Eckhardt's Homiletisches Reallexikon, 1907–1917

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Treatises. Baier 3, 757-772. On the forbidden degrees of marriage. Luth. 6, Appendix 3-7. Pastorale, 204-214. Luth. 50, 152. On marriage with cousins. Luth. 47, 115. Exegesis of Lev. 18. Theol. 4, 319-347. Some propositions on the forbidden degrees of marriage. L. W. 19, 295-299. Theol. 7, 86ff. On marriage to a brother/sister-in-law. Syn. 78, 5-52. Luth. 34, 115. Mich. 7, 51-63. A paper on marriage to a sister-in-law. L. W. 52, 10. On answering the question: is the marriage of a widower to his deceased wife's sister divinely forbidden, or not? L. W. 16, 257-272. What is to be thought of marriage to a deceased wife's sister? Luth. 27, 17-20. Considerations and hints toward resolving it. L. W. 22, 105-110. L. W. 26, 115. 116. Pastorale 213-215. Baier 3, 767-770. Abbreviation: Z. = Zorn. May a widower marry his deceased wife's sister? A tract. Marriage prohibitions. Outline. Lev. 18. § 1. The division of kinship into consanguinity and affinity § 2. into lines § 3. The counting of degrees § 4. [Forbidden degrees § 5.] Levirate marriage § 6. Cousins § 7. Marriage to a sister/brother-in-law § 8. [The validity] of forbidden marriages [§ 9.] How to deal with persons who enter a forbidden marriage § 11. The government and [marriage prohibitions § 12.] 1. Lev. 18:6-18. Introduction. a. Occasion for these prohibitions. The Jews lived among peoples who posed a constant danger of enticing them to sin with abominations against the Sixth Commandment. b. Here, verses 6-17, God forbids marriage within kinship, but not 1. fornication. "To approach" someone here presupposes the contracting of marriage; 2. adultery with those who have a living spouse. That is covered in verse 20. - If fornication or adultery were forbidden here, God would not need to specify: fornication with your mother, with your sister, etc., any more than he does in the Fifth Commandment [say:]

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thou shalt not kill thy father, thy son, thy aunt, etc. Verse 6. Man, man (no one) shall approach any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness. A general rule. The Hebrew language has two words for "flesh": she'er and basar. She'er is used of blood relatives in the first degree: verse 12: the father's sister. v. 13: the mother's sister. Lev. 21:2-3: mother, father, son, daughter. Basar is used: a. of brothers, Gen. 37:27. b. of husband and wife, Gen. 2:23-24. c. of more distant relatives: Gen. 29:14, Laban and Jacob; 2 Sam. 19:13, David and Amasa, the son of Abigail, a sister of David. d. of fellow countrymen, 2 Sam. 19:12-13, David and Israel; Judg. 9:2. e. of all mankind, Isa. 58:7: hide not thyself from thine own flesh. What meaning she'er besaro has in Lev. 18:6 is shown by the context: 1. not the meaning it has in Isa. 58:7. Then all marriages would be forbidden, 2. not the meaning "blood relatives," for the following verses name blood relationship (consanguinity) and relationship by marriage (affinity) both intermingled: from consanguinity, verses 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17; from affinity, verse 8, stepmother; 15, daughter-in-law; 16, brother's wife, 3. but rather the meaning: flesh in the first degree of consanguinity and affinity. Note a. By this, every person is forbidden who is connected to us in kinship only through one intermediate link. Note b. One flesh are 1. husband and wife, Gen. 2:21. Matt. 19:5-6. Eph. 5:28-29: for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, 2. brother and sister. See § 1, verse 12. 3. parents and children, 4. fornicator and harlot. 