Thursday, January 9, 2025

Surah 2:282--"If One Of The Two Women Should Forget"

In the words of Numbers 35:30, "'Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death as a murderer only on the testimony of witnesses.  But no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness."  Two or three witnesses is not a maximum, but a minimum.  The phrase itself is used in a separate book of the Torah.  Later, in Deuteronomy 17:6, just after saying that a man or woman who worships pagan entities or the natural world should be stoned to death (17:2-5), it is emphasized that no one is to be executed without at least two or three witnesses, rather than a single accuser/witness.  Right before prescribing the penalty for a perjurer of whatever the falsely accused would have received under Yahweh's commands (19:16-21), what was once only mentioned in the context of capital punishment is affirmed for all criminal charges and punishments: all criminals can only be punished on the testimony of at least two or three witnesses (19:15).

The Bible does not say that these witnesses must be men or women or comment on anything related to their cultural background, economic status, marital status, race, nationality, age, and so on with any other irrelevant factors.  Ultimately, they could include the surviving victim or the perpetrator of a crime and perhaps even additional evidences that are not the hearsay of people, or else certain laws could not be consistent with this requirement [1].  The Quran allegedly is from the same deity who gave the Torah where Deuteronomy is found.  Surah 2:53 says God gave Moses revelation to distinguish moral right and wrong. Surah 3:3-4 says that the Torah and the Gospel originated from God.  Moreover, Surah 5:46 says that Jesus, the son of Mary, was sent to confirm the Torah, which is actually consistent with Matthew 5:17-20 and Luke 16:16-17.  The obligations mentioned in Mosaic Law are Yahweh's universal, unchanging moral revelation which is never annulled (Romans 7:7).  The Quran, like the New Testament, hinges on the Torah and whether it is morally valid.

At least with one particular case, defying how the book of Genesis it affirms says that men and women are metaphysical equals (Genesis 1:26-27), the Quran presents women as an inferior option for witnesses.  Speaking of a contract for debt, Surah 2:282, which is long enough of a verse to be its own paragraph, says to summon two witnesses as the debt is accurately recorded.  The default is described as two male witnesses, however, and if two men are not available, one man and two women are prescribed, with one woman, according to the text, being present to remind the other if she forgets.  Women are thus stereotyped as having lesser memories at best or at worst as perhaps being less honest than men without someone else to remind them to do otherwise.  For this particular scenario at least, the Quran prescribes one male and two female witnesses as a last resort if two men cannot be found, while the Bible simply demands at least two or three witnesses of any gender, age, nationality, or race.

This major difference between the Bible and Quran does not mean that the Bible is true just because it treats women and men as equals in their capacity to grasp reason, to remember, to testify against sinful deeds, and so forth.  After all, if the Bible said that women are morally free to kill or rape men as they please, but men sin if they defend themselves, this would be better for women in one sense than if the genders were reversed, but it would not be rational or just.  Consistency would be lacking, conflicting with two transcendent logical truths.  If something is good or evil and one's literal genitalia or (physical, of course) secondary sex characteristics do not have anything to do with it, one has no obligation one way or another based on gender, including to avoid rape or murder or to love one's neighbor.  Also, if either men or women are valuable because of their humanity, as Genesis 1:26-27 and 5:1-2 combined with 1:31 teach very explicitly, then the opposite gender must have the same rights and obligations except where actually genitalia is involved (as with male circumcision, an easy example).  Surah 2:282 contradicts both the parts of the Bible it calls divinely revealed and logical necessity.


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