INCEST, an unlawful Conjunction of persons related within the degrees prohibited by the laws of God and the Church. By Incest is meant rather the crime committed by this Conjunction, than the Conjunction itself; which at certain times and in certain cases is not looked upon to be criminal: for in the beginning of the world, and again long after the deluge, marriages between brothers and sisters, aunts and nephews, and cousin germans were allowed. The sons of Adam and Eve could marry no otherwise; no more than the sons and daughters of Noah’s children, for a certain time. In the time of Abraham and Isaac, these Marriages were still permitted, and among the Persians much later; since it is said to be esteemed neither criminal nor ignominious, among the remains of the old Persians, even at this day.
There are some Authors who believe, that Marriages between brothers and sisters, and other near relations, were permitted, or at least tolerated, till the time of the Mosaick Law; that the first who prohibited Lev. xviii. 24, 25.them among the Hebrews was their Legislator; that among other people they were allowed even after him. Others hold the contrary; and it is hard to prove either of these opinions, for want of historical monuments of those ancient times. What we know certainly is, that God detests these Alliances, and forbids his people to pollute themselves with any of these things, for in all these the nations were defiled, which he was to cast out before them. He declares, that he will punish the detestable sins of this land, which abhors its own inhabitants, and throws them up with loathsomness. He begins his ordinances, on the subject of Incests, and other unlawful Conjunctions, with these words: Ye shall not do according to the customs of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt; ye shall not conduct yourselves according to the manners of the land of Canaan, whither I am bringing you. Ye shall observe my ordinances and precepts. All which intimates, that Incests were common and authorized in Egypt and Palestine.
The Marriages prohibited by the law, are, 1. between the son and his mother, or between the father and his daughter; and between the son and his mother-in-law. 2. Between brothers and sisters, whether they are both by the same father and mother, or by one or the other of them only. 3. Between the grand-father and grand-mother, and their grand-son or grand-daughter. 4. Between the daughter of the father’s wife, and the son of the same father, which returns almost to what has been said in the second article. 5. Between the aunt and the nephew; but the Jews pretend that it was lawful for the uncle to marry his neice. 6. Between the father-in-law and the motherin-law. 7. Between the brother-in-law and the sister-in-law. There is an exception to this law; which is, that when a man dies without children, his brother was obliged to marry his widow, in order to provide heirs for him. 8. The same man is forbidden to marry both the mother and the daughter; or the daughter of his wife’s son, or the daughter of his daughter. 9. His wife’s sister, as Jacob, who married both Rachel and Leah. But some translate the Hebrew thus; When thou marryest a wife, thou shalt not take a second: and many maintain, that this passage forbids Polygamy, which was only tolerated afterwards.
* Druf. Junius. Hammond. Willet. Indæi Caraitæ.All these degrees of relation, wherein it was not lawful to contract Marriage, are comprehended in the four following verses:
Nata, soror, neptis, matertera, fratris & uxor,
Et patrui conjux, mater, privigna, noverca,
Uxorisque soror, privigni nata, nurusque,
Atque soror patris, conjungi lege vetantur.
Moses forbids all these incestuous marriages, upon pain of being cut off: Whosoever Lev. xviii. 19.shall commit any of these abominations shall be cut off from among their people; that is to say, shall be put to death. This is plain, because adultery, and other crimes, which the Law in other places subjects to the penalty of death, are here made liable to the same punishment, of cutting off from among their people. And in the twentieth chapter, where some of these laws are repeated, these crimes are made capital: for example, If any one lieth Lev. xx. 11, 19.with his mother in law, let them be both punished with death. And he who having married the mother, marries afterwards the daughter shall be burnt alive with her. The generality of civilized people have looked upon incests as abominable crimes: some have punished them with death; and none but barbarians have allowed of them. St. Paul speaking of the incestuous man at Corinth, says, that he had committed a crime unknown and abhor’d even among the Heathens: It is reported commonly, that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
Tamar’s Incest with her father-in-law Judah is very well known: the Scripture does not condemn it; nay, it seems rather to approve it; and Judah, who designed to have her burnt for an Adultress, acknowledges at last that she was more righteous than he; because, he maliciously deferr’d marrying her to his youngest son Shelah, who should have wedded her according to the law, which obliges one brother to marry the widow of Gen. xxxviii. 24, 26.another, upon his dying without children.
Lot’s Incest with his two daughters can be excused only by his ignorance, and the simplicity of his daughters, who believed, or pretended to believe, that after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah there remained no more men upon the earth to marry them, and perpetuate the race of mankind. Gen. xix. 31, &c.The manner wherein they drew near unto their father, shews that they looked upon this action as unlawful, and that they did not at all question but their father would have abominated it, if they had not put it out of his power to have any knowledge of it, by making him drunk.
When Ammon the son of David offered to dishonour his sister Tamar in an incestuous manner, this Princess said to him, Brother, have a care how you commit this action, which would bring reproach upon me in Israel, and would make the world take you for a mad man; But speak unto the king our father, demand me for your wife, and he will not refuse your request. Tamar supposed therefore, that marriages between brothers and sisters were lawful. But whatever the opinion was of this young Princess, and whatever her intention might be, it is certain, that the Law expresly forbids these marriages; as has been just now shewn.