1 Cor. 6:16. Note c. With those with whom one is already one flesh, one cannot become one flesh, Gen. 2:24, and therefore cannot enter into marriage. Note d. If the whole category is forbidden, then so is every species of it. Objection a. She'er besaro stands only for blood-kinship. - See above. Objection b. She'er besaro stands for kinship in general. - Yet Lev. 25:49 too regards it as referring only to the nearest relatives. Verse 7. Mother. The uncovering of the mother's nakedness is the uncovering of the deceased father's nakedness. - Husband and wife are one flesh. Verse 8. Stepmother. Verse 9. The elder half-sister. "Born at home or born abroad" does not, in the first instance, mean: within or outside of marriage (although, by 1 Cor. 6:16, a half-sister begotten through fornication would also fall under this prohibition), but rather: born in one's own family (household) or in a previous marriage. Verse 10. Son's daughter. Granddaughter. Verse 11. The younger half-sister. Verses 12 and 13. Father's sister. Mother's sister. Aunt. Verse 14. Father's brother's wife. Here the usual grounding of the kinship is missing. Instead it says: she is thy aunt by marriage. In any case, this marriage, which goes beyond the general rule, is forbidden out of regard for the reverence children owe their parents, so that the party owed such reverence should not become the subordinate one, and the woman not have to be subject to a man who, as her nephew, would stand beneath her. Respectus parentelae [regard for kinship status]. Note. This rationale falls away in the case of the mother's sister's husband, since here the woman remains the subordinate party. Verse 15. Daughter-in-law. Verse 16. Brother's wife. - If one applies the prescriptions given to the man in all these verses to the woman, then what is forbidden here is: the sister's husband. Objection. Here one should supply: the wife of a still-living brother. Against this: 1. In that case this prohibition would no longer fall under degrees of kinship, but under adultery, bigamy. 2. In that case the penalty in this instance would also have to be, not childlessness, but death. Lev. 20:10. 3. In that case the grounding, "for it is thy brother's nakedness," would not fit either. Brotherhood does not cease with death. 4. In that case one could insert this gloss everywhere, e.g. verse 8: thy still-living father's wife. 5. To supply this from a later verse (18) is contrary to usage. 6. The wife of one still living is not permitted at all, whether he be brother, uncle, or neighbor. Verse 17. Stepdaughter. Since kinship is given here as the reason, this verse does not deal with bigamy, but with the daughter of the deceased wife. Note a. Here the degrees of kinship (vv. 6-17) come to an end. Note b. That a new section begins here is shown by the punctuation of the Hebrew text. Verse 18. Here what is forbidden is simultaneous marriage a. either with two sisters. So the German and English translations. As grounds for this interpretation are given: 1. this cuts off appeal to Jacob's example. 2. verse 18 stands in close connection with verse 17. There it is said that one should not take, in addition to one's wife, her daughter; here: that one should also not take, in addition, her sister. 3. if polygamy in general were forbidden here, then all who had two wives in the Old Testament would have lived in a mortal sin and should have been cut off. v. 24. Compare, against this, 2 Sam. 12:8: b. or with two wives: one wife to another. Polygamy. Note a. The words isha el achotah mean: one to another, or in the masculine form: one to another. Gen. 13:11: one from the other; Ex. 16:15: one to another; 37:9: facing one another; 26:5: one to another; 6: one to another; 17: one to another; Num. 14:4: one to another; Jer. 23:35: one with another; Ezek. 1:9: one wing to another; 13: touching one another; Joel 2:8: not one to another. Note b. That "sister" here must be understood as blood sister therefore cannot be proven. Note c. That this passage speaks not of the deceased wife's sister, not of a consecutive marriage (as in verses 6-17), but of a contemporaneous one, is shown by the reasoning: "to vex her." Polygamy leads to vexation. Note d. To draw from the words "while she yet liveth" the conclusion that after the wife's death one may marry her sister is an inference of the same kind as the following: 2 Sam. 6:23, Michal had no child unto the day of her death - therefore, afterward she did. Matt. 24:23: if any man shall say unto you, etc. - therefore beforehand one may believe it. (L. W. 16, 269.) Eccl. 12:1: remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth - therefore not in old age. (N. 77, 27.) Lev. 18:18: "to vex her" - therefore, if she consents to it, one may have two sisters. (L. W. 16, 289. Syn. 78, 25.) - All Negroes who live together as man and wife without marriage are to be punished; therefore whites may do so unpunished. (Theol. 