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Originally Posted by Elspode
I especially like that thing about, if your wife is infertile, you get to do her sister so you can have sons. Gotta love a good patriarchal sort of ethos...
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There's more to it than that, Elsp. Living offspring were the Social Security of the era. Enough nephews would be almost as good for keeping you in your old age as a few sons. The widow with no adult sons was in a world of hurt, shekel-wise, and this was a continuing problem through the first century and beyond.