In Leviticus 18 the Lord provides the people, through Moses, with a list of unions that are to be considered unholy. Today we'll be taking a look at two of the Lord's prohibitions regarding unions between very close genetic and/or legal relatives.
"No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord." (Leviticus 18:6) Yesterday we discussed the genetic reasons why close relatives should not mate, due to the high risk of birth defects in their offspring. Medical concerns aside, speaking from a moral and religious standpoint, the Lord is going to consider such relationships wrong. The people are to take His words to heart and obey them to the fullest because, as He says, "I am the Lord".
In our next two verses we'll see that no man is to have a sexual relationship with a wife of his father. He is certainly not to engage in such things with his own mother to whom he is genetically related. In addition, he is not to have an illicit relationship with a step-mother to whom he has no blood connection. "Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her. Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife; that would dishonor your father." (Leviticus 18:7-8)
There are several instances in the Bible where men sleep with their step-mothers. Reuben, the firstborn son of Jacob, is one example. He slept with one of the secondary wives of his father. Another example is King David's son Absalom, who slept with his father's concubines. In both of these cases the text suggests that these deeds were committed as an announcement of these men's intentions to take their father's place as head of the family. It is believed since Reuben was the firstborn he was announcing his intention to usurp Jacob's authority over the family. Absalom was openly trying to take the throne away from his father and was actively campaigning against him.
Another example of this type of legal (not genetic) incest is found in 1 Corinthians 5:1 where a man in the Christian church was carrying on an affair with his step-mother. Many Bible scholars think the man's father was dead and that he had taken up with his father's widow who may have been a young woman, perhaps the same age as her step-son. It could be that since this man was a Christian he thought since his father was dead his step-mother was free to do as she pleased with whomever she pleased. She was free to remarry, but not free to remarry her step-son according to verse 8 of our text today. In addition, it doesn't appear that the couple in 1 Corinthians 5:1 was interested in marriage. The possibility exists that the father was still alive but since Paul quotes the prohibition of Leviticus 18:8 against the man and not any of the verses about adultery, I have my doubts that the father was still living. Paul chastised the church for not caring that such blatant sin was going on and advised the church to excommunicate the man (it would seem the woman was not a churchgoer since her excommunication is not mentioned) for the purpose of helping him see the error of his ways. We learn later on in 2 Corinthians 2 that the man did repent of his sin and gave up the illicit relationship and was restored to fellowship in the church.
A man is not to have sexual relations with a sister or half sister. "Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere." (Leviticus 18:9) It doesn't matter whether the man grew up in a separate household from his sister or half sister. He may not have any brotherly feelings toward her if they were not raised together, but this doesn't give him license to enter a romantic relationship with her.
In Genesis it is implied that men were marrying close relatives. In some cases we are plainly told that they married close relatives; Abraham was married to his half sister Sarah. The only theory that Bible scholars, scientists, and geneticists can come up with to explain why this was permissible and genetically safe is that close to the dawn of creation the DNA of humans was less corrupted with errors---especially before the great flood. The gene pool was quite small in the beginning, and unless God created other couples on the earth besides Adam and Eve that we are not told about in the Bible, everyone was closely related to each other to start with. Until sin entered the world, disease and death and decay did not exist. But as time went on and sin's pollution permeated the creation more and more, more errors in man's genetic code would have developed. This means the closer two people were related to each other, the greater the risk they both carried the same faulty genes, which when combined would produce mutations in their offspring.
It's also believed that everything about earth's atmosphere and its ecosystem changed drastically after the flood. We don't know how much of an impact that had on the cells of human bodies, but for one thing we don't see God giving man permission to eat meat until after the flood. This indicates man could no longer obtain all the necessary nutrients from a vegetarian diet, and that means conditions on the earth changed drastically. It may also mean that the farther man got from the dawn of creation, and the longer sin existed on the earth, the more the bodies of human beings changed on a cellular level. Adam and Eve were created with perfect DNA and were capable of living forever if they had not sinned. But every time humans reproduced after sin entered the world, the risk of something going wrong increased because sin corrupted the genetic material of man. A man's best chance of avoiding birth defects in his offspring was to mate with a woman who was not closely related to him. That's why by the time we get to the book of Leviticus, we find the Lord clearly forbidding relationships that He previously did not speak out against, such as a man marrying a half sister or aunt or niece or first cousin.
It's going to take us several days to get through this chapter. In it we will find some relationships forbidden for genetic reasons. And we will find some relationships forbidden for legal or moral reasons. For example, a person is not "doing unto others as you'd have them do unto you" when he enters a relationship with someone else's spouse. The Lord wants the people to live lives of physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental good health. He provides the decrees of Chapter 18 for the good of human beings for all generations to come.
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