«
»

Vayeshev 5768 – Concubines, Not Mistresses

Genesis 37:2
Jacob’s concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah, were also fully his wives. Of course, the Hebrew word used here can also simply mean “woman.” Moses may have been just calling Bilhah and Zilpah Jacob’s women, but it is the same word used in other passages to refer to Eve, Sarah, Hagar, Keturah, Rachel, Leah, and all of the other wives of the Bible. A concubine was not just a spare sex partner, but had rights and responsibilities in her husband’s house. She was a wife who also happened to be a slave. It certainly isn’t an ideal relationship, but it’s not the horrifying lot anti-patriarchs make it out to be.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Check out A Commentary on Marriage in the Bible!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 2:18 pm and is filed under History, Marriage, Parsha 09 - Vayeshev, Theology, Torah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Vayeshev 5768 – Concubines, Not Mistresses”

  1. Fred X says:
    November 27, 2007 at 9:11 pm

    Man, if you can handle more than one, go for it . The one I’ve been with for 27 years is all this fella can handle .