Marriage, old style

Judaism, Wntr-Spring, 2004 by Dvora Weisberg

Jewish Marriage in Antiquity. By MICHAEL SATLOW. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.

Scholars of Judaism face tremendous challenges when trying to describe Jewish life in antiquity. One challenge is the limited number of sources that have survived from the period. An even greater challenge is posed by the sources that are available. How should ancient Jewish texts be read? Can we accept at face value any claims made by these texts about the practices of the Jews of antiquity? Can rabbinic texts, the primary sources available for the first five centuries of the Common Era, be used to gather historical or sociological data? If a scholar answers these questions with an enthusiastic "yes," he runs the risk of having his work skewered by colleagues who view these texts as having little or no historic weight. If she answers in the negative, there is little material left from which to write the history of ancient Jews and Judaism.

In Jewish Marriage in Antiquity, Michael Satlow navigates these treacherous waters with skill and insight. Satlow asks what marriage meant to the Jews of antiquity. He argues that Jews understood marriage in ways that were similar to those of their non-Jewish neighbors; there was no particularly "Jewish" way of constructing marriage. Additionally, there was no single way of constructing Jewish marriage in antiquity; in particular, Satlow notes significant differences in the ways that Palestinian and Babylonian rabbis viewed marriage.

In Part I, "Thinking About Marriage," Satlow sets forth what he sees as the "ideological, theological, and legal understandings of marriage" (xix). The first chapter discusses ancient Jewish understandings of the purpose of marriage. The chapter is built around a passage from the Babylonian Talmud. Bavli Yebamot 61b-64a describes the blessings that accrue to a man through marriage. Satlow's reading of Yebamot 61b-64a recognizes two disparate approaches to marriage. The Palestinian rabbis cited in the passage see marriage as an institution through which a man establishes himself as an adult, responsible member of the community. A man marries in order to establish a household and beget children. Marriage is portrayed as a divine and natural institution, a portrayal that reflects the rabbis' reading of Genesis 1-2. This view of marriage mirrors views of marriage in Hellenistic literature, thus supporting Satlow's claim that Jews living in the Greco-Roman world saw marriage in ways similar to their non-Jewish neighbors.

In contrast to this view, the ideology of the Babylonian sages is "more complex and ambivalent" (26). Marriage provides a man with a legitimate way to channel sexual desire. Procreation is viewed as salvifically and nationally significant; parallels to this idea are found in Zoroastrian literature. The comments of the Babylonian sages reflect a tension about marriage; while it may be necessary to ward off inappropriate sexual thoughts and acts, it also may distract men's energy from the study of Torah.

Chapter Two discusses Jewish marital myths and metaphors. Satlow asks how the biblical metaphor advanced by the prophets, which portrays the relationship between God and Israel as a marriage, was used by the Jews of antiquity. He also considers how Jews referenced the story of the first man and woman in order to discuss marriage.

The third chapter focuses on the legal understanding of Jewish marriage. Satlow takes issue with the widely held view that Second Temple Jews regarded betrothal as inchoate marriage. He claims that betrothal in that period was fairly informal; it imposed no special restrictions on the prospective bride and could be easily dissolved. While the rabbis attributed legal significance to betrothal, Satlow argues that Palestinian rabbis offered ways to soften the force of betrothal in response to the values and practices of Palestinian Jews. In Babylonia, the rabbis were more successful in promoting betrothal as inchoate marriage.

The second section of the book is entitled "Marrying." It begins with a brief chapter in which Satlow presents the evidence of legal documents retrieved from Elephantine and the Judean desert. These documents provide information about the marital histories of four Jewish women, two from the fifth century B.C.E. and two from the second century C.E. Satlow acknowledges that these documents do not provide enough evidence on which to build a qualitative or quantitative picture of Jewish marriage in antiquity; instead he proposes to expand upon the issues raised in these documents in later chapters.

The fifth chapter of the book considers how Jews made matches in antiquity. Satlow frames this chapter with a discussion of honor and shame. He argues that marriage was one of the backdrops against which men tried to maintain their honor and avoid experiencing shame. Finding appropriate spouses for one's children, particularly one's daughters, was important.

Satlow uses notions of honor and shame to explain trends exhibited in rabbinic texts, as well as the apparent discrepancies between the ideals expressed in those texts and reality to the extent we can determine it. The rabbis advocated early marriage for both men and women, with the Babylonian rabbis imagining that young men would marry in their early teens. At the same time, both rabbinic and non-rabbinic sources suggest that Jewish men, and possibly women as well, married later than the rabbinic ideal. Obviously, early marriage would have allowed parents to choose their children's spouse, while men and women who married later would have a greater role in choosing their partners. The discrepancy may reflect the desire to allow parents to choose their children's mates, to avoid "shameful" marriages.