¿Implica Deuteronomio 22:25-29 que la violación de una chica antes de los esponsales no es un delito de pena de muerte?
Respuesta rápida: no. La violación es siempre un delito de pena de muerte obligatoria. Las Escrituras comparan este crimen con el asesinato, que también es un delito de pena de muerte obligatoria.
En realidad hay un par de cuestiones implícitas en esta cuestión. La primera es que ciertas traducciones de la Biblia malinterpretan una palabra hebrea en Deut. 22:28 como "violación". Este problema se discute en la Pregunta/Respuesta Does Biblical law require a girl to marry her rapist?.
Aparte de las traducciones erróneas, la razón por la que esta pregunta podría surgir es que las escrituras establecen que hay una pena de muerte por violar a una "mujer prometida", pero no especifican explícitamente una pena por violar a una mujer antes de los esponsales. Aquí está el pasaje pertinente de las escrituras:
25 But if the man finds the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die; 26 but to the lady you shall do nothing. There is in the lady no sin worthy of death; for as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter; 27 for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was no one to save her. Deuteronomy 22:25-27WEB
Biblical case laws are often written with the intent of distinguishing legally-relevant differences between cases. Sometimes, though, the cases are "entangled" in a way that defies a superficial reading. For example, if you do not understand that Deut. 22:13-21 is dealing with two separate legal cases (slander and lying about one's state of virginity), then you might (mistakenly) conclude that the girl involved is considered guilty until she proves herself innocent (See Is the premarital unchastity case of Deut. 22:13 an example of the justice system assuming guilt until a defendant proves her innocence?)
In this section of the law, the cases are intended to establish that a woman's claim that she "cried out" in a field or other unpopulated area is sufficient to protect her from accusations of adultery (which is the only reason why the word "betrothed" is there in the case). The rapist must be put to death, but the girl has done "nothing worthy of death" (v. 26).
Rape of an unbetrothed girl is, a fortiori, a mandatory death penalty offense, based upon the general equity of Deut. 22:25-26. In v. 26, rape is likened to murder, an act in which the primary (human) victim is the person who is killed. It is reasonable to believe that the primary victim in an act of rape is the woman (not a betrothed husband). The woman's state of betrothal is irrelevant to this comparison. Therefore, when scripture equates rape to murder in v. 26 (which is also a mandatory death penalty offense), the relevant similarity between the crimes shows that (a fortiori) the rape of an unbetrothed girl also mandates the death penalty (as long as there are two or more witnesses: Deut. 19:15).