4, 344.) Note e. Even if one has successfully inserted the gloss "that is, after her death," nothing has been gained, because now verse 6 (the general rule) still has to be gotten out of the way. Verses 19-23. Closing remarks: a. Do these prohibitions concern all mankind, or only the Jews? Moral law or ceremonial law? They concern all mankind, 1. because they are already recognized by the light of nature, e.g. 1 Cor. 5:1: such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles. 2. because God wishes to punish the heathen for these abominations, v. 24f. God does not punish the heathen for not keeping the ceremonial law, e.g. the Jewish Sabbath. Note. A difference of degree is not excluded. What Abraham (half-sister, Gen. 20:12) and Amram (father's sister, Ex. 6:20) did without reproof cannot be such a crime as that for which God exterminates the Canaanites. Objection: the extermination of the heathen might refer only to the preceding abominations, vv. 20-23; 3. because the promise of verse 5, "he shall live in them," can apply only to a moral law. Compare Gal. 3:12: the man that doeth them shall live in them. Luke 10:28: this do, and thou shalt live. Matt. 19:17: if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments; 4. because the prophets cite parts of it as sins against the moral law. Ezek. 22:10-11. Amos 2:7. Note. The laws of verses 6-23 form a single whole. Verse 24: "in all these"; 26: "any of these abominations"; 27: "all these abominations." Therefore when the prophets single out individual items, they present the whole as moral law; 5. because parts of it are confirmed in the New Testament. 1 Cor. 5:1, stepmother. Matt. 14:4, brother's wife; 6. because they were always held in the church, among the church fathers, to be moral law. Note a. Hence verse 6 says: man, man, that is, every man, whoever he may be. Note b. These prohibitions are to be traced back to the general commandment of love: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. - What comes into consideration here is 1. safeguarding the chastity of family members, 2. the welfare of society at large. The joining together of unrelated families. Marriages between close blood relatives have a harmful influence on their children. See Cousins. Objection a. Moses is no longer any concern of ours. - But what is moral law in Moses, e.g. the Seventh Commandment, is still binding on all mankind today. Objection b. These prohibitions could not belong to the moral law, 1. because God himself made an exception. Levirate marriage: 2. because Cain had to marry his sister. - Yet a distinction must be made between absolute and relative natural laws. The absolute ones may under no circumstances be transgressed, because God's holiness does not permit it, e.g. the commandment to love God. The relative natural [laws...]

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Thara Nahor Haran Abraham Sarah Lot Isaak Esau Jakob Dina 3. The unequal collateral line: however many degrees the most distant person is removed from the common ancestor (Thara), by that many degrees the two persons are distant from one another. Laban and Abraham in the 3rd degree. Isaak and Laban likewise in the 3rd degree. b. Affinity. Here the degrees are counted the same way as with consanguinity. 1. The direct line: Sarah and Thara in the 1st degree. Father-in-law and daughter-in-law. — Sarah is Thara's relative by affinity in the 1st degree, Abraham on the other hand is Thara's relative by consanguinity in the 1st degree. 2. The equal collateral line: Sarah and Nahor in the 1st degree. — Sarah is Nahor's relative by affinity in the 1st degree, Abraham Nahor's relative by consanguinity in the 1st degree. 3. The unequal collateral line: Sarah and Lot in the 2nd degree. Sarah was Lot's relative by affinity, Abraham Lot's relative by consanguinity, in the 2nd degree. Note. The counting of degrees according to Roman civil law follows the rule: as many generations, so many degrees of kinship. Accordingly Esau and Rebekah are related in the 6th degree.

