Marriage, Divorce and Family in Ancient Israel

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the rules and customs of marriage and divorce and the role of women during both biblical times and during the Second Temple period by analysis of various texts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and Hebrew Bible. After the Babylonian exile, Jews incorporated aspects of family life of several neighboring groups into their own practices. In particular, it examines how women were continually discriminated against and although they had their own rights, they were continually under the authority of men.

From the Paper:

"The prophetic message of marriage offers a much different view of marriage than that of Deuteronomy and Sirach. In Malachi 2:10-16 Judah is said to have married the daughter of a foreign God. Some scholars find this passage to be symbolic criticism of idolatry and others state the passage refers to the marriage of foreign women. In the passage Collins refers to Westbrook, who argues that the passage in Malachi refers to divorce without justification: "The criticism is not of divorce as such, but for "hate" where the husband follows his own inclination and the wife has done nothing to deserve such a fate." This challenges the earlier idea in Deuteronomy 24 that any aversion was grounds for a husband to divorce his wife. This is an important shift from rules meant to protect and favor those in power to an idea of justice in a relationship."

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