John Selden on Jewish Marriage Law: The Uxor Hebraica

This book contains a lengthy introduction, translation and commentary on John Selden’s Uxor Hebraica. Selden was a seventeenth century Christian talmudist, classicist, legal historian and member of the British parliament who wrote extensively on a wide variety of subjects including seven books, all in Latin, of various aspects of Jewish Law. Uxor Hebraica is an exhaustive treatment of Jewish marriage law. Among the subjects treated are incest (including a unique discussion of the Karaite rules), levirate, the marriage contract and ceremonies and divorce. Selden extensively used the Hebrew Bible, its ancient and later translations, the Talmud, and especially Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. He widened his discussion by including comparative material from the New Testament, church fathers, Greece and Rome, Islam, plus usages from Ethiopia, Russia, Byzantium and medieval Europe. Although written without polemic, the work is clearly related to the religious controversies of the day.