The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 308

with the spirit of Iicentiousnen. With from the eon to the mother, two degrees to regard t-0 tho doings of th.s land of Egypt, we tho grandmother; ono degree from the father ha'l'e fuller information. We know that to the daughter, two degrees to the gro.nd- among the Egyptians marriage with sisters dnughtcr. But this is not eo with the colla- and hll.lf-sisters was not only permissible, teral lines. A brother and sister, for example, but that its propriety was justified by are regnrded by the oanon law as in the first their religious beliefs, and practised in the degree of kinship, because there is only one royal family (Diod. Sic., i. 27; Dio. Cass., step to the father, in whom their blood meets: xiii.). Other o.bominations condemned in but the civil lawyers con,ider them as bein"' this chapter ('l'cr. 23) also, as we know, in the second degree, because o.s they caf: existed there (Herod., ii. 46), and if queens culate, there is one htop froi:r: the brother could be what in later times Cleopatra was, to the father, and a second from the father we may imagine the gencro.l dissoluteness to the sister. An e.unt is, e.ccordin"' 0 to of the people. Among Persians, Medas, the canonists, in the second degree of pro- Indians, Ethiopians and Assyrians,marriage pinquity, because there are two steps from wilh mothers and daughters was allowed, her nephew to his grandfather, who is and from the time of Cambyses, marriage likewise her father, in whom their blood with a sister was regarded as lawful (Herod., unites; but, according to the civilian's cal- iii. 31). The Athenians and Spartans per- culation, there are three steps, namely, from mitted marriage with ho.If-sisters. All her nephew to hill grandfather, two steps, these concessions to I ust, and other unclean and a third from that grandfather to his acts with which the bee.then world was full daughter the e.unt ; o.nd therefore the e.unt (ver. 22; Rom. i. 27), were falling3 away and, nephew are in the third degree of pro- from the law of purity implanted in the pinquity. The case of an uncle and niece heart of man e.nd now renewed for the is exactly the same o.s tho.t of a nephew and Hebrew people. aunt. On the same principle, according to Ver. 6.-The next thirteen 'l'erses contain the canonists, first cousins e.re in the second the law of incest, or the prohibited degrees degree of kinship; according to the civilians, of marriage. 'fhe positive law of me.rriage, in the fourth. Propinquity by affinity is as implanted in the human heart, would calculated in just the same way; so thot the be simply that any man of full age might brother's wife is in the so.me degree of rela- marry any woman of full age, provided tionship as the brother, o.nd wife's sister as that both parties were willing. But this the sister by blood. In the code before us. liberty is at once controlled by a number confirmed by that in Deuteronomy, mar- of restrictions, the main purpose of which riage is forbidden with the following blood is to prevent incest, which, lsowe'l'er much relations: mother (vor. 7), daughter (vcr. 17), one nation mny come to be indifferent to one sister (ver. 9; eh. xx. 17; Dent. xxvii. 22), form of it, and another to another, is yet granddaughter (ver.10), o.unt (vers. 12, 13; abhorrent to the feelings and principles of eh. xx. 19); e.nd with the following relations mankind. The Hebrew restrictive le. w is con- by affinity: mother-in-law (ver. 17; oh. n:. tained in one verse. None of you shall ap- H; Dent. xxvii. 23), daughter-in-law (ver. proach to any that is near of kin to him, to 15; eh. xx. 12), brother's v.ifo (ver. 16; oh. llllcover their nakedness: I am the Lord. All xx. 21), stepmother (ver. 8; eh. x.x. 11; tllat follows (vers. 9-18) is simply an ampli- Dent. xxii. 30 ; see Gon. xlix. 4 ; 1 Cor. v. fication o.nd o.n explanation of the words, 1), stepdaughter and step-granddaughter near of kin to him. These words would be (ver. 17), uncle's wifo, or aunt by marriage literally rendered, flesh of his flesh, or less (\'er. 14; eh. xx. 20); putting o.sido for probo.bly (as i!l the margin), remainder of tho present the question of who is meant his flesh. They certainly include within by a wife to her sister, in 'l'Or. 18. In the compass of their meaning those that these lists, according to the canonists' are near by affinity, as much as those tha( method of reckoning, the motbor, the daugh- are near by consanguinity. 'l'his ill proved by ter, and the sister are related in the first the instances given below, whero no differ- degree of consanguinity; the wife's mother, ence is drawn between blood rele.tions and the wife's de.ughter, the stepmother, the relations by marriage, the latter being sup- daughter-in-law, the brother's wife, arc re- posed to become the former, in consequence lo.ted in the first degree of affinity. 'l'he of the marriage that has taken place. gro.n<ldo.ughtcr and the aunt are in the NearnC'ss of kin ill genero.lly counted by second degree of coneanguinity; the wife's "degrees;" but, unfortunately, this word is gro.ncldangbter and the uncle's wife in the itself ambiguous, for it is used in different &econd degrL•e of affinity. According to the Renses by canonists and by civilians. So far as civilio.ns' reckoning, the following would be the direct line is concerned, the same method the degrees of propinquity:-The mother of calculation is obser\'ed by the canon e.nd and the daughter would be in the first de- by the civil lo.w. There is one degree gree of consanguinity; the wife's mother, tho OH. xvm. 1-::10. THE BOOK OF LEVITIGUS. 273