When did the switch to matrilineal descent occur?

Question

Does anyone know when the switch the matrilineal descent took place? I've seen other information about the potential impetus, but when did it become so? Was there even a switch?

Answer 1

While Jewish law applies patrilineal descent to other nations (Yevamos 78b), Nachmanides writes that matrilineal descent applied to the Jewish people from the time of Avraham and onwards (Commentary to Vayikra 24:10). This is justified by the existence of some degree of Israelite nationhood from the time of the Patriarchs, which is suggested by the Talmud's reference to Esav as legally an Israelite (Kiddushin 18a).

However, Nachmanides also cites the French rabbis as being of the opinion that the switch from patrilineal to matrilineal descent occurred at the time of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. This opinion interprets the Midrash (Sifra on Emor, 14:1), which writes that the "son of the Israelite woman" converted, as implying that anyone born before the giving of the Torah who was not a member of the Children of Israel via patrilineal descent needed to convert. This is different from the conversion-type rituals that the other Israelites performed at Mount Sinai (Kerisus 9a), which formalized their de facto status.

Answer 2

It is not a Biblically accurate concept. Ask a Rabbi and they will tell you it is in Torah. It may be something pointing to Matrilineal Descent, but lets face it. In the Torah Jews relied on Patrilineal descent before and after the book of Ezra, but I believe it came to be around the destruction of the second temple when Roman soldiers raped Jewish woman and they had to rely on Matrilineal descent to call the child Jewish. Some say it is in Oral torah, but what is really written there tells that if there is Intermarriage, the way Orthodox people read it the child is not Jewish.