Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

Unmarried women were allowed to be concubines without being denigrated.

There were rules there, too - the man had to support their children, 
and the woman couldn't be with another man.

Furthermore, if an unmarried woman has a child, that child is not 
denigrated by the community, and is not considered a "mamzer"

The unaccepted behavior, is for a MARRIED woman to be with another 
man - there was not a stigma for an unmarried woman to be with a man, 
it was acceptable if she stayed  with the same person....

Shoshanna




> > By the way, I don't think that the Torah
> > considers an unmarried woman who is not a virgin to be "unvirtuous". If
> > she
> > married passing herself off as a virgin, that makes her a liar.
>
> In the very verses we were discussing, Deut 20:13-21:
> 1) the man is punished for bringing an evil name upon a virgin in Israel.
> The evil name is not that she was a liar, but that she was not a virgin when
> he married her.
> 2) the woman is stoned, not for lying, but "because she hath wrought folly
> in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil
> away from among you."
> -Steve Miller
>
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