To Marry or Not To Marry: The Old Testament

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/divorce-remarriage-ii-the-old-testament/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><p><strong>Podcast notes:</strong></p><p>Exod 21:10-11: If a married man takes a second (slave) wife, then the food, clothing, and sexual love—material support plus emotional support—received by the first wife must not be reduced. If the husband reneges, the first wife may be released from the marriage.</p><ul><li>The rabbis correctly saw that if a slave had such rights, so did a free woman, who implicitly expected his faithfulness as a husband.</li><li>If any of these four rights is neglected, there may be grounds for legitimate divorce. The four grounds are withdrawal of physical support (food or clothing), withdrawal of emotional support (manifest in sexual engagement), and (implicitly) adultery.</li><li>Incidentally, ancient Sumerian law required that a man provide a prostitute who has born him children with gifts of grain, oil, and clothing. To withhold material support, in other words, was illegal.</li></ul><p><strong>Deut 24:1-4: </strong>The purpose of the divorce certificate was to protect the woman against future claims by her husband, thus enabling her to remarry. (A certificate not needed by a man, since he could marry any Jewish woman he wanted—as polygamy was condoned in the OT.)</p><ul><li>A man unsure of whether the first husband was coming back to claim his woman, or the children, or her assets, would be far less likely to marry her.</li><li>The divorcée needs a clean break!</li><li>“[The] certificate, which was the right of a few privileged women in some ancient Near Eastern legal systems, was extended by the Pentateuch to all divorced women. This certificate freed women from the fear that their ex-husbands could reclaim them after abandoning them. The wording of the ancient Near Eastern certificates was similar to the traditional rabbinic <i>get,</i> which states ‘you are free to remarry any man you wish.’” (Da