# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1878_S32
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 32 —

root, my sister, in whom, as in me, there is a residuum [remainder] of my father, — or by the first affinity (affinitate), which has arisen freely through fleshly union; and hence flesh of my flesh is not only the grandfather above and over me, the grandson from me, at and under me, the sister, the sister's daughter with and beside me, but also the uncle's wife, who has become one flesh with my uncle. According to the rule thus far set out, it is wrong if I marry: 1. the mother, whether the step-mother or the true mother; 2. the grandmother; 3. the sister, the half-sister by blood on the father's or mother's side, and the full sister by blood of both parents; 4. the aunt, 5. the brother's daughter, 6. the daughter-in-law by the son, 7. the sister-in-law by the sister, that is, the sister of the wife, and indeed also when she has died; 8. the sister-in-law by the brother, or the brother's wife. (Mark 6:18.)" (Liber conscientiae [Book of Conscience], I, 777 sqq.)

Agreeing with this is also an opinion of the Leipzig Faculty of the year 1708, where it reads thus: "No more persons are forbidden to marry one another than those where one is the flesh of the other's flesh, nemo ad carnem carnis suae appropinquet [let no one approach to the flesh of his own flesh]; namely: my parents and forebears, my children and descendants, likewise my brothers and sisters; then their flesh, whether by blood kinship or by affinity, as are their brothers and sisters and spouses. But what goes further is no longer contained in this general prohibition of God through Moses, and so cannot be considered forbidden on God's part." (Bedenken etc. p. 936.)

From the testimonies cited it is now already sufficiently evident how the expression "flesh of flesh" in this passage is to be understood. Especially exact in dealing with the words שְׁאֵר בְּשָׂרוֹ individually and with the combination of the two is

V. E. Löscher, a theologian who is indeed not always entirely reliable in dogmatics, but in the linguistic, historical, and critical field has no equal. He writes:

"It is of very great use if one correctly distinguishes in the original language the words בשר Basar and שאר Scheer.

בשר Basar . . occurs between father and daughter, man and wife, Gen. 2:24; it is also called my nakedness, Lev. 18:8, 16; 20:11.

שאר Scheer . . occurs between brothers and sisters, Lev. 18:12, 13, as also between father and stepdaughter, Lev. 18:17.

Basar of Basar . . occurs between me and the stepmother, between me and the wife's mother and daughter, since my father is my Basar, but the stepmother is called my father's Basar according to biblical style, and so with respect to the others.

Basar of Scheer . . occurs between me and the brother's wife.