Women and Identity

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Women and Identity
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Levirate Law

• Deut 255-6 When brothers reside together, and
  one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the
  deceased shall not shall not be married outside
  the family to a stranger. Her husbands brother
  shall go into her, taking her in marriage, and
  performing the duty of a husbands brother to
  her, and the firstborn whom she bears shall
  succeed to the name of the deceased brother, so
  that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.

• From Latin levir or brother-in-law
• No division of property is the condition
• Maintains heritage (property, family)
• Secures wifes future and assures she stays
  within family
• Other texts suggest a moral obligation

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More on Deut 25 (vv 7-10)

• But if the man has no desire to marry his
  brothers widow, then his brothers widow shall
  go up to the elders at the gate and say, My
  husbands brother refuses to perpetuate his
  brothers name in Israel he will not perform the
  duty of a husbands brother to me. Then the
  elders of his town shall summon him and speak to
  him. If he persists, saying, I have no desire to
  marry her, then his brothers wife shall go up
  to him in the presence of the elders, pull his
  sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and
  declare, This is what is done to the man who
  does not build up his brothers house.
  Throughout Israel his family shall be known as
  the house of him whose sandal was pulled off.

• Financial costs
• Three brothers reduced to two each now gets
  one-half instead of one-third
• If dead is oldest, double portion to him newborn
  gets one-half and each uncle gets one quarter
  (including the levir)
• Sandal ceremony
• Freed her not to be a widow
• Opens possibility of remarriage

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Ruth 413-22

• So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When
  they came together, the LORD made her conceive,
  and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi,
  Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this
  day without next-of-kin and may his name be
  renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer
  of life and a nourisher of your old age for your
  daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you
  than seven sons, has borne him. Then Naomi took
  the child and laid him in her bosom, and became
  his nurse. The women of the neighbourhood gave
  him a name, saying, A son has been born to
  Naomi. They named him Obed he became the father
  of Jesse, the father of David.
• Now these are the descendants of Perez Perez
  became the father of Hezron, Hezron of Ram, Ram
  of Amminadab, Amminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of
  Salmon, 21Salmon of Boaz, Boaz of Obed, Obed of
  Jesse, and Jesse of David.