"Here’s a summary:
- Polygynous Marriage
- Levirate Marriage
- A man, a woman and her property — a female slave
- A man, one or more wives, and some concubines
- A male soldier and a female prisoner of war
- A male rapist and his victim
- A male and female slave
- Monogamous, heterosexual marriage
Probably the most common form of marriage in the bible, it is where a man has more than one wife.
When a woman was widowed without a son, it became the responsibility of the brother-in-law or a close male relative to take her in and impregnate her. If the resulting child was a son, he would be considered the heir of her late husband. See Ruth, and the story of Onan (Gen. 38:6-10).
The famous “handmaiden” sketch, as preformed by Abraham (Gen. 16:1-6) and Jacob (Gen. 30:4-5).
The definition of a concubine varies from culture to culture, but they tended to be live-in mistresses. Concubines were tied to their “husband,” but had a lower status than a wife. Their children were not usually heirs, so they were safe outlets for sex without risking the line of succession. To see how badly a concubine could be treated, see the famous story of the Levite and his concubine (Judges 19:1-30).
Women could be taken as booty from a successful campaign and forced to become wives or concubines. Deuteronomy 21:11-14 describes the process.
Deuteronomy 22:28-29 describes how an unmarried woman who had been raped must marry her attacker.
A female slave could be married to a male slave without consent, presumably to produce more slaves.
and of course …
What you might think of as the standard form of marriage, provided you think of arranged marriages as the standard. Also remember that inter-faith or cross-ethnic marriage were forbidden for large chunks of biblical history."
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