Behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, ‘I didn’t find in your daughter the tokens of virginity;’ and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity.” They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
World English Bible
Deuteronomy 22:17
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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WEB World English Bible Public Domain ✓ - Modern English
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- F35 Family 35 New Testament Wilbur Pickering's Byzantine-priority New Testament, with text-critical commentary notes · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
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To kill or not to kill
Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17 command 'thou shalt not kill,' and Jesus reaffirms it in Mark 10:19 and Luke 18:20. The same Torah then mandates capital punishment for witches, adulterers, gay men, non-virgin brides, blasphemers, sabbath breakers, and disobedient children.
Critical scholarship: Genuinely disputed among scholars.
Law & ethics
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
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Does the Bible approve of capital punishment?
The Pentateuchal legal codes prescribe death by stoning, burning, or general execution for an enormous range of offenses: murder (Gen 9:6; Num 35:30), striking or cursing a parent (Exod 21:15, 17), witchcraft (Exod 22:18), bestiality (Exod 22:19), idolatry (Exod 22:20), Sabbath-breaking (Exod 31:14-15; 35:2), adultery (Lev 20:10), incest (Lev 20:11-14), male homosexuality (Lev 20:13), blasphemy (Lev 24:16), kidnapping (Exod 21:16), loss of virginity before marriage (Deut 22:13-21), and rape victims who didn't cry out loudly enough (Deut 22:23-24). Genesis 4:15 has God explicitly *prevent* the execution of Cain — the first murderer — by placing a protective mark on him.
Critical scholarship: Usually considered reconciled.
Law & ethics
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Other verses examined for the same kind of question or claim
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
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This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Deuteronomy 22:17 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/deuteronomy/22/17?version=WEB (retrieved 27 August 2026).