This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Weisberg, D. E. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Widow of Our Discontent: Levirate Marriage in the Bible and Ancient Israel

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 3077 University Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90007-3796, USA

The Hebrew Bible contains little information about the practice of levirate marriage in ancient Israel. The passages that touch on levirate marriage offer conflicting descriptions of the institution. This article explores those passages and argues that what connects all of them is a sense of discomfort with levirate marriage, particularly on the part of men. This discomfort may relate to concerns about paternity or the preservation of property. It does not apparently extend to women, whom the Hebrew Bible portrays as willing, and even eager, to promote levirate unions. This sense of discomfort or anxiety suggests a concern for the desires of the living that supersedes obligations to the dead. The discomfort displayed in the Hebrew Bible may influence later Jewish responses to and constructions of levirate marriage.

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Vol. 28, No. 4, 403-429 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/030908920402800402


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?