he gave him, besides those he already had, his master's wives unto his bosom. (Compare also I Sam. XXV. 40-43.) The pious Elkana, too, the father of Samuel, had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. (I, Sam. i. 2.) Solomon had "seven hundred wives." (I Kings xi. 3.) Gideon had "many wives." And so we might adduce other examples from the Old Testament. From the Talmud any number of passages might be quoted to show that polygamy was not considered among the Jews as prohibited under the Mosaic law. In the xxivth Treatise, called Ketuboth, which contains laws regulating dowries, marriage contracts, &c., in ch. x., rules are laid down in case a man having two, three, or four wives. Here is one of of the rules: "Of him who had married four wives and dies, the first wife has priority (i. e., to receive her dower) before the second, the second before the third, and the third before the fourth."
In July, 1806, there assembled in Paris, in accordance with an Imperial decree, one hundred and ten Jewish deputies from France and Italy. The object of the Congress was, to reply to a number of questions that would be submitted to them by Imperial Commissioners in regard to some doctrines of the Jewish Church. On Tuesday the 29th, the Imperial Commissioners appeared before the Assembly, and submitted twelve questions, the first of which was as follows: "Are the Jews allowed to marry several wives?" To which the following reply was given: " The Jews, in accordance with the common ctistom prevailing in Europe, can only have one wife. This has become, since the Synod held at Worms in the year 1030, under the presidency of R. Goschon, an established law, although Moses did not prohibit polygamy." We must, however, here repeat, that although the Jews held that polygamy was not prohibited under the Mosaic law, it is nevertheless certain that the general feeling has been always against the practice.
