Women of early times were also treated as property and in some instances were treated as.
slaves (Class lecture, 2001). The Bible even has some connotations of this semi-slavery. In.
Proverbs it asks, "A good wife who can find?" It then goes on to list requirements of a good.
wife: A good wife had to seek flax and wool and food, wake up before dawn to attend to the.
whole family, look to the future with optimism, and it goes on including for her never to be idle. .
When it came to a Hebrew wife she was only granted three rights: the right to share her husband.
(sexually) with one or more secondary wives and concubines, to be divorced if she offended him.
in anyway, and to be stones to death if she had sexual relations with another (Tannahill, 1980). In.
Babylon and Egypt it was a little different as far as infidelity went. The Bablonia law allowed for.
a husband to pardon his wife's adulterous act, while in Egypt unless the woman was actually.
caught in the act her own oath of innocence was enough to clear her name. Marriages were also.
consummated early to ensure that the bride to be was pure. And in Egypt, in some cases, as early.
as six years old (Tannahill, 1980). As the foundation has now been laid, the issue at hand is.
marriage and its sacredness. .
The Catholic marriage is set apart from all other relationships because Catholic marriages.
are a sacramental path to sanctity (McLachlan, 1997). The notion of marriage as a sacrament and.
not just a contract can be traced to Saint Paul who compared the relationship of a husband and.
wife to that of Christ and his church (Tannahill, 1980). Paul wrote that marriage is a true.
sacrament and the sign of the conjugal union of Christ and his Bride, the Church (Matrimony,.
1997). At Lateran Council II in 1139, it was first defined as infallibly true that matrimony is as.
true a sacrament as Eucharist and baptism and at The Council of Lyons II in 1274, it was included.
