and nations reiterates the same few propositions. The woman was held to strict fidelity in marriage, but not the man. The rule of divorce in Deut. 24:1 was greatly enlarged, although sects differed about it. Hardly anywhere in the rabbinical writings do we find any high conception of wedlock[1]; in the rabbinical period there was a tendency to depreciate all sex-relations, as a consequence of the strong antagonism to heathenism; there is even some glorification of virginity and of long widowhood,[2] and a legend that Rachel withdrew from conjugal life and chose continency.[3] The Essenes, beginning in the second century B.C., rejected marriage and depended on new adherents to continue their sect. The Therapeuts did not reject marriage, but they honored celibacy.[4] The Talmudists said that a man might marry as many wives as he could support, but he was exhorted to take not more than four; it appears doubtful if many men in that period (early centuries of the Christian era) took more than one.[5] Polygamy was put under definite taboo in 1020 A.D.; women were also given more and more definite right of divorce, and divorce by the man from caprice or malice was restrained. Still dicta are quoted which allow wide freedom of divorce to both.[6]
The biblical scholars[7] now tell us that the story of the creation of woman in the second chapter of Genesis dates from about 775 B.C. It is very primitive myth-making. The processes and machinery are all described. So the woman is made out of a rib of man, and the man
