FAMILY
rA]\IILY
847
tbn man, as snpreme head of the household ; hia mother, if residing with liira after the death of his father; his wives; his concubines; the wives' children ; the concubines' children ; children of Other women, e.g. Jeplithah (Jg 11'); daughters- in - law ; sons - in - law, for example, Jacob with Lallan ; other free Isr. relatives, friends, or ucpendants ; gerim or resident foreigners, EV 'the stranger that is within thy gates' Jsee Gkr) ; male and female slaves, Isr. and foreign, home- bom and purchased. Thus the ancient Ileb. was larger than the modern family ; polygamy in- crea.'ied the number of women and children de- pendent on a single man ; married sons and their families often remained in their father's household ; the insecurity of primitive life led individual resid- ent aliens, etc., to attach themselves to households, (a) Husbamts Mother. — niori hdmuth, AV and RV mother-in-law. In Mic 7» (quoted Mt KP, Lk 12==") the htlmCth is perhaps the wife of the living head of the household ; in Ru, Naomi, herself a widow, is the /uuiu'tlh of widows. Hut the hdmuth attained Bpecial importance and dignity when, after the death of her husband, her son became the head of the family. She was then the most import- ant and influential woman in the household ; a man had many wives, only one mother ; he had been trained in deference and obedience to his mother ; his wives were his property, and absolutely subject to his authority. Tliey had often been selected by his mother, e.g. IshuKU'l's wife by Hagar (Gn 21»', cf. 2 Es 9"). In the history of the families best known to us — the royal houses of Isr. and .luilah — there are numerous indications of the exalted position of the mother of the reigning king. Sue bears the title nrSJ miitress. Her name is regularly given in the paragraph describ- ing an accession, while nothing is said about the wives. Mtiacah, Jezebel, Athaliah, and Nehushta (2 K 24'- '^- ", cf . Jer 22''") appear as exercising great influence in the rei":iis of their sons. The an.ilogy of modern Eastern life fully warrants us in taking the position of the queen-mother as representing that of the mother of the head of any ordinary family. Sometimes a widow herself appears as head of a household, e.g. Micah's mother (Jg 17'"), Naomi in Ru, the Shunammite (2 K 8'«), Tobit's grandmotlier (To 1'); cf. al.so the po.sition of the mother of our Lord during His ministry.
(b) Husband, Wives and Concubines. — The generic terms «>'i<, e^ux mnn, nj'x woman, are com- monly used for husband and wife, as in most languages. This usage recognizes the funda- mental nature of sex\ial characteristics. In spite of tlie similarity of the two words, Oxf. Ileb. Lex. speaks of ' the impossibility of deriving ei-tt and nj"* from the same root' ; consequently, all deduc- tions based on the reference of the two words to the same root are without any true foundation. The husband is Sjis master, as supreme over his wives, who are slaves acquired by capture in war (Dl 2I"'"), or by purchase (Gn 34"', Ex 22", Dt 22", Ku 4'°). It would be misleading to apply the term 'frcewoman' to any Israclitess, except perhaps to a widow. Even in the Mishiia, ' women, slaves, and children ' are constantly grouped together, e.g. Deracholh, iii. 3, and ' a woman is always under the authority of her father until she is placed under the authority of her husband,' Kelubulh, iv. 3. The wife as in subjec- tion to the ba'al is bc'uli'th (Is 54'). The rights of a husband over his wives were limited by atlection and custom, by the terms of the marriage cove- nant or contract (Gn 31"- •", To 7'*), by the influ- ence of the wife's family, also by certain specific laws. The marital supremacy involved the right of divorce at the husband's discretion. This is laid down in Ut 24', which, however, imposes
certain vague and obscure conditions, prtbably intended to discourage capricious divorce (Ben- zinger, Hcb. Arch. 346). Is 50', Jer 3' show that it was usual to give the divorced woman 123 mn-15 ' a bill of divorce,' doubtless that she might be able to resist any attempt on his part to reclaim his rights over her, a divorced woman being in a sense an emancipated slave. Dt forbids a man to divorce his wife, if he has falsely charged her with unchastity before marriage (22"- '"), or if he himself seduced her and had been compelled to many her in consequence (22^- ^). These enact- ments and the protest in Mai 2" point to a fre- quency of divorce. A wife could not divorce her husband (Benzinger, 341). Other limitations of the husband's rights were that he might not marry a sister of one of his living wives (Lv 18'") ; if a man hears his wife make a vow and does not disallow it at once, he may not do so afterwards (Nu 30"). Even if a woman has been purchased from her parents as a concubine (i?!?; ) and he does not wish to retain her, he may not sell her to strangers ; he must either let her kinsfolk buy her back, or betroth her to one of his sons. If he takes another wife or concubine, he must either main- tain the lirst in her full rights, or let her go free without payment (Ex 21'"''). Even a captive who has been taken to wife may not be sold as a slave, but if sent away must be dismissed free of pay- ment (Ut 21""'-). Similarly, in modern Arabia it is held disgraceful to sell a concubine. The rights of a wife would necessarily include those of a concubine.