Note 39 — Chapter I · THE PATRIARCHAL THEORY

According to Ewald the ancient Hebrew father might "sell his child to relieve his own distress, or offer it to a creditor as a pledge."—The Antiquities of Israel (London, 1876), 190; Westermarck, op. cit., 228; and the Levitical law prescribes death as the penalty for striking a parent (Leviticus 20:9; Exodus 21:15, 17); but the penalty could only be administered through appeal to the whole community, Westermarck, op. cit., 228. Cf. Michaelis, Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, I, 444, who shows that the mother, as well as the father, might sometimes choose wives for the sons; while McLennan and Locke prove that the position of the mother in Israel was higher than is consistent with Roman patriarchalism.