Brautpreis und Mitgift

Based on the matrimonial stipulations in Old Babylonian and Middle Assyrian law and examining the texts of Alalakh and Emar and the Amarna letters, Reinhard Hillmann explores the matrimonial law of Ugarit. He demonstrates that in the Old Testament of the Iron Age there was a connection between matrimonial law and the previous Babylonian and Assyrian tradition. Genesis 34:11b-12 is dealt with in a new manner. The author refutes the belief that the bride price was returned to the family of the husband by the father of the bride in Ugarit. He discovers different aspects of marital customs by analyzing the Nikkal text (CAT 1.24) and CAT 1.100. Hillmann interprets CAT 1.100 as a libretto for a mythological play in which there is acute danger due to snakes, which is then eliminated by the marriage of Horon and the protectress of the cattle.