26 
Indiana University Studies 
Hebrews married foreign wives ; 100 but this practice was grad- 
ually discountenanced and at last marriage with a nonresident 
alien was forbidden . 101 
The status of women, especially in the matter of marriage 
and divorce, went thru quite a historical development. Under 
the patriarchal system a maiden was simply under the power 
of her father; a wife under the power of her husband ; a widow 
under the power of the nearest of kin of her husband; and a 
divorced woman returned to the power of the family from 
which she was taken. Gradually women secured their legal 
emancipation in Hebrew law as they did in the Anglo-Amer- 
ican system. It became customary to secure the consent of 
a woman to her marriage. This was done in the case of Re- 
becca. However, the dowry to the father, which continued 
to be paid, in reality represented the purchase money for 
the wife . 102 The right to sell a daughter in marriage was at 
last abolished . 103 So far as divorce was concerned the orig- 
inal custom was for the husband to give the wife a writing 
of divorcement and send her away. The Deuteronomic law 
recognized this custom, but limited it so that the former hus- 
band could not remarry his wife after she had married 
another . 104 Apparently the husband could in Hebrew law 
divorce his wife for any reason or no reason at all , 105 yet 
divorces were no more common among the Hebrews than 
among us. The wife had no right to give a bill of divorce . 106 
Jesus, in his law of social justice, limited divorce to the ground 
of adultery . 107 
After this survey of the historical development of Hebrew 
100 38 Gen. 1. 
101 34 Exod. 12, 15, 16; 7 Deut. 1-6; 22 Lev. 12, 13. 
102 24 Gen. 11-12. 
103 21 Exod. 7-11. 
304 24 Deut. 1-4. 
105 This was a customary kind of divorce and exists among the Arabs today. The 
Hebrew lawgivers did not dare to abrogate this, but they did try to regulate it by em- 
phasizing marriage (2 Gen. 18, 22, 24) ; by making it illegal to sell a wife into slavery 
(21 Exod. 7-9, 14) ; by requiring a charge against the wife (22 Deut. 19, 28, 29) ; 
and by requiring a formal document, a formal sending forth, and by making it impos- 
sible to take back a divorced wife after her marriage with another (24 Deut. 1-4). 
Yet Malachi complains of the evil of divorce (2 Mai. 13-16). 
106 The rabbis finally remedied this by compelling the husband to give the injured 
wife a divorce, and in 675 A.D. a direct remedy was given her without loss of property 
rights, to prevent wives from suing in the Mohammedan courts. 4 Green Bag 38. Cf. 
Code of Hammurabi §142. 
107 Under the rabbis the bill of divorcement was made an instrument to evade the 
Hebrew rule of law to the effect that the widow became the betrothed of her husband’s 
brother. This was done by the husband’s giving his wife, or a third person for her, 
a bill of divorcement on condition, when he thought he was going to die or when he 
was going on a journey from which he might not return. The condition was that if 
he recovered from his sickness or returned from his voyage, the bill should be void. 
The rabbis held that this operated retroactively as of the date of delivery. 3 Green 
Bag 381. 
