# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1878_S37
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 37 —

word "flesh" must be derived, according to which it is what everyone carries on himself as the covering of his bones; hence "flesh" here is not to be taken in the same sense as in the passage: "for my flesh also shall rest in hope," Acts 2:26. Accordingly Luther's translation, "nearest blood relative" (feminine), would mean the nearest female relation, who stands nearest to my flesh, that is, to me, in relationship. That, it was said, is the first and simplest interpretation; according to it verse 6 is the general rule, and the remaining prohibitions must be added as explanations. The purpose of the whole discussion, it was said, is to prove that marriage with a deceased wife's sister (*Schwagerehe*) is wrong and forbidden, and on that we were agreed; whether one wishes to prove it from Leviticus 18:6 alone or from this passage with the help of the other verses, that makes no difference to the matter. —

Since it was now declared on the one side that Point 1 of the 4th thesis could very well be accepted, and on the other that one would see no dishonesty in it if those who could recognize in verse 6 properly only a prohibition of the first degree were to accept it, Point 1 was unanimously adopted, and, since the shortness of time was pressing, it was resolved to receive the remaining part of the 4th thesis, as well as the 5th and 6th theses, with the citations collected by the Reverend Essayist, without debate.

That entering into a marriage with a deceased wife's sister is forbidden by God is evident from this:

2. that a marriage in entirely the same degree of relationship, namely with a deceased brother's wife, is expressly forbidden, Leviticus 18:16; 20:21.

For this the following testimonies were presented:

Chemnitz: "Because in the first specific prohibition, Leviticus 18:7, 8, the marriages both of the daughter with the father and of the son with the mother are expressly forbidden, God Himself shows, although the following prohibitions only mention which male persons cannot enter marriage with a female person, that by virtue of the sequence of the first prohibition it is right and necessary to assume that in those prohibitions there is no difference between the male and the female sex; that is to say, because a male person is forbidden to take in marriage the sister either of the mother or of the father (namely the cousin or aunt), in the same way a female person of the same degree is also forbidden the brother of the father, who is in the same degree as the cousin and the aunt. This is also confirmed by the fact that in Leviticus the sister of the father is forbidden in the same way as the sister of the mother. Likewise the granddaughter by the son is forbidden in the same way as the granddaughter by the daughter. In the prohibition, therefore, the difference of sex is not observed; but as the sister is forbidden to the brother, in the same way