4 ms·
> If the owner of the wife In Hebrew the word husband is the same word as owner. Other translations use husband rather than owner. How much do we really under
by oldgradstudent 7y ago
> If the owner of the wife
In Hebrew the word husband is the same word as owner. Other translations use husband rather than owner.
How much do we really understand the meaning of these ancient texts?
- grawprog 7y ago>then in turn the king could save his servant." Yeah, I don't understand what this part means at all honestly.
- throw1234651234 7y agoLikely that the king owns every man and losing manpower sucks, so if the husband wants to save his wife, the king can choose to save his servant who committed adultery.
- Wowfunhappy 7y agoSo, uh, can or can't the wife's husband choose to spare her?
- magicsmoke 7y agoIf the wife's husband spares his wife, then the king would spare the person that committed adultery with her. Otherwise they would both die.
- Wowfunhappy 7y agoThank you, that makes sense now. The "king's servant" was throwing me off—I guess the idea is that everyone is a servant of the king.
- oldgradstudent 7y agoI wonder if subject would have been a better translation than servant.
- AgentMatt 7y agoI would interpret this as the king being allowed to pardon the citizen who committed the adultery, if the husband chooses to forgive his wife. I actually like the law. While it does still display an asymmetry of power in the relationship, it implements a negative incentive for cheating for both men and women. This is progress compared to a more primitive law that one could imagine where women could be punished arbitrarily, e.g. to death, while the man in the cheating act could not be punished by law. Also, it seems better than vigilante justice. It gives both parties in the decision making the opportunity to show empathy, and so acknowledge the adultery without explicit punishment.
- riffraff 7y agoIt's hard to grasp that old "bad" laws could still be very progressive. I remember a teacher telling us that "an eye for an eye" should be viewed not as a crazy excessive response, but as a very modern "the punishment should be commensurate to the crime", which was not a given.
- WorldMaker 7y agoModern English isn't all that much better, comparatively either. Husband etymology comes from "house-holder" or "house-steward". There's definitely still an implied control relationship if not necessarily "ownership". (Contrast to Old English's companion to wif [wife], wer was simply "married man" by way of connotation change from old German wer which was simply "man".)
- grugagag 7y agoHeres a more detailed etymology for husband husband (n.) Old English husbonda "male head of a household, master of a house, householder," probably from Old Norse husbondi "master of the house," literally "house-dweller," from hus "house" (see house (n.)) + bondi "householder, dweller, freeholder, peasant," from buandi, present participle of bua "to dwell" (from PIE root bheue- "to be, exist, grow," and compare bond (adj.)). Beginning late 13c. it replaced Old English wer as "married man (in relation to his wife)" and became the companion word of wife, a sad loss for English poetry. Slang shortening hubby first attested 1680s.
- guykdm 7y agoBTW the origin of the Hebrew Baal, "owner" is the Canaanite word (and deity) Baal, the meaning of which is more directly translated as "ruler".