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5. Which degrees are forbidden? Both consanguinity and affinity can be an impediment to marriage. And indeed, as is evident from Lev. 18, the following degrees of consanguinity are forbidden: in the direct line, all; in the equal collateral line, the first; in the unequal collateral line, the second degree. Affinity is regarded the same as consanguinity. In whatever degrees marriage is forbidden to blood relatives, it is also forbidden to relatives by affinity. Accordingly the following marriages are forbidden: a. in the direct line: 1. Consanguinity: parents and children. 2. Affinity: stepparents and stepchildren, parents-in-law and children-in-law. Stepparents count as one's own parents, children-in-law as one's own children. Ruth 1:12: Turn back, my daughters. 1 Sam. 24:12 [i.e. v. 11]: My father, see the hem of your robe. b. in the equal collateral line: Consanguinity: brother and sister. Stepsiblings. Note a. Since according to God's plan all people were to descend from one blood, an exception to this was made at the beginning of the world. Cain and his sister. Note b. That such marriages are forbidden as incest can already be recognized from the light of nature. Why did Abraham give out Sarah as his sister? Gen. 12:11–19. 20:2–12. Note c. The half-sister also belongs here. Lev. 18:9: born at home or abroad. See § 1. (Abraham had his half-sister as wife. Gen. 20:12.) Affinity: the spouse's siblings and the siblings' spouses, the husband's brother, the wife's sister, the sister's husband, the brother's wife. Note a. Example: Herod and his brother Philip's wife. John does not rebuke him for adultery but for fornication. — Yet it can hardly be shown historically whether Philip was still living at the time or not. — Our confessions say: during his lifetime. Konk. 442 § 305. — He was already married, to the daughter of the Arabian king Aretas, when he took Herodias. Jo. 1907, 51. 52. Note b. Marriage with the bride of a betrothed brother is permitted, since they have not yet become one flesh. Yet natural feeling is against it; in the unequal collateral line Consanguinity: uncle, aunt, nephew, niece. Note. Amram, Moses' father, had his father's sister. Ex. 6:20. Num. 26:59. Affinity. The father's brother's wife. See § 1, verse 14. Note a. Two brothers (likewise father and son) may marry two sisters, or mother and daughter, yet it is to be wished that the father does not take the daughter and the son the mother. Note b. Blood-kinship arising through fornication is also an impediment to marriage. A brother may not marry a sister begotten outside of marriage. 1 Cor. 6:16: whoever is joined to a harlot is one body with her. Note c. Affinity does not cease with death. Lev. 18:7. Whoever marries the mother after the father's death also uncovers the father's nakedness. Were the kinship to cease, then 1. Paul could not have punished the incestuous man in 1 Cor. 5, 2. one could marry the aunt after the mother's death. Note d. Whoever takes a wife forbidden to him by God or by the government cannot say that God has brought him his wife. Note e. The pastor should also give his congregation thorough instruction concerning the prohibited degrees of marriage and read the prohibitions aloud about once a year. Objection. Papists. The pope takes it upon himself to dispense from the forbidden degrees of marriage and to issue new prohibitions. Godparents at baptism and at confirmation are bound by such kinship that no marriage can be entered into between them. 6. The levirate marriage, Deut. 25:5,6, had the purpose that the brother's name might be preserved in Israel and his inheritance not pass to another family. It belongs to the Jewish civil law and is thus now abolished. 7. Cousins. Marriage with the children of siblings a. is not forbidden in God's Word. Yet for other reasons (the frequent frailty of children born of such unions) one would rather advise against it. Luth. 47, 115. L. W. 52, 518; b. is forbidden in some states by the government. Luth. 47, 115. Note a. The government may do this; see § 12. Note b. One should obey state law, because it does not demand obedience against God's commandment; for God's Word does not forbid marriage between first cousins. — If one does not wish to obey, let him move to another state. Note c. Evasion of such a law, by having oneself married outside the state and then returning again: 1. Such a person violates a state law; for every citizen should submit to the laws of the state in which he lives. 2. Some states (Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Arkansas) have expressly closed this loophole. There one must either emigrate, or, if the engagement was made on the assumption of remaining in the state, regard the engagement as void. 3. Some states have left this loophole open and forbid the entering into, but not the continuation of, a marriage already contracted outside the state, according to the principle: a marriage which is valid where it was contracted is valid everywhere. So Christians may make use of such a concession which the state law itself grants them. 8. Marriage with a sibling-in-law. By marriage with a sibling-in-law is meant a. when the acting person is a man: marriage with a deceased brother's wife or with a deceased wife's sister; b. when the acting person is a woman: marriage with a deceased sister's husband and with a deceased husband's brother. All four cases stand in the same degree of kinship. If one is forbidden, then all are.

