Levirate Marriage and the Family[ ]virate marriage. In communities where polygyny is rare, levirate may
come to be regarded as undesirable. If this is the case, there will be more
resistance to levirate marriage. If indeed polygyny was infrequent in an-
cient Israel, there may have been a weakening of receptivity to levirate
unions.
As the nuclear family becomes more important, the influence of the
extended family over the individual presumably decreases. This might
weaken the bonds between adult siblings and the influence parents ex-
ert over their adult children. We have already seen that men might be
reluctant to enter into levirate unions; the weakening of bonds between
brothers would do nothing to encourage men to perform levirate. Par-
ents, portrayed by Genesis and Ruth as potential promoters of levi-
rate, might have less sway over reluctant sons and daughters-in-law.
Levirate Marriage as a Strategy of Continuity in Ancient Israel
Throughout the Bible, we see that childlessness was a source of pain
and shame to both men and women. Biblical characters express anxiety
when t hey are unable to have children.^52 They employ various strategies
to obtain children; these strategies include prayer and surrogacy.^53 Po-
lyg yny or the union of a married man w ith a woman of lower status may
also be a means to ensure continuity.
The Bible also indicates a desire to preserve family property. While
the preferred heir is a biological son, other strategies of continuity in-
volved adoption and designating daughters as heirs in the absence of
sons.^54 The responsibility for preserving family property extended to a
man’s paternal kin. Marriages within the clan and the redemption of a
man’s property by his paternal kin were strategies that kept property
within a kinship line.^55
Levirate marriage can be a powerful strategy of continuity. While
polygyny and concubinage allow a man to maximize his potential to
procreate, levirate marriage allows a man to father offspring even after
his death. To the extent that ancient Israelite society saw the continua-
tion of a man’s lineage and the maintenance of family property as desid-
erata, levirate marriage could have been an extremely beneficial aspect
of the Israelite marriage system.
At the same time, biblical texts suggest that the ancient Israelites,
particularly Israelite men, may have been somewhat less than enthusi-