What is the difference between a wife and a concubine?

Question

Did women during Biblical times have a choice to be either wives or concubines? If not, why?

Answer 1

Women in biblical times were cattle. No, they did not have any choice.

The difference between a wife and a concubine is status. Wives at least had some status because they managed the household. Concubines may have had some responsibilities, but being sex slaves was their primary function.

Answer 2

Concubine is a kept wife. Dhasharadha was having 3 legal wives and 350 concubines. The 3 can be called Patamahishis but the 350 cannot be called ordinary wives. I have no duty to support Dhasharadha who extraordinarily kept 350 women other than his 3 wives. Remember that Ramayana is only a myth and not a history.

Answer 3

A wife is just what it is supposed to be a concubine is a Mistress or companion. I don't believe they had the choice. It depended on where in the class life they were held. sometimes being a concubine was a high position to be in. They were treated with great respect. The wife is the one that really didn't have a choice. A wife was more of a bargaining position. Usually to unite one kingdom with another.

Answer 4

In Biblical times wives and concubines were both possessions; wives had more status and rights, perhaps. Women were owned by their fathers or male head of family, unless given or sold to or stolen by their husbands. Women weren't considered adults or people, really. But then, neither were slaves, foreigners, or anyone outside of one's tribe or tribes...

This is a gross generalization on the culture presented by most of the Old Testament; actual practices and beliefs within and without the history of the Chosen People probably varied.

Answer 5

A concubine is a women that is not married and see the man frequent mostly living even together.
Concubine is here in Belgium a frequent used word in law as by-sitter (meaning not married but living together in concubinage).
Most concubines are found in dancing functions and tea rooms , you must have a large bank account or a nice visa bankcard to flash.To see those woman's best go to those functions.

Answer 6

Wives have say-so and concubines don't. I imagine status of the father of the woman had a lot to do with their station in life after becoming adults.

Answer 7

The first thing to come up on the search for "concubines"

by Wayne Blank

In ancient times, a concubine was a woman living in a lawful marriage arrangement with a man, but whose status was regarded as being less than a wife. Concubines were respected, had legal rights, and their children were regarded as legitimate, although the children of the wife (or wives) were most often given preference in matters of inheritance. While the inability of a wife to have children was a practical reason for the presence of a concubine in the family (e.g. Sarah suggested that her husband Abraham take Hagar as a concubine i.e. Genesis 16:1-3), the situation also sometimes reached absurd proportions, such as with Solomon who had 300 concubines along with his 700 wives (1 Kings 11:3).
Examples of concubines in Bible History:

"Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country." (Genesis 25:5-6 RSV)

"Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech." (Judges 8:30-31 RSV)

Four of the tribes of Israel (Dan and Naphtali, and Gad and Asher) originated from Jacob's concubines Bilhah and Zilpah. See Children of Jacob

"Now Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah." (2 Samuel 3:7 RSV)

"And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David." (2 Samuel 5:13 RSV)

"Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Go in to your father's concubines, whom he has left to keep the house; and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself odious to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened." So they pitched a tent for Absalom upon the roof; and Absalom went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel." (2 Samuel 16:21-22 RSV)

"King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem [see Temple Mount Treasures and Temples] be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them." (Daniel 5:1-2 RSV) (see The Writing On The Wall)
Fact Finder: Who performed the first marriage ceremony?
Genesis 2:22-24

Answer 8

A concubine is more like a pet.

Answer 9

A wife has legal status and is part of a recognozed covenant called marriage and her children have the rights of inheritance. A concibine is basically an unmarried wife or in modern terms, shacking up. She and her children have no legal status or rights beyond that of a poorly paid whore.

Answer 10

No. Because men didn't think the were worth having the choice. From the invention of the Bible, women were treated as nothing more than chattel, which means they were things owned, bought, and sold for men's pleasure.