The earliest Hebrew literature represents a comparatively high development of social and domestic life. Of primitive conditions of polyandry, such as existed among the early Arabs, there is no certain evidence in the Old Testament. Even of the matriarchate, or reckoning of kinship through the mother, which W. Robertson Smith holds to have been originally the universal rule of Arabia (“Kinship and Marriage,” 2d ed., pp. 145-190), there is no clear indication. Traces thereof have been supposed to remain in certain family connections, such as those of Milcah and Sarah, or in tribal groups, such as the sons of Leah and of Rachel, and also in the evidently closer and more intimate relationship between children of the same mother or with relatives on the maternal side. There is, however, probably nothing more in these than such distinctions as would necessarily arise in polygamous families and in the natural intimacy between full brothers and sisters. Polygamy, or, more correctly, polygyny, was the prevalent form of the marriage relation in Old Testament times. There seems to have been no limit to the number of wives or concubines a man might have, except his ability to maintain them and their children. As a matter of fact, however, only men of wealth, chiefs, or kings had many wives; the historian draws special attention to the large households of Gideon, David, and Solomon (Judges 8:30; 2 Samuel 5:13; 1 Kings 11:1 et Seq.). The Patriarchs had not many wives; Isaac appears to have been content with one. Cases such as those of Elkanah (1 Samuel 1:1-2) and Jehoiada (2 Chronicles 24:3), each of whom had two wives, may have been common (comp. Deuteronomy 21:15).
Not infrequently the Hebrew slave-girl became the wife or the concubine of her master. Instances are given of the wife voluntarily giving her maid to be wife to her husband (Genesis 16:3; 30:3, 9). The lot of the childless wife in such a home was evidently an unhappy one. The law of later times was designed to limit the practise and to correct the abuses of polygamy. The king is enjoined not to multiply wives, “that his heart turn not away"(Deuteronomy 17:17). A man may not “take a woman to her sister to be a rival to her” (Leviticus 18:18, R. V.). The interests of the less loved, or the hated, wife and her children are guarded (Deuteronomy 21:15-17). Even in the earliest legislation the slave-girl who is espoused by her master and the slave’s wife are protected in their rights (Exodus 21:2-11; comp. Deuteronomy 21:10 et seq.).
By the Prophets polygamy was discouraged. In the prophetic history monogamy is presented as the ideal original state (Genesis 2:18 et seq.). Plurality of wives first occurs among the degenerate Cainites (Genesis 4:23); but Noah is the husband of one wife, and so, apparently, is the patriarch Job. The idyllic pictures of 2 Kings 4, Psalms 128, Proverbs 31:10 et seq., are of monogamous homes. Hosea and Isaiah were monogamists. When the Prophets represent Jehovah’s relation to Israel by the figure of marriage, it is as a jealous husband choosing and betrothing to himself one beloved wife (Hosea 2; Isaiah 50:1, 54:5). The books of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus exalt the place and character of the wife in the undivided home (Proverbs 12:4, 18:22, 19:14, 31:10 et seq.; Ecclus. [Sirach] 25:1, 8; 26:1 et seq., 13 et seq.; comp. Ecclesiastes 9:9). Monogamy was the rule among the Jews in Roman times, but there were notable exceptions. While the New Testament does not expressly prohibit, it discredits and discourages, polygamy (e.g., Matthew 19:4-5; 1 Timothy 3:2, 12).
To continue reading this Bible article, click here.
Author: Jewish Encyclopedia
Keywords: Marriage
Source: Isidore Singer (editor), The Jewish Encyclopedia (12 Volumes), (1906).
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.