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Note. Incestuous are all consanguinity and affinity in the direct ascending and descending line, as well as all consanguinity in the 1st degree of the collateral line. b. All other marriages, on which God has set no death penalty and has not commanded that the marriage be dissolved, are to be tolerated. Note a. In the New Testament it is not stated that every forbidden marriage — in which, under the Jewish law of the Old Testament, the people could remain once the marriage had been contracted — must be dissolved in the New Testament. Note b. Many a preacher has come into office in a wrongful way, but once he is in it, he should repent and remain. Note c. Toleration is not dispensation or permission. Note d. If those unlawfully joined have a troubled conscience that cannot be set at rest even by instruction from God's Word, so that they live in the marriage against their conscience, then it is more advisable to dissolve the marriage. Note e. Among the marriages which, if entered into, are to be tolerated, belongs marriage with a sibling-in-law. Note f. Luther and other orthodox teachers wanted to know nothing of tolerating marriage with a sibling-in-law, because it was also forbidden by the government and therefore constituted a standing offense. Objection 1. If people hear that they may nevertheless remain in a marriage with a sibling-in-law, they will enter into it without hesitation. But Christians say: Oh that my life might keep your statutes with all earnestness. Objection 2. If the matter is wrong, then repentance consists in the wrong being avoided. The people go on sinning as long as they maintain their union. That holds true of such unions as do not constitute marriages at all, for example brother and sister.

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11. How should one deal with persons who intend to enter, or have entered, a forbidden marriage (marriage with a sibling-in-law)? a. The pastor should warn and instruct in good time those who intend to enter into such a marriage. If, upon the death of a wife, her sister intends to take over the household, it is often wise to try to prevent this in good time. b. A pastor should not solemnize forbidden marriages and thereby make himself an accomplice. He should rather let himself be removed from office. Objection 1. But what if they then run to another pastor? — Let them run. Objection 2. But what if there is an uproar in the congregation? — You are to gather and hold the congregation with God's Word, and not against God's Word. c. If people have entered into a forbidden marriage and can be convinced from Scripture that their marriage is against God's Word, they should repent and remove the offense given before the congregation — by public apology. Note a. It must matter to every Christian to be certain that his marriage is pleasing to God. Note b. Cases in which people have entered into forbidden marriages must always be brought before the congregation. Note c. In difficult marriage cases it is better to seek the counsel of experienced fellow ministers.

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12. The government and the marriage prohibitions. The government may a. command what is not commanded in God's Word, for example that all soldiers must wear uniforms; b. relax what God has commanded. It is not so bound to God's Word that everything must happen according to God's Word; otherwise it would also have to forbid false worship and compel citizens to attend church. Note a. What the government permits, for example the wife's sister, is not thereby permitted before God. Note b. When we make laws, we try to come as close as possible to the divine laws, because they are the best laws; yet we do not run counter to God if we do not manage to bring the state's laws to where we would like them to be. Note c. One should obey the laws of the state. An exception would be possible only if the state were to command a forbidden marriage.