Matrimonio en el Israel antiguo: Topografía socio-jurídica comparada

Matrimonio en el Israel antiguo: Topografía socio-jurídica comparada This study offers a comparative topography of the regulatory systems governing sexuality in the ancient Mediterranean, with particular focus on the Iron Age II Levant and its surrounding cultures. Moving beyond retrospective moral reconstructions, the paper analyzes the socio-economic dynamics of the Bet ʾAb (House of the Father) as the primary axis of social continuity and subsistence. It argues that polygyny and monogamy functioned as adaptive strategies shaped by status differentiation and agrarian survival rather than by uniform ethical prescriptions. Adopting a socio-legal framework, the study examines adultery as a property offense oriented toward the protection of nahalah (inheritance), and reconsiders terms such as zenut and pilegesh within their original economic and kinship structures. By integrating comparative evidence from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Greco-Roman world, the analysis demonstrates that sexual regulation operated as a mechanism for institutional stability and lineage preservation prior to the ethical reconfiguration observable in early Christianity.