(Mishnah): If a woman says 'I was taken captive, but I am Tehorah (I was not defiled)', she is believed. The one who forbids is believed to permit;

If there are witnesses that she was taken captive and she says that she is Tehorah, she is not believed;

If after she married [a Kohen], witnesses come, she may remain married.

(Gemara - R. Chunah): This is not only if she married [a Kohen before the witnesses came], rather, even if Beis Din permitted her to marry [and witnesses came, she does not 'leave' (lose) her Heter].

[A case occurred in which] women were captured and taken there (to Bavel). The case came in front of Aba bar Ba and Levi. (The women said that they were captured, and they are Tehorim. Aba bar Ba and Levi permitted them to Kohanim, and their captors came. Aba bar Ba and Levi said that their Heter persists); they said, give to them witnesses to accompany them back to Eretz Yisrael [and guard them from seclusion]ץ

Shmuel: What will we do about the first days, during which [presumably,] they were secluded?! (What does it help to establish witnesses now?)

Aba bar Ba (Shmuel's father): If they were your daughters, would you say so?!

Shmuel's daughters were captured. [His father's words were fulfilled,] like a mistake that came out from [the mouth of] the officer.

When [Shmuel's daughters] came to here, their captors came with them. [Shmuel's daughters] came in front of R. Chaninah, and stood the captors outside. They said 'we were captured, and we are Tehoros'; he permitted them. Once they left [Beis Din], their captors came [to seize them until they will be redeemed].

R. Chaninah: It is recognized that they are daughters of a Chacham (they knew that they will be believed if Beis Din knows (that they were captured) only through them).

When it became known who they are, they told Shimon bar Ba (a Kohen) 'go marry one of your relatives!' He married the first, and she died. He married the second, and she died.

Suggestion: What was the reason? Is it because they lied (they were really defiled)?

Rejection: Heaven forbid, they did not [intend to] lie! Rather, it was due to the sin of Chananyah, the nephew of R. Yehoshua, who made a leap year in Chutz la'Aretz. (One may do so only if he is greater than all Chachamim in Eretz Yisrael. Chananyah was unaware that Chachamim of Eretz Yisrael reached his level, so his declaration of a leap year was invalid (Bavli Berachos 63a-b). Based on his leap year, Shmuel's daughters were less than three years old when the captors defiled them, so it was not considered Bi'ah; they truly believed that they are Tehoros - BIRKAS SHMUEL (of Ba'al Birkas ha'Zevach) on Acharei Mos, CHASAM SOFER Kesuvos 23a DH v'Hinei bi'Yerushalmi, citing the GRA.)

Note: CHASAM SOFER asks, must we say that Shimon bar Ba could not recognize Pesach Pasu'ach (that they were not Besulos)? I (PF) answer that indeed, if he had not married a Besulah beforehand, he should not recognize it (Bavli 10a)! Or, they died before he was able to have Bi'ah with them (Hash-m saved him from even one Bi'as Isur. If we will say that the first died during Eirusin, so he did not need to wait a month of Aveilus before marrying her sister, it is easier to say that Bnei Chutz la'Aretz observed Pesach in the proper time - the girls were defiled in Adar, and they were redeemed and both married within six weeks, and then word spread that it is not a leap year.) Alternatively, surely if a girl less than three had Bi'ah, it takes time until her Besulim grow back. Perhaps he married them shortly after they were redeemed, and he assumed that the Besulim did not yet grow back!