Mamzer

MAMZER. This Word is Hebrew, and signifies a Bastard. God forbids the Admittance of Mamzers, or Bastards, into the Congregation of his People, as far as the tenth Generation¹. The Rabbins² distinguish Mamzers into three Kinds. 1. Those that are born in Marriage, from Parents contracted in Cases prohibited by the Law. 2. Those that proceed from a criminal Conjunction, and punishable by the Judges with the severest Punishment; as are the Children of Adulterers. 3. Those who are born in Incest, and condemned by the Law, under the Penalty of being cut off. They also distinguish between Mamzers that are certain and uncertain. The first are those whose Birth is notoriously corrupted, and who without any Difficulty are excluded from the Congregation of the Lord. The doubtful Mamzers are those whose Birth is uncertain. These could not be excluded in Strictness, yet the Scribes would not admit them, for Fear that any certain Mamzers should slip in among them.

But the Vulgate, the Seventy, and the Authors of the Canon Law, take Mamzer for the Child of a Prostitute. These three Verses shew the Distinction between the different Sorts of Bastards, as acknowledged by the Law.

Some Interpreters take Mamzer for a generical Term, which signifies any Kind of illegitimate Children, whose Birth is impure in any Manner whatsoever. Others³ believe the Hebrew Word Mamzer rather signifies a Stranger or Foreigner, than a Bastard. Jephthah, who was the Son of a publick Woman⁴, was Head and Judge in Israel. Pharez and Zerah, the Sons of Tamar, conceived from a Kind of Incest, are reckoned among the Ancestors of David. Among the Hebrews the Children followed the Condition of the Mother. How then could a Bastard-Son, born of a Mother that was an Israelite, be excluded the Congregation of Israel to the tenth Generation, since the Egyptians and Idumæans might be admitted after the third Generation? So that there is great Probability Mamzer means something more than barely a Bastard, perhaps expresses a Bastard that is born of a Woman that is a Stranger and an Idolater. The Seventy render the Word Mamzer in Zechary ix. 6. by a Stranger or Alien; and Deut. xxiii. 2. by the Son of a Prostitute. The Hebrew Word occurs only in these two Places, and its Signification can by no Means be certain. The Author of the Traditions concerning the Books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, believes that Solomon was of the Number of the Mamzers; and that when Bathsheba says to David, 1 Kings i. 21. I and my Son Soloman shall be counted Offenders, or Sinners; she means, my Son shall be treated as a Mamzer, and my self as a Prostitute. And that David, being desirous to secure them from this, declared his Son Solomon to be his Successor in the Kingdom.

As to the Words, They shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth Generation, it cannot be meant that this Sort of Children may not be converted, or be admitted into Judaism, till after ten Generations; but that they shall have no Share in the Imployments, in the Dignities and Privileges of the true Hebrews, till after a long Time, and till the Blemish of their Birth is entirely obliterated.

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