3. As nothing is said in the post-exilian portions of the Bible to discourage polj'gamj^, this ancient practice also continued among the Jews during this period. During the second Temple, we find that Herod the Great had nine wives (Josephus, Ant. xvii, 1, 3); his two sons, Archelaus the Ethnarch, and Antipas the Te- trarch of Galilee, had each two wives (Josephus, A nt. xvii, 13, 2; xviii, 5, 1) ; and John the Baptist and other Jews, who censured the one for violating the Mosaic law by the marriage of his deceased brother's wife who had children (Josephus, Ant. xviii, 13, 2), and the other for marrying Herodias, the wife of his half-brother Herod-PhUip (Matt, xiv, 3, 4; Mark vi, 17, 18; Luke iii, 19), raised no cry against their practicing polygamy ; j because, as Josephus tells us, " the Jews of those days I adhered to their ancient practice to have many wives " at the same time" (Josephus, A7it. xvii, 1, 2). In har- mony with this ancestral custom, the post-exilian legis- lation enacted various statutes to regulate polygamy and protect the rights and settlement of each wife (Mishna, Jehamoth, iv, 11; Kethuhoth, x, 1-6: Kiddu- shin, ii, 7). As a striking illustration of the prevalence and legality of polygamy during this period may be mentioned the following circumstance which is recorded in the Talmud : Twelve widows appealed to their broth- er-in-law to perform the duty of Levir, which he refused to do, iDccause he saw no prospect how to maintain such an additional number of wives and possibly a large in- crease of children. The case was then brought before Jehiulah the Holy, who promised that if the man would do the duty enjoined on him by the INIosaic law, he himself woiild maintain the family and their children, in case there should be any, every sabbatical year, when no produce was to be got from the land which was at rest. The offer was accepted l)y the Ltrir, and he ac- cordingly married his t^velve sisters-in-law ; and after three years these twelve wives appeared with thirty-six children before Jehudah the Holy to claim the promised alimony, as it was then the sabbatical year, and they actually obtained it (Jerusalem Jehamoth, iv, 12). Kab- ba ben-Joseph, founder and president of the college at Machuza (A.D. 338-352), taught that a man may take as many wives as he pleases, provided only that he can mamtaiii them all (Jebamot/i, 65 a). From the
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remark in the Mishna, that a Levir may marry his deceased brother's yb;«/' widows (Jehamoth, iv, 11), the Babylonian Gemara concluded that it recommends a man to liave no more than tliis number {Buhyl. Jeha- muth, 44 a) ; and from this most probably Mohammed's injunction is derived (Koran, iv, 3). It was Rabanu Gershom bcn-Jehudah of France (born cir. 9G0, died 1028), who, in the 11th century, prohibited polj'gamy imder pains of excommunication, saving in exceptional cases (Griitz, Geschichte der Jiiden, v, 405-507). His motive for doing so is a matter of dispute ; the older Occidental rabbins say that the prohibition originated in a desire to preserve tlie peace of the family, while the Oriental rabbins will have it that it was dictated by the governments of Christian countries. His interdict, however, made but slow progress, even in Germany and France, for which it was chiefly designed. Thus JSimon ben-Abraham of Sens, one of the most celebrated French Tossaphists, tells us (cir. 1200) : " The institution of K. Gershom has made no progress either in our neighbor- hood or in the provinces of France. On the contrary, it happens that pious and learned men and many other people marry a second wife in the lifetime of the first" (^B.-Joseph, Eben JIa-Ezar, 1). The practice of marry- ing a second wife in the event of the first having no is- sue within ten years also obtained in Italy till about the 15th century — the pope giving a special dispensation for it. The Spanish Jews never recognised K. Gershom's interdict ; bigamy was practiced in Castile till the 14th century, while the Christian government of Navarre de- clared polygamy among the Jews legal, and the law of king Theobald allowed them to marry as many wives as they could maintain and govern, but they were not permitted to divorce any one of them without sending all away (Kayserling, Gescldchte der Juden in Spanien, i, 71). Nor was the said interdict acknowledged by the
Jews in the East; and monogamy is there practiced simply because the bride makes a special agreement, and has a clause inserted in the Kethuhah {t^'2^^\Z), or vuirriage-settlement, that her husband is not to marry another as long as she lives. An exception, however, is made in case there is no issue. As to the opinion of the Karaites on monogamy and polygamy, the celebra- ted Jehudah ben-Elia Hadassi (tlourished 1149) re- marks, in his famous work against rabbinic Judaism, "The Pentateuch prohibits one to marry two wives with a view to vex one of them dtl^D mx "llljjbj Lev. xviii, 18) ; but he may take them provided he loves them and does not grieve eitlier of them, and treats them both aftectionateh'. If he does not diminish their food, raiment, and conjugal rights (Exod. xxi, 11), he is allowed to take two wives or more, just as Elkanah married Hannah and Peninnah, and as David, peace be upon him, and other kings and judges did" {Eshkul Ha- Cojiher, ed. Eupatoria, 1836, p. 129). From this it is evident that polygamy was not prohibited by the Jew- ish law, nor was it regarded as a sin, and that the mo- nogamy of the Jews in the present day is simply in obedience to the laws of the countries in which they live. There were, however, always some rabbins who discouraged polygamy {Aboth, ii, 7 ; Jehamoth, 65 a, al.) ; and the elevated notion which they had of monogamy is seen in the statutes which they enacted that the high- priest is to be the husband of one wife and to keep to her {Jehamoth, 58 a ; Maimonidcs, Hilclioth Issure Bia, xviii, 13 ; Josephus, Ant. iii, 12, 2) ; and which the apostle Paul also urges on Christian bishops (1 Tim. iii, 2 ; Titus i, 16).