# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1878_S39
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 39 —

Spener: "To this it must be added further that until now our evangelical theologians have with good ground defended against the papists this rule, that in the divine prohibition of marriage, Leviticus 18, it is not the persons but the degrees that are forbidden; as, according to others (inasmuch as he, Gerhard, himself cites the famous teachers Chemnitz, Brenz, Selnecker, Osiander and Bidenbach), the famous Dr. Gerhard, loc. de conjug. n. 275, p. 40 ff., has maintained this proposition with many grounds hitherto unrefuted. With which the famous teachers who followed have held no less until this time, and still hold; of whom I cite only a few here: Dr. Brochmand, System. T. II, art. 43, p. 566; Dr. König, Cas. conscient., p. 779; Dr. B. Menzer, T. II, de conj., p. 1092; Dr. Calov, System., art. de conj., p. 358; so also the whole theological faculty at Wittenberg, Consil. T. IV, p. 66. Now if this is correct, as it is correct, then such a marriage with a sister-in-law by blood can no more stand than a marriage with the brother's wife can stand, which is so plainly forbidden twice, Leviticus 18:16 and 20:21, with which this case is equal in degree. . . . From this it will, one hopes, become clear to a soul that is not merely seeking an evasion and cloak for its disorderly desire but sincerely desires only to understand what the surest will of the heavenly Father is, in order to obey it willingly, to the satisfaction and conviction of its conscience, that the Lord has forbidden such a marriage." (Opinion of the year 1681, II, 539.)

Miesler: "Is it permitted to marry a deceased wife's sister? No. — 3. The law in Leviticus 18:16 is clear: 'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife'; now, however, the same relationship of kinship exists between a deceased brother's wife and a deceased wife's sister. Some object that here the relationship is an unequal one. A woman, they say, is not permitted to marry two brothers in succession, because of the mingling of seed that would take place in one subject, and therefore because of incest. But a man is permitted to marry two sisters in succession, because in different persons the seed is not mingled. I answer: the prohibition of degrees does not depend on the mingling of seed (otherwise one could marry mother and daughter in succession, which is expressly forbidden), but on nearness of flesh, which is entirely the same in the wife's sister." (Opus Novum, fol. 579.)

Point 2 was adopted. Likewise Point 3:

3. that marriage with a deceased wife's daughter is forbidden by Leviticus 18:17, precisely because she is the wife's flesh.