# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1856_S273
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Whether Someone May Marry the Sister of His Deceased Wife? 273

[may] take, and from the opponents' assertion follows the absurdity that God should have both forbidden and permitted marriage within one and the same degree of affinity. —

It is objected: 1, when the reason for a prohibition ceases, the prohibition itself ceases. But if the wife is already dead, the reason falls away that one should not take her sister to vex her. — Answer. It is true that, in marrying the sister of the deceased wife, that one reason given for the specific prohibition ceases; but the other reason for the general prohibition does not cease: "none shall come near to his nearest of kin (to the flesh of his flesh)," v. 6, and likewise the reason for the specific prohibition of the exactly equal degree, that one may not take the brother's wife, v. 16; for the degree of affinity is equally close in both cases, whether one takes one's deceased brother's wife or one's deceased wife's sister — but that former reason always remains and does not lapse with the death of the wife, as the rule cited above proves. 2. An interpretation that alters the text is not to be admitted. But the interpretation of those who think it is forbidden to take the sister of a deceased wife alters the text, because it adds something to the limited prohibition that entirely removes the limitation. Thus, etc. Answer. We deny that this addition is such a limitation as would allow one to conclude that, upon the removal of that condition, it is permitted to take the wife's sister; rather, we say that it is an intensifying addition, by which especially and chiefly simultaneous marriage with two sisters is forbidden, while it is not thereby permitted to take two sisters in succession. For although one who contracts such a marriage does not act against this specific prohibition, that one may not take one's wife's sister while she is still living, he nevertheless acts against the general prohibition, that one may not come near to the flesh of his own flesh, and against the specific prohibition, that one may not take one's brother's wife, who stands in the very same degree of affinity as the wife's sister. —

But, you say, what reason, then, can be given why God wished this particular addition to be attached to this prohibition, if it is not a limiting one? Answer. Some take the word "sister" generally for any woman, so that here the prohibition of polygamy is given. Others hold that the addition "because she is yet alive" must be referred not to the wife, but to her sister: because, or as long as, she lives — that is, never. Yet others take refuge in the common rule: the exclusion of a preceding time does not always entail the inclusion of a following time; rather, a restrictive particle so added often contains a simple negation, cf. 1 Sam. 6:23 and Matt. 1:25. So also here: one shall not take the wife's sister because she is still living — but from this one may not conclude that this