Polygamy, covered by the example of the fathers (Gen 16:2; 25:6;
29:23, 28; 30:4, 9; 37:2; 46:10; Judg 8:30f.) and approved by several
regulations of the Torah (cf. Exod 21:8, 10; Deut 21:15), even required by the
law in the case of levirate marriage in certain circumstances (see Deut
25:5ff.), was legally considered entirely permissible in Jewish thought at the
time of Jesus. Josephus describes the simultaneous possession of multiple wives
simply as an ancestral custom of his people.a The Mishnah in its
casuistic discussions constructs a series of cases in which a man has two to
five wives;b it allows the king to marry eighteen women.c
The oldest halakic midrash on Deuteronomy applies Deut 21:15 to the case where
someone has not only two, but rather many wives.d Rabban Gamaliel II
(ca. 90) borrows features of bigamy for a parable.e One authority,
such as Rab († 247), gives the advice not to take two wives alongside each
other; however, if a man has two wives, he should for his personal security
marry a third one in addition.f All this presupposes that polygamy
was not a rare occurrence in Israel in the New Testament period. Life with its
demands and necessities made sure by itself that this practice did not become
the rule. If in principle the claim was postulated that a man could take who
knows how many wives, in view of the duty obliging a man to maintain his wives,
the qualification was immediately added: he must be able to support her.g
No less did the thought of domestic peace curb polygamic inclinations.h
— Historical evidence for the existence of polygamy in the ancient rabbinic
period is not all that frequent. Herod the Great had ten wivesi (see
Schürer, Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes,
1:406f.). — In Jerusalem there were two priestly families of which it was
generally known that they descended from secondary wives, so from marriages
where the husband had several wives at his side.k — It is reported
of R. Yose b. Halapta (ca. 150) that he entered into a levirate marriage with
the widow of his brother, in which five sons were born to him; yet it is
nowhere evident whether he had previously been otherwise married.l —
The Jerusalem Talmud recounts that a man married twelve widows of his brothers
by levirate marriage.m — R. Tarfon (ca. 100) even married 300 women
at a time when living costs were high, in order to enable them to enjoy the
offering that was allowed to him as a priest.n — Two Babylonian
authorities—Rab († 247) and Rab Nahman († 320) when they moved from their
residence to another location — used to enter into a marriage for the short
period of their stay,o a procedure that however was an offense
against the rather old principle that no one should keep wives in different
places.p — Only extremely rarely are voices raised that take a
position decisively more or less against polygamy.q Without doubt,
R. Judah b. Batera (ca. 110) did this most ingeniously.r (Hermann L.
Strack and Paul Billerbeck, A Commentary on the New Testament from the
Talmud and Midrash, ed. Jacob N. Cerone, 4 vols. [trans. Andrew Bowden and
Joseph Longarino; Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2021], 3:751-52)
Sources for the
above:
a. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 17.1.2: πάτριον γὰρ ἐν ταὐτῷ (at the same time) πλείοσιν ἡμῖν συνοικεῖν. — Jewish
War 1.24.2: ὡς
ἂν ἐφιεμένου τε πατρίως Ἰουδαίοις γαμεῖν πλείους.
