Marriage in the Matriarchal Period

Chief WifeSecondary wifeConcubineHandmaidSlave-wife

Abram giving counsel to Sarai (detail),by J. James Tissot (1836-1902), Jewish Museum, New York

Chief-Wife

• “Bride-price” (mohar) paid to the bride’s father. Alternative payment: service in fields or in war.

• Mohar compensates for loss of daughter’s labor.

 

•Presents also

given to the bride.

Polygyny

• A man could have as many wives as he could support, usually only one.

Marriage Contract (ketubah)

• Protection for women • Written document given to wife’s

keeping• Wife’s property rights in case of divorce or the death of the husband. • Discouraged divorce.

Dowry

• Given by the bride’s father to her. • Would remain her possession.

“Taking a Wife”

• “taking a wife” = marriage• No ceremony known• Leviticus 18 prohibits certain close

relations from marrying, e.g., brother and sister

• Girls typically married at 12-13

Concubine (pilegesh)1) Free woman taken as wife2) Any woman married without exchange

of property or contract3) Most were slave-wives freed at death

of ownerNote confusion with Latin concubina:

Hebrew pilegesh was legally married, but Latin concubina was not.

4) Children of pilegesh can be heirs if the father recognizes them.

Handmaid or Woman’s Personal Slave (amah)

 A wife had complete authority to sell or free her slave or give her as a slave wife.

Slaves•  Sources:

– Debtors -- Prisoners of War

– Foreign captives -- Dowry transfer– In a foreign war, an Israelite could take any woman as a slave-

wife, but could not sell her later.Deuteronomy 21:10-14: "When thou goest forth to war against thine

enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her [i.e. rape her or engage in consensual sex], and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife. And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her."

Slave-wife

• A wife may give her personal slave to her husband for purposes of procreation.• Children of a slave-wife could be

heirs if the chief-wife had no children and she allowed it.

Code of Hammurabion uppity slave-wives

• If a slave wife “despised” her mistress after becoming pregnant, the mistress could brand her with a slave mark and return her to the rank of slave.

• Alternative punishments:

scouring her mouth with 1 quart salt, flogging.

Adultery

• Earlier: Capital offense for both (Deuteronomy 22: 22 and Leviticus 20: 10)

• Later: Compulsory divorce (no 2nd marriage)• Possible penalties of adultery for a free

married woman: death, slavery, mutilation (nose, ears), public nakedness, shaving.

• Adultery in Egypt was considered a “great sin” punishable by death.

• Consensual relations between a man and someone else’s concubine were considered adultery.

Divorce

• Easy for a man; impossible for a woman

• Most common cause: childlessness

• Deuteronomy 24: 1 specifies “indecency” (open to interpretation by rabbis)

Bibliography

• Baker, James R. Women’s Rights in Old Testament Times. 1992. (Examines the stories of OT women in the light of twelve ancient legal documents, including the

Code of Hammurabi) • http://www.womensearlyart.net/ruth/bibimages/tissot_abrams

arai.html• Web Gallery of Art at http://gallery.euroweb.hu/

The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods (1150-1800), currently containing over 12,100 reproductions.