Marriage in Early Judaism

In the ancient world, marriage typically involved one or more financial transactions between families. In ancient Israel, as described in the Bible, the primary means of effecting a marriage was through bridewealth (mohar), a monetary gift from the prospective groom to the bride’s father. In the Greco-Roman period, however, bridewealth was largely replaced by dowry, a gift from the bride’s family to the prospective couple for the purpose of establishing them financially. Because women did not normally inherit, dowries could function as an alternative means of preserving and transmitting a family’s wealth (see Family and Inheritance). Although the documentary evidence on marriage in Jewish communities during this period is limited, it attests that dowries were an important aspect of marriage and that they were at least sometimes stipulated in written contracts.

Although dowries are mentioned in rabbinic literature, the gift of a dowry does not in itself effect a marriage in rabbinic law. The Mishnah lays out three ways in which a marriage can be effected: through monetary payment, through a written contract, or through sexual intercourse. The monetary payment is made by the groom to the bride and may be a small, symbolic sum. Also important in rabbinic marriage law is the divorce pledge, or ketubah, a sum of money that the groom pledges to the bride in the event of divorce. (The term ketubah is also used for the contract in which the pledge is stipulated.) Along with the dowry, which was retained by the wife if she was widowed or divorced, the institution of ketubah functioned to protect a woman if her marriage was dissolved.