THE SLOW ROAD TO MONOGAMY
frequently in the biblical period, most often among the kings of Israel .” We, of course, find it already among the wives of the Patriarch Jacob, so that Rachel and Leah were first-rank wives whereas their servants had an inferior status. We know little about the status of subsidiary wives in the biblical period.*® The Genesis tales demonstrated that when secondary wives produced children, these progeny were on an equal footing with those of the primary wives. According to Epstein , concubinage died out in the late biblical period but was reintroduced in Hellenistic and Roman times. The Romans had curbed polygamy but permitted concubinage until the time of Constantine(326 C.E.).*
The Talmud made an effort to regularize the concubine, and in the Babylonian Talmud she was seen as possessing neither kiddushin nor ketubah; according to the Palestinian Talmud, however, 2 concubine had kiddushin but no ketubah; in other words, it opted for partial protection of the woman.* It was the Babylonian definition that most later authorities followed:*' they denied married status to the concubine and so denigrated this relationship. Rashi (1040-1105), Ribash(1326-1408), and others, followed the Jerusalem Talmud. The two definitions may refer to two levels of concubinage or may reflect errors in the original Talmudic text.” The sources agree that we were dealing with an individual of intermediate status that did not have all the rights of a married wife but on the other hand was not to be considered a prostitute. Among Medieval authorities, Maimonides (1 135-1204) protested vigorously against concubinage and sought to eliminate it by claiming that if was a right limited to royalty and not permitted to ordinary Jews ." He did not engage in a discussion of monogamy or an ideal state of marriage but treated it as a practical matter. He considered the woman involved in this relationship a prostitute(zona); both sh
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