b. Mishnah Yebamot 4.11: If four brothers
were married to four women and died childless, the eldest (of the surviving
brothers) can, if he wants, marry all these women as their brother-in-law; the
right is in his hand. — If someone was married to two women (at the same time)
and has died, carrying out levirate marriage or removing the shoe of one of
them exempts the secondary wife (i.e., the brother of the man who has died has
to marry only one of the two widows). ‖ — Mishnah Yebamot 16.1: If it is
reported to a woman whose husband and co-wife traveled to a distant land: “Your
husband has died,” she may not get married, nor enter into a levirate marriage,
until she knows (for certain) whether the co-wife is pregnant (only then does
the obligation for levirate marriage no longer apply for her and only then does
she acquire the freedom to marry someone else). ‖ Mishnah Ketubbot 10.1: If
someone was married to two women (simultaneously) and died, the first takes
priority over the second (with her rights of inheritance), and the heirs of the
first over the heirs of the second. ‖ Mishnah Ketubbot 10.4: If someone is
married to three women and dies, and the marriage settlement of one amounts to
100 zuz and that of the other 200 zuz and that of the third to 300 zuz, and there are still there (in the
estate) only 100 zuz, they apportion
them in equal shares. ‖ Mishnah Ketubbot 10.5: If someone has four wives and
dies, the first takes priority over the second (with her legal claims), the
second over the third, the third over the fourth.… ‖ Mishnah Ketubbot 10.6: If
someone is married to two women and sells his field.… ‖ Mishnah Qiddušin 2.6:
If someone has betrothed two women (at the same time) with something that is
worth (only) one prutah (the smallest
coin) …, the betrothal is invalid. (Simultaneous betrothal to two women is
permissible per se, but the value of the item presented for the engagement of
each woman has to be worth at least one prutah.
Since the latter is not so in the given case, the betrothal is declared
invalid.) ‖ Mishnah Qiddušin 2.7: It once happened with five women, two of whom
were sisters, that someone gathered a basket of figs … and said, “Look, you all
should be engaged to me because of this basket!” One of them accepted the
basket for them all (and thereby also the engagement). Then scholars declared,
“The sisters are not engaged (because the law forbids simultaneous marriage to
two sisters [Lev 18:18]; the engagement to the three other women was legally
valid, though).” ‖ See further m. Bek. 8.4 and m. Ker. 3.7. ‖ See the baraita
in b. Giṭ. 34B at § Acts 13:9 A, #2.
c. Mishnah Sanhedrin 2.4: “The king should
not take many wives” (Deut 17:17), but rather (only) eighteen. See SDeut 17:17
§ 159 (105B); t. Sanh. 4.5 (420) and b. Sanh. 21A. In the last passage the king
is allowed also 24 and even 48 wives.
d. Sifre Deuteronomy 21:15 § 215 (113A): “If
a man has two wives” (Deut 21:15). Here I hear only about two wives; how do we
also know if there are many of them? Scripture teaches “wives.”
e. See b. ʿAbod. Zar. 55A at § Rom 1:23 A,
#2, D, n. m, middle.
f. Babylonian Talmud Pesaḥim 113A: Rab (†
247) said to Rab Assi, “Do not take for yourself two wives; but if you have
taken two, then take three (two can make common cause against you, but the
third will safely bring their intrigue to you).” — The counsel of Raba († 352)
is different in b. Yebam. 63B: “If a wife is evil and her marriage settlement
is high (so that one cannot dismiss her because of this), then a secondary wife
at her side! For people say, ‘By her companion (co-wife), but not by the thorn
bush (is a nasty wife made better).’ ”
g. Babylonian Talmud Yebamot 65A: Raba (†
352) said, “A man may add however many wives to his (first) wife; but only if
he is able to support them.”
h. Targum Ruth 4:6: “The redeemer said, ‘In
this way I cannot redeem her for myself. Since I have a wife, it is not allowed
to me to add another to her; she might get into a quarrel in my house, and I
might destroy my estate. Redeem her for yourself, for you do not have a wife.
Therefore, I cannot redeem her.’ ” — See b. Ber. 32B: Resh Laqish (ca.
250) said, “The community of Israel says before God, ‘Lord of the world, if a
man adds a wife to his first wife, he remembers the action of the first; but you
have left and forgotten me’ (see Isa 49:14).”
i. Of his ten wives, Herod had at one point
in time nine simultaneously; see Josephus, Ant.
17.1.3: Ἡρώδῃ δὲ τῷ βασιλεῖ κατὰ τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον συνῴκουν ἐννέα γυναῖκες.
k. Babylonian Talmud Yebamot 15B: “I (R.
