concubine Summary and Overview

in the Bible denotes a female conjugally united to a man, but in a relation inferior to that of a wife. Among the early Jews, from various causes, the difference between a wife and a concubine was less marked than it would be amongst us. The concubine was a wife of secondary rank. There are various laws recorded providing for their protection (Ex. 21:7; Deut. 21:10-14), and setting limits to the relation they sustained to the household to which they belonged (Gen. 21:14; 25:6). They had no authority in the family, nor could they share in the household government. The immediate cause of concubinage might be gathered from the conjugal histories of Abraham and Jacob (Gen. 16;30). But in process of time the custom of concubinage degenerated, and laws were made to restrain and regulate it (Ex. 21:7-9). Christianity has restored the sacred institution of marriage to its original character, and concubinage is ranked with the sins of fornication and adultery (Matt. 19:5-9; 1 Cor. 7:2).

The difference between wife and concubine was less marked among the Hebrews than among us, owing to the absence of moral stigma. The difference probably lay in the absence of the right of the bill of divorce, without which the wife could not be repudiated. With regard to the children of wife and of concubine, there was no such difference as our illegitimacy implies. The latter were a supplementary family to the former; their names occur in the patriarchal genealogies, #Ge 22:24; 1Ch 1:22| and their position and provision would depend on the father's will. #Ge 25:6| The state of concubinage is assumed and provided for by the law of Moses. A concubine would generally be either (1) a Hebrew girl bought of her father; (2) a Gentile captive taken in war; (3) a foreign slave bought; or (4) a Canaanitish woman, bond or free. The rights of the first two were protected by the law, #Ex 21:7; De 21:10-14| but the third was unrecognized and the fourth prohibited. Free Hebrew women also might become concubines. To seize on royal concubines for his use was probably the intent of Abner's act, #2Sa 3:7| and similarly the request on behalf of Adonijah was construed. #1Ki 2:21-24|

CON'CUBINE , by the Jewish law, a lawful wife of a secondary or inferior rank, and consequently neither regarded nor treated as the matron or mistress of the house. Concubines were either Hebrew girls bought of their fathers, or Gentile captives taken in war. Foreign slaves or Canaanitish women were also illegally concubines. Concubines were not betrothed or wedded with the usual solemnities and ceremonies which attended marriage. They had no share in the family government, and the children of the wife were preferred to the child of the concubine in the distribution of the inheritance. Yet the children of the latter were not counted as illegitimate, but stood upon the same footing as those of the wife in the family, as their names occur in the genealogical lists. Gen 22:24; 1 Chr 1:32. The custom among the Jews originated in the great desire for children, and therefore it was that barren wives gave their maid-servants to their husbands that they might have children by them. Gen 16:3; Gen 30:4. The law of Moses did not stop the practice, but modified it. Ex 21:7-9;Deut 21:10-17. There was no stigma upon the position. The concubine was a recognized member of the family; when she had been a slave previous to becoming such a one, she still remained in slavery. Her distinction from the wife was in her lower social position, and in her far looser hold upon her husband. She might be dismissed without any formal divorce. Her unfaithfulness was criminal, but not looked at as, strictly speaking, adultery, and hence was not so severely punished. Jud 19:2. In the days of the monarchy the kings imitated their heathen neighbors in the establishment of harems, and multiplied the number of wives and concubines. To seize on the royal concubines for his own use was thus a usurper's first act. Such was probably the intent of Abner's act, 2 Sam 3:7, and similarly the request on behalf of Adonijah was construed. 1 Kgs 2:21-24. -Smith: Dictionary of the Bible. Where polygamy was tolerated -as it was among the Jews- the permission of concubinage would not seem so much at war with the interests and preservation of society as we know it to be. The gospel restores the sacred institution of marriage to its original character, Gen 2:24; Matt 19:5; 1 Cor 7:2, and concubinage is ranked with fornication and adultery.

The desire of offspring in the Jew was associated with the hope of the promised Redeemer. This raised concubinage from the character of gross sensuality which ordinarily it represents, especially when a wife was barren. This in some degree palliates, though it does not justify, the concubinage of Nahor, Abraham, and Jacob. The concubine's children were adopted, as if they were the wife's own offspring; and the suggestion to the husband often came from the wife herself (Genesis 30). The children were regarded, not as illegitimate, but as a supplementary family to that of the wife. Abraham sent them away with gifts during his lifetime, so as not to interfere with the rights of Isaac, the son of the promise. The seeming laxity of morals thus tolerated is a feature in the divine scheme arising from its progressive character. From the beginning, when man was sinless it was not so; for God made male and female that in marriage "they TWAIN should be one flesh" Matthew 19:4-5; Matthew 19:8). But when man fell, and, in the course of developing corruption, strayed more and more from the original law, God provisionally sanctioned a code which imposed some checks on the prevalent licentiousness, and exercised His divine prerogative of overruling man's evil to ultimate good. Such a provisional state was not the best absolutely, but the best under existing circumstances. The enactment was not a license to sin, but a restraint upon existing sin, and a witness against the hardness of man's heart. The bondmaid or captive was not to be cast away arbitrarily after lust had been gratified (Exodus 21:7-9; Deuteronomy 21:10-11); she was protected by legal restraints whereby she had a kind of secondary marriage relationship to the man. Thus, limits were set within which concubinage was tolerated until "the times of this ignorance" which "God winked at" (Acts 17:30) passed by, and Christ restored the original pure code. Henceforward, fornication is a sin against one's own body, and against the Lord Christ, with whom the believer is one in body and spirit (1 Corinthians 6:15-20). To take the royal concubines was regarded as tantamount to seizing on the throne. (See ABNER; ADONIJAH.)