# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1856_S272
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

272 Whether Someone May Marry the Sister of His Deceased Wife?

and be held arbitrarily in prison for several weeks, and the child that was begotten shall be supported and nourished by both parents. But since the pastor there, without counsel or instruction from his proper authority and superintendent, advised and permitted the marriage within such a forbidden degree, he too is to be sentenced, by right, to eight days' imprisonment." Basilius Monnerus, in his treatise on marriage, part IV, chapter 2, says: although Luther once thought, in the year 1522, that it was permitted by divine right to take the sister of one's deceased wife or bride, he later, and rightly, changed this opinion. Melanchthon says in his Ethics: not all examples of the fathers are to be imitated. It must not be allowed that anyone take the sister of his deceased wife, and it does not hold, after the revelation of the Law and contrary to the word of God already set before us, to cite the deeds of pious fathers, for on account of examples one may not depart from the express word of God. The same view is held by Heshusius in his treatise on the degrees of blood-kinship and affinity, Chemnitz in his Loci, in the chapter on marriage, Chytraeus in his commentary on Lev. 18, Bidenbach, in his work on marriage matters, p. 51, and others besides. —

For the contrary opinion, appeal is made to the words of the Law, Lev. 18:18: "neither shalt thou take thy wife's sister to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other, while she is yet alive," from which it is concluded: therefore it is permitted, after the wife's death, to take her sister. — Answer. We grant that it is forbidden here that anyone, during his wife's lifetime, take her sister in addition, as is evident from the words of the prohibition itself and from the reasons attached to it. Thou shalt not take thy wife's sister, 1, to vex her — namely, because from simultaneous marriage with two sisters constant quarrels, hatred, and discord arise, as is evident from the example of Rachel and Leah. Indeed, even where those married at the same time are not blood sisters, nevertheless one is still called the other's rival, as this expression is used, 1 Sam. 1:6, of Peninnah and Hannah, the wives of Elkanah. 2, because she is yet alive. It cannot therefore be denied that this prohibition refers to the sister of the still-living wife. But from this one cannot conclude that after the wife's death it should be held permissible to take her sister — a) because from what is written one may not thoughtlessly infer what is not written, as Basil rightly reminds us; b) because the proof that the contrary is meant is weak and inadequate, as the jurists note; c) when from other laws the opposite is evident, or when an absurdity follows from it, one may not insist on this kind of argument. Now this is indeed the case here, for from the law that one may not take the brother's wife, the contrary is clearly evident, namely, that one may not take the sister of the deceased wife