Concubinage

Concubinage refers to the state of a woman or youth in an ongoing, quasi-matrimonial relationship with a man of higher social status. Typically, the man has an official wife in addition to one or more concubines. Concubines have limited rights of support as against the man, and their offspring are publicly acknowledged as the man's children, albeit of lower status than children born by the official wife or wives.

In modern usage, the term concubine often denotes the status of a quasi-wife who is not legally married to a man with whom she lives. The man (but not the woman) may or may not be in an ongoing legal marriage with another person. For example, in a California court case involving inheritance, Rosales v. Battle, a Mexican court had decided that the plaintiff had been the concubine of the deceased, on the grounds that they "had maintained a relationship publicly comparable to a marriage for about four or five years and had always behaved as though they were married, even though they had not contracted legal matrimony."

In France, Concubinage is the official term for cohabitation of heterosexual and (since 1998) homosexual couples. Some benefits of married couples or those bound by PACS (civil union) may then apply. In jurisdictions with common-law marriage, cohabiting partners may become common-law spouses after a certain length of time.

Concubine

The term concubine generally signifies ongoing, quasi-matrimonial relationships where the woman is of lower social status than the man or the official wife or wives. Some historical Asian and European rulers maintained concubines as well as wives.

Historically, concubinage was frequently voluntary, as it provided a measure of economic security for the woman involved. Involuntary, or servile, concubinage involves sexual slavery of one member of the relationship; typically the woman.

Concubinus

In Roman times, this was the title of a young male who was chosen by his master as a bedmate. They were often referred to ironically in the literature of the time. Catullus assumes in the wedding poem 61.126 that the young manor lord has a concubinus who considers himself elevated above the other slaves.

Pilegesh

Pilegesh is a Hebrew term for a concubine with similar social and legal standing to a recognized wife, often for the purpose of producing offspring.

Pilegesh is from the Greek pallax/pallakis, "mistress" or "lover-girl," or possibly the Hebrew palga isha, "half a wife."

Legal characteristics

A pilegesh was recognized among the ancient Hebrews and enjoyed the same rights in the house as the legitimate wife. Since it was regarded as the highest blessing to have many children, while the greatest curse was childlessness, legitimate wives often gave their maids to their husbands to atone, at least in part, for their own barrenness, as in the cases of Sarah and Hagar, Leah and Zilpah, Rachel and Bilhah. The concubine commanded the same respect and inviolability as the wife, and it was regarded as the deepest dishonor for the man to whom she belonged if hands were laid upon her.

According to the Babylonian Talmud (Sanh. 21a), the difference between a pilegesh and a full wife was that the latter received a ketubah and her marriage was preceded by a formal betrothal ("kiddushin"), which was not the case with the former. According to R. Judah, however, the concubine also received a ketubah, but without the aliment pertaining to it.

Any offspring created as a result of a union between a pilegesh and a man were on equal legal footing with children of the man and his wife.

Biblical examples

Several biblical figures had concubines when they were not able to create natural children with their wives. The most famous example of this was with Abraham and Sarah. Sarah, feeling guilty about her inability to give Abraham children, gave her maidservant Hagar to Abraham. Their union created Ishmael.

Other biblical figures such as Gideon, David, and Solomon had concubines in addition to many childbearing wives. The Book of Kings mentions that Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines; the wives were royal princesses with dowries, while concubines had no dowries.

History

Certain Jewish thinkers, such as Rambam (Maimonides), have declared that the act of acquiring a concubine is prohibited under Jewish law; he has noted that concubines are strictly reserved for kings and that a commoner may not have a concubine or engage in any type of sexual relations outside of a marriage. Others, like the Ramban (Nahmanides), Shmuel ben Uri, and Yaakov Emden, strongly object to this claim.

Some suggest that Rambam's published view was meant to shape a public policy in response to the prohibition of mutah relationships by Muslims, which are in many ways similar to pilegesh relationships, just as the ban on polygamy by Rabbeinu Gershom was made only subsequently to the Christian prohibition of it that effectively changed the law of the land.

Recent Events

In contemporary Israeli Hebrew, the word "pilegesh" is often used as the equivalent of English "mistress" - i.e. the female partner in extra-marital relations even when these relations have no legal recognition. There are attempts to popularize pilegesh relationships as permitted forms of premarital non-marital and extra-marital relationships.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.

• Kosher sex without marriage By MATTHEW WAGNER
• ISO: Kosher Concubine Adam Dickter
• http://www.pilegesh.org

Rosales v. Battle (2003) 113 Cal.App.4th 1178 (California court decision involving status of concubine. Link requires free registration.)

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