Tag Archives: deuteronomy 21

Commentary

Marriage in the Bible – Part 4: Wives as Property

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In honor of my first wedding anniversary, I’m doing a week-long look at marriage in the bible. Monday was marriage in the creation story, which first depicts something akin to marriage equality, before casting women below men after Eve’s sin. Tuesday was Levirate marriage, which describes a method by which widows can be married off to their spouse’s brother. Wednesday was polygamy, the one-sided practice of marriage plurality. These all dance around an uncomfortable truth: in many cases and in many ways, wives were property.

I should make clear of course that this doesn’t mean that the women in the Torah were subservient or weak, only that they were working in a system that was unkind to them. Read on!

 

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Commentary, Found Link

Further Thoughts on Onan

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After completing my post explaining Levirate marriage and Onan from a few days ago, I stumbled on a blog post that ended with “Honesty like that is almost as rare as a really good exegesis of Genesis 38:8-10.” And then I fell out of my chair… a few minutes later when I realized that Genesis 38:8 was the Onan story. It also includes an awesome image that I may print out and hang on my wall. Check it out.

The commenters on that post pointed out one major element missing from my examination of that story: how the biblical law of inheritance may have influenced Onan. So, do you think Onan may have been in it for the money?

One side note: I’ve discovered a veritable treasure trove of bible-related blogs off of of the Biblioblog site. I must have been hiding under a rock for the last year to not know about that site.  

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Commentary

Marriage in the Bible – Part 3: Polygamy

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No discussion of biblical marriage can be complete without the major elephant in the room: polygamy. Though modern Jews and Christians hold that marriage should be like Adam and Eve, one man and one woman, early Jews thought otherwise well into the post-Christian era. Echos of this practice still exist today in Islam as well as a few very fringe Mormon groups. (Mormonism as a whole outlawed the practice around forty years after the religion’s founding.)

If you are just joining us, this week in honor of my first wedding anniversary, I’m doing a post every day about a different aspect of marriage in the Torah. Monday was marriage in the creation story. Tuesday was Levrite marriage. Today, I’m digging into polygamy.

Continue reading Marriage in the Bible – Part 3: Polygamy →