The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 309

wife's daughter, the stepmother, tho daugh- concubines n was re_gmded as the fln11l act ter-in-law, would be in the first degree of which made reconciliation with his father afll.nity. The sister and the granddaughter impossible (2 Sam. xvi 22: xx. 3). The would be in the second degree of consan- history of the Church has shown that mar- guinity: the brother's wife and the wife's riage with the stepmother hae had to be granddaughter would be in the second again and again prohibited by Council after degree of affinity. The aunt by blood would Council (see Smith and Cheetham's 'Dic- be in the third degree of consanguinity, tionary of Antiquities,' •·"· 'Prohibited and the uncle's wire, or aunt by marriage, Degrees'). would be in the third degree of affinity. Ver. 9.-In the third place, incest with The wife's sister, with regard to whom it is a si,ter is forbidden, and it iR specific- questioned whether she is referred to or ~ot ally stated that under the term "sister" in ver. 18, is in the first degree of aflimty is meant the half-sister, the daughter of (a man's wife being regarded as himself) thy father, or . . . thy mother, . . . born according to the canonists' reckoning, and in at home, as would naturally be the case the second according to the civilians'. There if she were the father's daughter, or is no mention made in the code of the grand- bom abroad, that is, the daughter of mother the niece, and the cousin-german. the mother by a previous marriage, when All of these are in the second degree of con- she belonged to a different household. Ta- sanguinity according to the canon law; and mar's appeal to Amnon, " I pray thee speak according to the civil law, the grandmother unto tbe king; for he will not withhold me would be in the second degree, the niece in the Crom thee,'' exhibits to us the poor woman third, and the cousin-german in the fourth. grasping at any argument which mi~ht save It may reasonably be supposed tbat by the her from her half-brother's brutality, and expression, None of you shall approach to does not indicate that such marriages were, :,.ny that ia near of kin to him, to uncover their in the time of Do.vid, permis,,ible (2 Sam. xiii nakedness, intercourse is forbidden between 29). The exact degree of relationship which all those wh6• are related by consanguinity existed between Abraham and Sarah is not or affinity in the first and second degrees altogether certain (cf. Gen. :u:. 12 with :tl. r.ccording to the canonists' reckoning (except 29). Ezekiel reckons this sin in the cata- cousins-germau, whose case is considered logue of the iniquities of J erWIBlem (Ezck. l>elow): in tbo first, second, and third de- xxii. 11). grees according to the civilio.ns' method of Ver. 10.-The fourth case of incest which calculating; wbetlwr they are mentioned by is prohibited iij that with a granddaughter, name in the list or not. It is only by implioo- whether the daughter of son or daughter, tion, not by diroct injunction, that mlLl'l'iage for, as they aro descended from the grand- even with a daught.ir is forbidden (ver. 17). father, their's is thine own nakedness. Vere. 7, 8.-lnce&t with a stepmother is Ver. 11.-Incest with a. half-sister on the placed next after that with a mother. On father's side is ago.in forbidden. Perhllps account of the unity ooused by marriage " the prohibition refers to the son by a first (" they shall be one flesh," Gen. ii. 2-1), tl10 marriage, whereas ver. 9 trnats of the son stepmother's na.kedness is the father's naked- by a second mo.rringe" (Keil), neas. The tie of affinity is thus declared to Vere. 12-15.-J:,'ifthly, incest with a pa- be similo.r in its elfeots to the tie of consan- ternal or materno.1 aunt is forbiddon: sixthly, guinity. Reuben's sin, by which ho forfoited with an o.unt by marriage; seventhly, with bis birthright, is connected with this offence, a daugllter-in-lo.w. The lo.et of these finds but is of a more heinous character, as his its pl11ce in Ezekiel's catalogue of abomino.- ofnther was alive at tho time of his trans- tions (Ezek. :u:ii. 11; of. Gtsn. xxviii. 18, gression (Gen. xlix. 4). It is one of the sins 26). which Ezekiel enumerates as those which Ver. 16.-The eighth case of incest is brought the judgment of God on farnol intercourse with a brother's wife. Yet this (Ezek. u:ii.10). "That one shouh\ have his is commanded under certain ciroumsto.nces father's wife" is declared by St. Po.ul to be in the Book of Deuteronomy, and was pmc- " such forniootion as is not named among tised iu patriarohal times (Gen. xu:viii. 8). the Gentiles," o.nd to call for the excommu- The following a.re the circumstances under nication of the offender (1 Cor. v. 1-5). which it is commanded. "If brethren dwell Adonijah'amarrio.gewithAbi•hag,sostrongly together, and one of them die, nnd have no ~esented by Solomon on political grounds, child, the wife of the dead shall not marry is not denounced as morolly reprehensible, without unto a stranger: her husband's probably beoouse Abishag was not the wife brother shall go in unto her, o.nd tako hor ~f David in such a way as to cause the mo.r- to him to wife, and perform the duty of an riago with his son to be abomi110.blo in the husband's brother unto Iler" (Dent. :u:v. 5). -eye of the law (of. l Kings i. 4 with Amoa It ha~ been asked, "How oan the same thing i.i. 7). Absalom's "going in unto iiis father'11 be forbidden as immoral in Loviticus, and LEVITICUS, 'I'  THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [en. xvm. 1-30.