinking of Daniel, who acts on Susanna’s behalf as her defense attorney, things may have turned out differently. Below is an attempt to understand these judges. An attempt is made at giving a modern day view on the sexual mind set of the judges in the text. In that year two elders from the people were appointed as judges. Concerning them the Lord had said: "Iniquity came forth from Babylon, from elders who were judges, who were supposed to govern the people." These men were frequently at Joakim's house, and all who had suits at law came to them. When the people departed at noon, Susanna would go into her husband's garden to walk. The two elders used to see her every day, going in and walking about, and they began to desire her. And they perverted their minds and turned away their eyes from looking to Heaven or remembering righteous judgments. Both were overwhelmed with passion for her, but they did not tell each other of their distress, for they were ashamed to disclose their lustful desire to possess her. And they watched eagerly, day after day, to see her. Dan 13:513 RSVA It is interesting on how much the judges dwelt on the beauty of Susanna and how much they watched her. The formation of these fantasies was not possibly the first step in the process of becoming criminals. It is speculated by the author of this essay that the men have committed these sorts of crimes in the past. They were at the point of acting out a crime and they had the paraphilias of stalking, voyeurism and possibly fetishism. If they had cameras they may have snapped images of her and developed them in order to use fantasy to act out their psychosexual desire through masturbation. If telephones existed in that day possibly obscene phone calls and threats would have been made to Susanna. We learn from the text that the role of fantasy was strong so strong that both were overwhelmed with passion for her. The plot thickens when they decide in their minds that they would like to act out their fantasy. They both come to the same conclusion on how best to do this. They said to each other, "Let us go home, for it is mealtime." And when they went out, they parted from each other. But turning back, they met again; and when each pressed the other for the reason, they confessed their lust. And then together they arranged for a time when they could find her alone. Dan 13:1314 RSVA Perhaps they were surprised on finding themselves back at the same spot at the same time with the same motives and intentions. Possibly the text here hints at that fact, and serves more then just a good story telling theme. In todays society those with sexual deviant behavior can have direct communication with each other over the internet. They use this as a means to justify, educate, and trade erotica, victim information and techniques to each other. If one were to obtain a search warrant for the houses of these judges possibly we would find what law enforcement call collateral materials or materials that do not connect the offended to the crime but give investigators a view into the offenders sexual preferences and my be used at direct or circumstantial evidence. Some of this collateral evidence would include erotica, educational, and introspective material. This means if we were able to see sketches, notes on how to best commit the crime or read the diaries of these judges, Im sure it would prove most interesting. So, as the text tells above, the two judges met and admitted their sexual fantasies to each other and compared notes on how to best carry out the crime. Once, while they were watching for an opportune day, she went in as before with only two maids, and wished to bathe in the garden, for it was very hot. And no one was there except the two elders, who had hid themselves and were watching her. She said to her maids, "Bring me oil and ointments, and shut the garden