Joshua [ca. 90]) testify to you concerning two great families in Jerusalem,
concerning the family of the house of Sebaim from the house of Akhmai and
concerning the family of the house of Qipai of Ben Meqoshesh, that they were
descendants of secondary wives, and that among them there were high priests who
carried out the altar service. — The names in the parallel passages t. Yebam.
1.10 and y. Yebam. 1.3A.48 at points are very different.
l. Jerusalem Talmud Yebamot 1.2B.9: R. Yose
b. Halapta (ca. 150) had entered into levirate marriage with the wife of his
brother: he plowed five ploughings (a metaphorical description for intercourse)
and he planted five plantings (= he sired 5 sons). — Parallel passages are
found in b. Šabb. 118B; Gen. Rab. 85 (54C).
m. Jerusalem Talmud Yebamot 4.6B.35: There
were once thirteen brothers, of whom twelve died without children. They came
and requested that he (the surviving brother) would be required to enter
levirate marriage before Rabbi (Judah I [† 217?]). Rabbi said to him, “Go,
perform the levirate marriage!” He answered him, “I do not have the means to do
so.” Then they (the widows) declared one after the other, “I will provide food
for my month (the one of the 12 months of the year that falls to me)!” He said,
“But who will provide food during this month in the leap year?” Rabbi said, “I
will provide food in the month of the leap year.” Then he prayed for them, and
they went from there. After three years they came, carrying 36 children; they
came and set themselves before Rabbi’s dwelling. Someone went up and reported
to him, “Down there a village of children wants to greet you.” Rabbi looked out
the window and saw them. He said to them, “What is your request?” They said to
him, “We ask, give us (food) for this leap month.” Then he gave them for this
leap month.
n. Tosefta Ketubbot 5.1 (266): R. Menaḥem b.
Nappaḥ said in the name of R. Eleazar Haqqappar (ca. 180), “It once happened
that R. Tarfon was married to 300 women in years of drought (famine) and he let
them eat the offerings because those were the years of drought.” — We find a
somewhat different text in y. Yebam. 4.6B.51.
o. Yoma 18B = b. Yebam. 37B, see § Rom 2:22
A, middle.
p. Babylonian Talmud Yebamot 37B: R. Eliezer
b. Jacob (I., ca. 90) said, “Let a man not marry a woman in this city (or: in
this country) and go and marry a woman in another city. Perhaps they (the
children who spring from such marriages) might be bound to each other, so that
the case will arise that a brother takes his sister for a wife.” — The same is
found in b. Yoma 18B.
q. Midrash Samuel 1 § 7 (23A): “He had two
wives” (1 Sam 1:2).… R. Levi (ca. 300) said in the name of R. Hama b. Hanina
(ca. 260), “Scripture begins with his (Elkanah’s) praise (namely in 1 Sam 1:1),
and then mentions his dishonor (namely, that he had two wives).” — In Pesiq.
Rab. 43 (181B), R. Jonah (ca. 350) says this in the name of Rabbi († 217?). ‖
Babylonian Talmud Yebamot 65A: R. Ammi (ca. 300) said, “… I say, ‘Whoever adds
a wife to his wife, let him dismiss (the first one with a certificate of divorce)
and pay the marriage settlement.’ ”
r. ͗Abot de Rabbi Nathan (ed. Schechter,
chapter 2 p. 9): R. Judah b. Batera (ca. 110) said, “Job searched himself:
‘What is the portion given by God from above’ (with respect to marriage)? (Job
31:2). If the first man should have been given ten women, they would have been
given to him (by God). Yet he was given only one woman. So let my wife, who is
my portion, be enough for me too!” (Hermann L. Strack and Paul
Billerbeck, A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash,
ed. Jacob N. Cerone, 4 vols. [trans. Andrew Bowden and Joseph Longarino;
Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2021], 3:753-55)
