Marrying The Same Blood

[brionne]

What I mean is for example, is it allowed to marry your own brother, sister, cousin,etc? Is there a verse that says it is not allowed?

'laying bare the nakedness' is a hebrew expression for sexual relations. 'laying with' is also an expression referring to sexual relations. The laws in leviticus below are speaking about not 'laying with' or 'laying bare the nakedness' of any of the following close family members:

Leviticus 18:6 “‘YOU people must not come near, any man of YOU, to any close fleshly relative of his to lay bare nakedness. I am Jehovah.
7 The nakedness of your father and the nakedness of your mother you must not lay bare. She is your mother. You must not lay bare her nakedness.
8 “‘The nakedness of your father’s wife you must not lay bare. It is your father’s nakedness.
9 “‘As for the nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father or the daughter of your mother, whether born in the same household or born outside it, you must not lay bare their nakedness.
10 “‘As for the nakedness of the daughter of your son or the daughter of your daughter, you must not lay bare their nakedness, because they are your nakedness.
11 “‘As for the nakedness of the daughter of your father’s wife, the offspring of your father, she being your sister, you must not lay bare her nakedness.
12 “‘The nakedness of your father’s sister you must not lay bare. She is the blood relation of your father.
13 “‘The nakedness of your mother’s sister you must not lay bare, because she is a blood relation of your mother.
14 “‘The nakedness of your father’s brother you must not lay bare. You must not come near his wife. She is your aunt.
15 “‘The nakedness of your daughter-in-law you must not lay bare. She is your son’s wife. You must not lay her nakedness bare.
16 “‘The nakedness of your brother’s wife you must not lay bare. It is your brother’s nakedness.
17 “‘The nakedness of a woman and her daughter you must not lay bare. The daughter of her son and the daughter of her daughter you must not take in order to lay her nakedness bare. They are cases of blood relationship. It is loose conduct.

 

[aspen]

Is this the slack-jawed, yokel; hillbilly; mountain william, thread?

 

[Groundzero]

My theory on this may be misguided and not intended for literal translation but in a way if you all really want to look at it...we are all descendants from Adam and Eve and we are all said to be Brothers and Sisters in Christ...so we are all related...just a thought.

True. My view: we must firstly look at the circumstances. I think that most the commands in the Law, such as a brother and sister, were not because it was a sin, but because the human gene pool had deteriorated to a point where you could no longer safely do it. Science has proven that even if you marry a cousin, you have a very good chance of having offspring with defects.


As to where Paul mentioned about the man having a relationship with his father's wife, I have an alternate suggestion. Nothing is mentioned concerning whether his father was still alive. I am going to stick my head up and say that his father was probably still alive. Why else should this be such a grievous sin? I think that is why he said it's not even mentioned among the heathen, that a man would go and commit adultery, not with some lady, but with his very own father's wife. There is no mention if it was his mother. I could very well have been. We must be careful and ensure that we have covered all avenues of Scripture. The reason that I lean towards this theory, is because God is the same. If it was not a sin to marry your sister in the first 1.5 thousand years, it must still be ok, except for our degeneration which makes it completely undesirable and inconvenient.