Juvenilia ✔/ a Nonfiction Undergraduate University Collection

The Function of Marriage Compared in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity

HISTORY 3001

The Byzantine Empire

April 12th, 2021

The Function of Marriage Compared in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity

The function of marriage is fundamentally different when comparing Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

While all three systems share similar roots and overlap in meaningful ways, they diverge in challenging ways that in most cases is insurmountable in intermarriage unless one faith is renounced in lieu of another, usually for the benefit of the man.

The goal for all religions are the same, but the methods for achieving the objective is dissimilar at the best of times.

On one hand, with Christianity, there was a constant remodelling of rules and standards to accommodate changing environments and social structure.

Judaism, by contrast, was far less flexible in this regard, though there were differences depending on the geography such as in the case of the role of women in the Western Empire versus Byzantium as well as a stark contrast of rules from the birth of Judaism to the middle ages.

Islam seems to be a middle ground between the two, not so rigid that it does not adhere to change by necessity, but not so fluctuating that stability and order is gone and open to interpretation.

They all fulfill the same aims: stability for future lineage with clear evidence of patronage, thus ensuring stability. It ensured legitimacy of heirs and concise transitions of wealth and kept order, at least for the most part.

Marriage is primarily concerned with providing security for new generations in ways that allow for biological, financial, social, and political expansion.

Judaism, based on the Old Testament, had two main reasons for marriage: chastity and the survival of humans. In the origins of Judaism within the Hebrew bible, polygamy was acceptable.

However, by the Byzantine Empire, absolute monogamy was the ideal, a show of mutual love and dedication without any further partnership to anyone else, regardless of the length of the marriage.

Over time, as the globe became populated, emphasis was placed more on chastity. However, there are significant differences in Judaism concerning how marriage and sexuality were approached, depending on if the location was in the European West or the Byzantine East.

On the whole, the geography plays a major role in determining the standard for marriage and the role of women within the society, though the timing is also an obviously integral piece.

The Byzantine East was more restrictive for Jewish women and gave less autonomy to them. Women did not take care of the household in the absence of the husband in Byzantium, but Jewish women did have this responsibility in the Roman West.

Women were granted a conditional divorce if they were without their husbands for a stipulated amount of time as men travelled frequently and at length.

Preference for suitable marriage to a daughter was often given to first cousins; often times, wives were significantly younger than their husband, and nieces and uncles were often wed together. It was considered ideal for women to be partnered with someone familiar and close to home.

The alternative was being wed to a foreigner, and this was risky for the daughters being wed. If their husband were to suddenly want to move or were to die, and she was left alone in a foreign place, she could become destitute and cut off from her resources from home.

In most cases, the happiness of the daughter in a marriage arrangement was not a primary concern, and the marriage contract was devised by her parents in accord with the prospective husband. Any conditions could be placed there for the husband to agree with or decline.