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Re-Examining the Levirate Marriage in the Bible Fung Tat Yeung a Thesis

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Re-Examining the Levirate Marriage in the Bible Fung Tat Yeung a Thesis Re-examining the Levirate Marriage in the Bible Fung Tat Yeung A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Divinity Graduate Division of Theology © The Chinese University of Hong Kong July 2008 The Chinese University of Hong Kong holds the copyright of this thesis. Any person(s) intending to use a part or whole of the materials in this thesis in a proposed publication must seek copyright released from the Dean of the Graduate School. IQj Abstract of Thesis entitled: Re-examining the Levirate Marriage in the Bible Submitted by Fung Tat Yeung For the degree of Master of Divinity at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in July 2008 Levirate marriage is probably one of the most incomprehensible biblical themes to nowadays' audience, who tends to consider it incestuous. In the Old Testament, Deuteronomy has enacted it as a law obliging a man to marry the childless widow of his deceased brother, and at the same time obliging a childless widow to be remarried inside her deceased husband's family. In the New Testament, the Sadducees and the Pharisees disagree with each other on the problem of a widow's remarriage. The Sadducees show that they are strict followers of the levirate law, but Paul the former Pharisee, in his Letter to the Romans, makes use of the illustration of a widow's freedom to marry another man to explain the significance of the release from the law. This shows that not all sects of Jews considered levirate marriage as an obligation for both the widow and the levir in the time of the New Testament. In this thesis, I will re-examine the theme of levirate marriage in the Bible by looking at the Old Testament narratives related to this theme, including Genesis 38, the Book of Ruth, and also two deutero-canonical writings, namely the Book of Tobit and the Book of Judith. From these four biblical narratives, I attempt to show that the practice of levirate marriage has undergone gradual transformations to ensure that a childless widow is taken care of in various ways. Hence, I attempt to explain why, by the New Testament era, levirate marriage was no longer an obligation, but a widow was allowed to choose her way of living. Ultimately, this thesis aims at proving that levirate marriage in the Bible is not be read as a restriction, but the spirit behind, which is to protect such marginalized people as widows, deserves our attention. 摘要 叔娶寡嫂制可能是其中一個最令人費解的聖經主題，因現代讀者會認爲它有 亂倫之嫌。在舊約中，申命記將之制定爲律法，規定男子必須娶亡兄的無子之妻， 而無子之寡婦亦必須再嫁入亡夫的家中。在新約中，撒都該人與法利賽人在寡婦 再婚的問題上存有分歧。撒都該人表現他們謹守叔娶寡嫂制之律法，而保羅這位 前法利賽人在羅馬書中卻以寡婦有自由再嫁的例子說明從律法中釋放出來的重 要性。這證明了在新約時代，並非所有猶太宗派都認爲叔娶寡嫂制是寡婦兼亡夫 之兄弟的義務。 在本論文中，筆者欲重新審查叔娶寡嫂制這個聖經主題；筆者會深究有關此 主題的舊約故事，包括創世記三十八章、路得記，以及兩卷次經，卽多比傳與猶 滴傳。從這四個聖經故事，筆者會說明叔娶寡嫂制的實行乃經過逐步的變遷，以 求無子的寡婦得到最佳照顧。由此，筆者試圖解釋爲何及至新約時代，叔娶寡嫂 制已非義務，反而寡婦有權選擇自己的生活方式。最後，本論文旨在闡明聖經中 的叔娶寡嫂制不宜被視爲約束，其背後的精神乃在於保護如寡婦一樣的弱勢社 羣，這一點才更値得注意。 Abbreviations Publications ABD Freedman, David Noel, ed. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday, 1992. BDB Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon, 1907. E-S Even—Shoshan, Abraham, ed. A New Concordance of the Bible: Thesaurus of the Language of the Bible Hebrew and Aramaic Roots, Words, Proper Names, Phrases and Synonyms. Jerusalem: "Kiryat Sefer," 1990. GELNT Thayer, Joseph H. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Edinburgh: T.& T.Clark, 1901. GELS Lust, J., E. Eynikel and K. Hauspie. A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1992-1996. HAISK Muraoka, Takamitsu. Hebrew/Aramaic Index to the Septuagint Keyed to the Hatch—Redpath Concordance. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 1998. HRCS Hatch, Edwin, and Henry A. Redpath. A Concordance to the Septuagint and the Other Greek Versions of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 1987. IDB Buttrick, George Arthur, ed. The Interpreter 's Dictionary of the Bible. New York: Abingdon Press, 1962, ISBE Bromiley, Geoffrey W., ed. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Grand Rapids, Michigan: W. B. Eerdmans, 1979. TDOT Botterweck, G. Johannes, and Helmer Ringgren, ed. Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdman, 1974. TLOT Jenni, Ernst, and Claus Westermann, ed. Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1997. TWOT Harris, R. Laird, ed. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Chicago: Moody, 1980. Bible texts and versions Ancient texts: LXX Septuagint MT Masoretic Text Modem editions: BHS Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Modem versions: AMP Amplified Bible ASV American Standard Version CEV Contemporary English Version Darby Darby Translation KJV King James Version MSG The Message NIRV New International Reader's Version NKJV New King James Version NLT New Living Translation NLV New Life Version NRSV New Revised Standard Version RSV Revised Standard Version TNIV Today's New International Version Content Page 1 The Theme of Levirate Marriage in the Old and New Testaments j The disagreement between the Sadducees and Paul the former Pharisee 2 A comparison between Paul's illustration of marriage in Romans 7:1-6 and the levirate law in Deuteronomy 25:5-10 g The transformation in the levirate practice from the era of the Old Testament to that of the New 14 2 The Duty of a Levir to His Brother's Widow in the Story of Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38) 17 Jiidah 's command on Onan: a levirate marriage? 17 Lexical study of dt 19 Onan 's refusal to perform his duty as a brother-in-law 21 Judah s command on Tamar: prolonged widowhood 23 Tamar 's endeavour in finding the right levir 27 Evaluation of the levirate practice in Genesis 38 29 3 The Widow's Marriage to Her Husband's Kinsman in the Book of Ruth 32 Ruth seeking to follow Naomi 32 The introduction ofBoaz, the kinsman of Naomi's husband's 35 Lexical study ofb^i 37 Boaz 's device in securing the redemption of Ruth by himself 41 Evaluation of the marriage between Boaz and Ruth in the Book of Ruth 44 4 The Widow's Marriage to Her Kinsman in the Book of Tobit and Voluntary Widowhood in the Book of Judith 47 The marriage of a widow by a kinsman in Book of Tobit 48 Evaluation of the marriage between Tobias and Sarah in the Book of Tobit 53 The choice of a widow to remain unmarried in the Book of Judith 54 Evaluation of the voluntary widowhood in the Book of Judith 5 8 Conclusion 61 An overall evaluation of the levirate practice in the Old Testament 61 The application of the levirate in the New Testament era 63 The message of the levirate for today 66 Bibliography 68 Fung 1 Chapter 1 The Theme of Levirate Marriage in the Old and New Testaments The word "levirate" comes from the Latin word "levir," which means husband's brother. According to the Bible, a levir has the responsibility to marry the childless widow of his deceased brother, and this kind of marriage is called levirate marriage. Levirate marriage is perhaps one of the most perplexing biblical themes that is beyond the comprehension of nowadays' audience. Understandably, if this kind of marriage happens today, a great deal of people will consider it incestuous. Now it is almost taken for granted that a widow can choose either to remain a widow or to be remarried to any man she desires, instead of being assigned a husband, who is no one else but her deceased husband's brother. Among its few occurrences in the Bible, the theme of levirate marriage mainly appears in the Old Testament, but it is not without any trace in the New Testament. According to the Old Testament, levirate marriage is enacted as a law in Deuteronomy 25:5-10 strictly requiring the levir to perform the duty of marrying his brother's childless widow. The widows Tamar and Ruth are perhaps seen as two examples representing the fulfillment of the levirate practice in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the theme of levirate marriage is found in the Sadducees' challenge to Jesus, in which the Sadducees raise the question of resurrection through an example of a woman who clearly follows the levirate practice by marrying seven brothers. The close observance of the levirate law is obviously advocated by the Sadducees, but it is not necessarily advocated by their adversaries, the Pharisees. The teaching by Paul, a former Pharisee who is supposed to be as familiar with the Mosaic Law as the Sadducees, does not seem to make it a stem rule for a widow to be remarried by her husband's brother. In his illustration of marriage in the Letter to the Romans 7:1-6, Paul even suggests that a widow is free to choose a new husband for herself, though Fung 2 he does not state whether this widow is childless or not. The difference between the Sadducees and the Pharisees on the point whether a widow is obliged to marry her husband's brother seems to suggest that it was no longer seen as an absolute obligation to closely follow the levirate law in the era of the New Testament. Undeniably, the Pauline teaching concerning widows sounds more natural to nowadays' audience. Therefore, this thesis aims at re-examining the levirate marriage in the Bible, to see whether it had been being practised consistently from the time of the Old Testament up till that of the New, and hence to understand what message it may be conveying to us today. The disagreement between the Sadducees and Paul the former Pharisee Let me commence by taking a closer look at the disagreement between the Sadducees and Paul the former Pharisee concerning the remarriage of a widow. As recorded in the Synoptic Gospels, the challenge that the Sadducees pose to Jesus Christ is like this: "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies, having no children, his brother must marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.
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