* In the name of Eve, which he connects with hayy (a group based on female kinship), W. R. Smith finds a recognition of the fact that female descent had been the original system (Kin. and Mar, p. 177); while, according to Stade, the older tradition was that the twelve tribes were descended from twelve wives of Jacob (ΟΡ.
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man,’ etc., while employed by the narrator as suitable to express his own idea, was an ancient form of words, and that as first coined it sanctioned and commended deena marriage. But it is rather unlikely that the characteristic formula of one system should have been cherished by the rival system which displaced it. In general it must be granted that in prehistoric times deena marriage may well have existed; but it must also be said that no direct conclusive evidence of such marriage can be drawn from OT sources.
2. FORM AND DUTIES OF MARRIAGE ΙΝ OT T1MES.—(1) The Form of Marriage.—The iy ical, though, of course, not the exclusive form of Hebrew marriage in historical times was polygyny. It emerges as an early and firmly established insti- tution; and the interest centres in the attitude taken up towards it by the OT religion, which as Law re- gulated it, and as Prophecy began to undermine it.
The practice of polygyny is vouched for through- out the whole of the period in question. It appears as patriarchal usage: Abraham has a principal wife and two secondary wives (Gn 16° 251), Jacob has two wives of each class (29%-%° 3049), It was practised by at least some of the Judges (Jg 8* 9°), and in the cases of David and Solomon it comes in to account for their personal backslidings, and for the troubles and calamities of their reigns (2 αὶ 5, 1 Καὶ 11’), From these examples it is clear that it was customary for exalted persons to take several wives —whether from a desire for a numerous progeny, or with a view to strengthen themselves by influential connexions, or even to satisfy what were deemed the requirements of their position. Butit might still be open to question whether the practice was at all general. Great importance accordingly attaches to the mention of Elkanah (1S 1'), who was doubtless representative of alarge class. Weare also justified in supposing that the peasant and the shepherd aaunlte supplied ΠΟ ΘΙΡΗΞ with two wives, or with a wife and a coneubine. And this is confirmed by the implication of bigamy in Dt, which gives us a glimpse of the strained relations within the bigamous family (215% ; ef. Nowack, Arch. i. p. 158 f.).
The wide prevalence of polygyny and bigamy becomes a certainty when we reflect upon the position of the female slaves in the Hebrew family. These were the property of the man, in the full sense of the word; and unless his establishment was on the scale permitting of the inter-marriage of slaves, they naturally πεῖν the coneubines either of himself or of his sons. The recognized limitation of this right which is indicated, is that he could not appropriate a slave belonging to his wife except on the initiative of the latter or at least with her consent (Gn 1678), These slave- concubines were supplied from various sources— especially in sale by impoverished Israelitish parents, or as booty of war. The foreign origin of one name (δε, ef. πάλλαξ) has been supposed to point to an extensive traflic, through the medium of the Pheenicians, in this class of slaves (Nowack, i. p. 159; cf. on the name and position of the concubine, art. FAMILY).
The measures taken for the legal regulation of polygyny pursued two main objects. In the first place, there is some evidence of a purpose to con- fine the practice within narrower limits. The Deut. code, voicing the sense of the calamities it brought upon royalty and the nation, forbids kings to ‘multiply wives’ (Dt 17"). With this censure of royal licence is closely connected, as has been acutely pointed out (art. ‘Marriage’ in Smith’s DB), the contumelious treatment of the eunvch-state, which is a presupposition of the system. But the purpose to which the law ad- dresses itself with most earnestness and particu- larity is the protection of the interests of the
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several wives, and the amelioration of the con- dition of the slave-wives. The oldest code deals with the case of the Israelitish woman who has been purchased for a slave-wife, asserts her title to the three conjugal rights, and provides that if these are withheld she must be set free (Ex 217"). Inci- dentally it refers to the wife of the Hebrew slave, and humanely enacts that the two must not be com- pulsorily separated: when the time of emancipa- tion arrives, the wife in one instance follows the husband, in the other he may elect to remain with her in slavery (2155), The cause of the foreign slave captured in war is maintained by Dt. She is to be allowed a month of mourning, and her master, after living with her as his wife, is for- bidden to sell her (21°), A fourth case would be that in which there were two wives of equal standing ; and in this instance Dt interposes in the interest of the wife who may have lost her husband’s affection, and insists that her son, if the first-born, shall receive his due portion * (νν.}5 1, The same spirit inspired, and to some extent the same end was accomplished by, certain provisions restricting the right of divorce (see below). To those enact- ments little was added by the later legislation, except that the ritualistic requirements may have militated against polygyny by enforcing a rule of continence within the pale of marriage (Ly 151%).