doors so that I may bathe. "They did as she said, shut the garden doors, and went out by the side doors to bring what they had been commanded; and they did not see the elders, because they were hidden. When the maids had gone out, the two elders rose and ran to her, and said: "Look, the garden doors are shut, no one sees us, and we are in love with you; so give your consent, and lie with us. If you refuse, we will testify against you that a young man was with you, and this was why you sent your maids away." Susanna sighed deeply, and said, "I am hemmed in on every side. For if I do this thing, it is death for me; and if I do not, I shall not escape your hands. I choose not to do it and to fall into your hands, rather than to sin in the sight of the Lord." Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and the two elders shouted against her. Dan 13:15-24 RSVA Above we have a very organized and well planned crime being played out according to script. This tells us that the judges may have done this type of crime successfully in the past their crime went unpunished. Also the amount of time they put into stalking Susanna shows just how far they were willing to go to act out their fantasy. As stated above they were in the garden peeping, stalking, and waiting for the perfect moment and opportunity to easily commit their crime. From the text we can gleam that they knew how to enter the garden undetected. Also, they knew how many maids accompanied Susanna for as the text tells us she went in as before with only two maids. In Daniel 13:36-40 we have the account of the crime in an altered version given by the offenders. When the Judges were alone with Susanna they ran to her and told her their intentions and threatened her. After weighing the cost Susanna yelled and so did the men. As planned they accused her of sexual infidelity and had her tried in court in front of the elders. They came up with the most interesting story of a young man who was hidden in the garden and then came out after Susannas maids left and laid with her and the judges who were just scrolling about in the garden, religiously ran to them, catching them in an embrace, tried to confine the man but being strong he was able to escape. And as the text says in Daniel 13:41 The assembly believed them, because they were elders of the people and judges; and they condemned her to death. Next we have Susannas mournful cry to the Lord for her deliverance; "O eternal God, who dost discern what is secret, who art aware of all things before they come to be, thou knowest that these men have borne false witness against me. And now I am to die! Yet I have done none of the things that they have wickedly invented against me!" Dan 13:42-43 RSVA In the following verses 49-62 the Lord in all his wisdom calls the lad Daniel, whom God divinely appointed as Susannas defense attorney. And with some smart and cunning investigative techniques proves Susannas innocents by proving the Judges were lying and falsely accusing her. Daniel quickly reconvenes the court and chastises the court for not interrogating and looking at the evidence properly. He then splits the Judges and lo and behold they can not even tell under what tree Susanna and her lover were having intercourse. It apparently was known that the Judges had past offences , for in Daniel 13:57 we read; This is how you both have been dealing with the daughters of Israel, and they were intimate with you through fear; but a daughter of Judah would not endure your wickedness. So Daniel was able to bring about a conviction on the grounds of false witness and the Judges were sentenced to death. If considered as a sex crime instead of a hero story of Daniel we are brought to the sobering fact that these issues were just as prevalent in the days of the biblical texts as they are today. However, today there are better ways of communication between criminals and those with similar interests which in the long run makes it seem more challenging to keep under control by law enforcement. However, just as it was in the days of the biblical writers, such accounts are still written in history today. Hazelwood, R. & K. Lanning. (1995). "Collateral Materials in Sexual Crimes," in R. Hazelwood & A. Burgess (Eds.) Practical Aspects of Rape Investigation. Boca Raton: CRC Press. pp. 183-189. Hazelwood, R. & J. Warren. (1995). "The Relevance of Fantasy in Serial Sexual Crime Investigations," in Practical Aspects of Rape Investigation. Boca Raton: CRC Press. pp. 127-137. All biblical texts were quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Apocrypha.

The Rape of Tamar; A Modern Perspective of a Biblical Sex Crime. Essay by Alford D. Wayman http://blog.360.yahoo.com/wayman29 Some time passed. David's son Absalom had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar; and David's son Amnon fell in love with her. Amnon was so tormented that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her. But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of David's brother Shimeah; and Jonadab was a very crafty man. He said to him, "O son of the king, why are you so haggard morning after morning? Will you not tell me?" Amnon said to him, "I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister." Jonadab said to him, "Lie down on your bed, and pretend to be ill; and when your father comes to see you, say to him, "Let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat, and prepare the food in my sight, so that I may see it and eat it from her hand.' " So Amnon lay down, and pretended to be ill; and when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, "Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand." Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, "Go to your brother Amnon's house, and prepare food for him." So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house, where he was lying down. She took dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, and baked the cakes. Then she took the pan and set them out before him, but he refused to eat. Amnon said, "Send out everyone from me." So everyone went out from him. Then Amnon said to Tamar, "Bring the food into the chamber, so that I may eat from your hand." So Tamar took the cakes she had made, and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother. But when she brought them near him to eat, he took hold of her, and said to her, "Come, lie with me, my sister." She answered him, "No, my brother, do not force me; for such a thing is not done in Israel; do not do anything so vile! As for me, where could I carry my shame? And as for you, you would be as one of the scoundrels in Israel. Now therefore, I beg you, speak to the king; for he will not withhold me from you." But he would not listen to her; and being stronger than she, he forced her and lay with her. Then Amnon was seized with a very great loathing for her; indeed, his loathing was even greater than the lust he had felt for her. Amnon said to her, "Get out!" But she said to him, "No, my brother; for this wrong in sending me away is greater than the other that you did to me." But he would not listen to her. He called the young man who served him and said, "Put this woman out of my presence, and bolt the door after her." (Now she was wearing a long robe with sleeves; for this is how the virgin daughters of the king were clothed in earlier times.)So his servant put her out, and bolted the door after her. But Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore the long robe that she was wearing; she put her hand on her head, and went away, crying aloud as she went. Her brother Absalom said to her, "Has Amnon your brother been with you? Be quiet for now, my sister; he is your brother; do not take this to heart." So Tamar remained, a desolate woman, in her brother Absalom's house. When King David heard of all these things, he became very angry, but he would not punish his son Amnon, because he loved him, for he was his firstborn. But Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad; for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had raped his sister Tamar. (2 Samuel 13:1-22 NRSV) The rape of Tamar in Second Samuel is interesting in that most commentaries or biblical scholars do not fully understand the scope of the issue of this violent sex crime. It could stem from the fact that most biblical scholars do not have in-depth knowledge of sex crimes or of criminal psychology to fully analyze biblical crimes. Within this article certain aspects of the Rape of Tamar will be discussed. The first issue discussed will be the role of fantasy and to what extent it played in the crime. Secondly, we will discuss the type of violence acted out from a modern-day perspective. And finally, we will discuss the response or aftermath of the crime. The first part of the text shows the role fantasy played in the mind of Amnon. We read that he was greatly aroused by his sister.

