An old law in the Bible said that if a new bride couldn't show blood on the sheets after her wedding night, people should kill her by throwing stones. But doctors know that many women don't bleed the first time at all. That means the test would punish innocent women. Today the World Health Organization says "virginity tests" have no scientific basis.
Deuteronomy 22:13–21 makes a bloodstained wedding cloth the proof of a bride's virginity, and orders a woman without it to be stoned to death. Medicine shows bleeding at first intercourse is common but far from universal: in one cross-cultural study, only slightly more than half of women reported bleeding.3 The WHO and UN agencies say virginity testing has "no scientific or clinical basis."1
"God's law is perfect and gives us our morality."
What the law says
If a husband claims his new wife wasn't a virgin, her parents bring out "the tokens of the damsel's virginity" (Hebrew betulim) and spread "the cloth" before the city elders (Deuteronomy 22:15–17). If the husband lied, he's fined 100 shekels of silver, paid to her father, and may never divorce her (Deuteronomy 22:19). But:
Tap the reference to see the Hebrew and the translation notes.
What medicine says
- The hymen is a small tissue with no known biological function. Examining it is not an accurate or reliable way to tell whether someone has had sex.2
- The WHO, UN Human Rights and UN Women jointly stated in 2018 that "virginity testing" has no scientific or clinical basis, and that the appearance of a girl's or woman's hymen cannot prove whether she has had intercourse.1
- Bleeding at first intercourse does not always happen. In one cross-cultural study, slightly more than half of women reported bleeding.3 An informal 1998 survey reported in the BMJ found that at least 63% of the women asked reported no bleeding.4 Numbers vary by study, but every study agrees: many virgins don't bleed.
Try it: apply the law to 100 innocent brides
This is the core problem: the law doesn't just reflect old customs; it attaches a death sentence to a physical "test" that fails often. A perfectly wise lawgiver would have known this.
Other laws and teachings about women
| Passage | What it says |
|---|---|
| Deuteronomy 22:28–29 | A man who seizes an unbetrothed virgin and lies with her pays her father 50 shekels, must marry her, and can never divorce her. |
| Exodus 21:7 | A man may sell his daughter as a servant, and she does not go free as male servants do. |
| Numbers 31:17–18 | After a battle: kill the boys and the women who have slept with a man, but keep the virgin girls "for yourselves." |
| Deuteronomy 21:10–14 | Rules for taking a woman captured in war as a wife. |
| 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 | "Let your women keep silence in the churches." |
| 1 Timothy 2:11–12 | "I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man." (Many scholars think 1 Timothy was written after Paul's death, perhaps 80–120 CE.5) |
Believers offer several responses. (1) Context: these were laws for an ancient society, and some argue they protected women compared with neighboring cultures; for example, the husband who falsely accused his wife was fined and lost the right to divorce her. (2) Progressive revelation: God met people where they were and moved them forward over time. (3) Jesus treated women with unusual respect, and Paul wrote "there is neither male nor female… in Christ" (Galatians 3:28). (4) Christians generally say these Old Testament civil laws no longer apply.
The atheist reply: notice that we judge these laws using a moral sense we already have. If we can see that stoning a bride over a stained sheet is wrong, our morality isn't coming from this text. See Where atheists get morals and the Euthyphro dilemma.
Many virgins do not bleed at first intercourse; hymen appearance can't prove sexual history.
The laws of Deuteronomy were given by a perfectly good and all-knowing God.
Sources
- World Health Organization, Interagency statement calls for the elimination of "virginity-testing" (17 October 2018); also UN News, "'Virginity testing': a human rights violation, with no scientific basis".
- Mishori R, Ferdowsian H, Naimer K, Volpellier M, McHale T. "The little tissue that couldn't – dispelling myths about the Hymen's role in determining sexual history and assault". Reproductive Health 16 (2019). DOI 10.1186/s12978-019-0731-8.
- Wikipedia, Hymen: "In one cross-cultural study, slightly more than half of all women self-reported bleeding during first intercourse" (citing Loeber 2008); also Rogers & Stark, "The hymen is not necessarily torn after sexual intercourse," BMJ (1998).
- Rewire News Group, Myths & Realities of Bleeding with First Intercourse: describes a 1998 informal survey by Dr. Sara Paterson-Brown in the BMJ (at least 63% reported no bleeding; sample size not stated). Treated here as a lower-quality data point.
- Bart Ehrman, When Was the New Testament Written?: the Pastoral Epistles (1–2 Timothy, Titus) dated 80–120 CE and widely considered not written by Paul.