What does concubine mean from a religious perspective?

Answer 1

There have always couples who wanted to have children and were unable to conceive. In the days before surrogate mothers, fertility drugs, invitro fertilization, etc. the practice was to use a concubine.

She was a woman who agreed to sleep (usually just once) with a man in order to get pregnant and bear the couple a child. In exchange, she received free room and board for the remainder of her life. She often served the wife as a handmaiden. The child that she bore what be considered legally the child of the wife, and a full heir to the father's estate.

In a society were due to wars, etc., the number of women was often 2-3 times the number of men, it was a good deal for a woman with little prospect for a good marriage.

The practice was often misused by men (especially those in high positions) as a means of having dozens of "legal" mistresses. It is one of the reason that in the Bible God forbids the kings of Israel to have multiple wives. Something that Solomon and others did anyways.

Answer 2

A concubine is a woman used for sexual gratification but not as a prostitute. She is entitled to receive the same acclaim as your spouse and she is kept in a manner in which people would expect to find a spouse kept.

Answer 3

Concubines were generally handmaidens to the idiots wife and he did the concubines too.

Answer 4

Same as what it means from a non religious perspective.

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Answer 5

A wife but of a lower status.

http://www.gotquestions.org/polygamy.html

Answer 6

It means a woman a man lives with without being married to her. It is obviously frowned upon by all religions.