Some time passed. David's son Absalom had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar; and David's son Amnon fell in love with her. Amnon was so tormented that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her. (2 Samuel 13:1-2 NRSV)

Amnon was so infatuated by his sister that he became ill. On top of that, the fact that incest was taboo and that there was no way he could have intercourse with her enraged him all the more. The more unattainable she was the more he wanted her. Now, Amnon was not smart enough to compose the way he would pull the crime off so he asked a friend for assistance. From this act of violence it may be possible that Amnon had issues involving sex crimes in the past that were not recorded, possibly small offences that built up to the larger crime. Another possibility was that the crime was dwelt upon in his mind and the fantasy was so perfected that he was able to pull it off without much trouble. This last statement could possibly be ruled out simply because he needed help from a friend to perfect the fantasy and the crime. We can tell a lot about Amnon from this crime. As we read the above text, we can surmise that he was not all that intelligent. The crime itself was well organized but he did not care about getting caught. If he displayed narcissistic behavior he would have thought through the end results and would have married Tamar to avoid death or punishment. He would have thought himself above the law and it would not have seemed “impossible to Amnon to do anything to her.” There are three aspects to the human sex drive: the biological, physiological and the psychosexual. The biological is the instinctual part of the human sex drive, what every common person seeks out as human. The physiological aspect is activated when the body responds to sexual stimuli. This can be hampered by sexual dysfunctions. The psychosexual, what we are interested in at the moment, is the individualistic aspect of the sexual experience. Since all human beings use their senses to enhance their sexual pleasure, studying the ways an offender manipulates these senses in the commission of a crime tells us a lot about the offender. This may later be of use to linking other crimes by using such information. Amnon thought the idea of Tamar as caregiver made her most vulnerable and would draw the least amount of suspicion. Also the idea may have excited him sexually, for in his mind she would appear as his wife or consenting partner. It is hard to tell if Amnon possessed any paraphilias without reading too much into the text. It is not known if he was sexually aroused by non-human objects, suffered humiliation to himself or his partner, or preferred children or non-consenting partners. The only clue the text gives us is that she was a virgin. This alone may have been sexually exciting to Amnon and that may be the reason he became angry with her after the rape. We do not know his past but can only speculate. Possibly he had committed other sex crimes that were not recorded because they were with concubines. This event may have been recorded simply because it was taboo. It may also be assumed that he maintained the fantasy through masturbatory means which motivated the criminal behavior as soon as he had the opportunity to act out the crime successfully. The violence acted out on Tamar could possibly be labeled as a Power Reassurance Rape with some aspects of the Sadistic type; however it is often difficult to place these crimes into neat categories. As Roy Hazelwood, a former F.B.I. violent sex crime expert puts it, “There are no absolutes.” In the Crime Classification Manual, the Power Reassurance Rape can be described as a highly sexualized and fantasydriven crime that is planned or premeditated. Although for this type of rape the victim is usually unknown, expressive aggression is not shown by the offender, and there is little physical injury to the victim. That leads us to the sadistic elements of the rape mentioned above, although Amnon used no more force than necessary against the victim. We are, in fact, told in the text 2 Samuel 13:15; Then Amnon was seized with a very great loathing for her; indeed, his loathing was even greater than the lust he had felt for her. Amnon said to her, "Get out!" The word “loathing” in the above rendition of the text does not accurately describe the way Amnon felt after committing the crime against his sister. According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, the Hebrew word is a primitive root; to hate (personally): - enemy, foe, (be) hate (-ful, -r), odious, X utterly. In this case, the King James Version renders the Hebrew text more accurately according to the type of crime we are dealing with, for it reads: Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone.

What first started as an intensely compulsive, fantasy driven lust, turned to anger. This would possibly put him is the sadistic category. He may have been angered by his own sexual dysfunction, or possibly it angered him that the sexual act with Tamar did not match the fantasy he rehearsed in his mind. Amnon was smart enough, however, to act out the “play” of the crime as it was advised to him by his friend Jonadab. His ability to coordinate multiple people and bring about the scripted events as he had imagined all the way up to the crime itself does show intelligence to a certain degree, for we see in 2 Samuel 13:6-10; So Amnon lay down, and pretended to be ill; and when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, "Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand." (7) Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, "Go to your brother Amnon's house, and prepare food for him." (8) So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house, where he was lying down. She took dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, and baked the cakes. (9) Then she took the pan and set them [63] out before him, but he refused to eat. Amnon said, "Send out everyone from me." So everyone went out from him. (10) Then Amnon said to Tamar, "Bring the food into the chamber, so that I may eat from your hand." So Tamar took the cakes she had made, and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother. It appears the only issue Amnon had with the experience was his own sexual issues or the fact that Tamar failed to fight him off and complied with seemingly little protest. This alone would have caused Amnon issues for possibly, if he was sadistic as supposed in the above comments, he would only have experienced sexual arousal if she had fought him physically. The response from Tamar was one of mourning, for her protests in 2 Samuel 13:12-14 went unheeded: She answered him, "No, my brother, do not force me; for such a thing is not done in Israel; do not do anything so vile! As for me, where could I carry my shame? And as for you, you would be as one of the scoundrels in Israel. Now therefore, I beg you, speak to the king; for he will not withhold me from you." But he would not listen to her; and being stronger than she, he forced her and lay with her.

According to Deuteronomy 27:22, it was taboo to have intercourse with a sister, for it reads; "Cursed be anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother." All the people shall say, "Amen!"

However, this law may have been seen differently at the time of David, for Tamar suggested that Amnon ask the King for her hand in marriage rather than both of them be disgraced. As shown above, he ignores the advice, rapes her, becomes angry, and hates her more than he had loved her. He then disgraces her more by sending her away and later she is told to forget about the offense committed against her. Finally, the text tells us in 2 Samuel 13:20-21; So Tamar remained, a desolate woman, in her brother Absalom's house. When King David heard of all these things, he became very angry, but he would not punish his son Amnon, because he loved him, for he was his firstborn. But Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad; for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had raped his sister Tamar. We can see how complex this crime was. Justice was seemingly dealt out when Amnon is killed by his older brother out of revenge. King David could not bring himself to deal out justice, for Amnon was his first born. Amnon’s post-offence behavior showed no indication that he was sorry for committing the crime or that he felt guilt in any way. Nor did he threaten Tamar. Tamar suffered greatly for at that time period no one would merry a rape victim so she had to live alone in her brothers house. This analyst shows that the fantasy driven crimes were around as long as man has been and the crimes back then were just as intense and crimes today.

Douglas, John, E. , Burgess Ann W. , Burgess Allen G. and Ressler, Robert K. (1992) Crime Classification Manual. Lexington Books. New York, NY.

Hazelwood, R. & J. Warren. (1995). "The Relevance of Fantasy in Serial Sexual Crime Investigations" pp. 127-37 in Practical Aspects of Rape Investigation. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.. McCarter, Kyle P. JR. The Anchor Bible. II Samuel (1984). Doubleday & Company. Garden City, NY. Michaud Stephen G. and Hazelwood Roy R. The Evil That Men Do. (1998). St. Martin’s Press. New York, NY.