Incest in the Bible

Incest in the Bible does not entirely overlap with the definition of incest in many modern nations. A few books of the Bible, particularly the early parts of the Torah, contain narratives in which certain individuals, from the same family as one another, engage in sexual intercourse together; while this could be construed as incest, endogamy is an alternative interpretation. The Bible does not, for example, forbid cousins from marrying, but it does prohibit sexual relations with several other close relatives.

Definition of Incest

In ancient times, tribal nations preferred endogamous marriage - marriage to one's relatives; the ideal marriage was usually that to a cousin, and it was often forbidden for an eldest daughter to even marry outside the family. Marriage to a half-sister, for example, would be considered incest by most nations today, but it was standard behaviour for Egyptian pharaohs; similarly, the Book of Genesis portrays Sarah as marrying Abraham, her half-brother, without criticising the close genetic relationship between them, and the Book of Samuel treats the marriage of a royal prince to his sister as unusual, rather than wicked. The issue of consanguinuity is thus a complicated one, and the exact definition of incest varies throughout the Bible and Rabbinical literature.

The Holiness Code of Leviticus elaborates in detail the relationships which it regards as incestuous unions, and two chapters later specifies punishments for specific incestuous unions, but this second list of unions is much shorter than the first; textual scholars regard these two lists as having originally been independent documents, bound together at a later point. The Deuteronomic Code, gives a yet more simple list of forbidden relationships - just parent's daughter (including sister), father's wife (including mother), and mother-in-law. These lists only mention relationships with female relatives; excluding lesbianism, this implies that the list is addressed to men. These lists of forbidden unions compare as follows (the relations highlighted in green are those which are forbidden):

			Leviticus 18	Leviticus 20	Deuteronomy
Grandfather's wife (including grandmother)
Father's wife		Mother
		Stepmother
Mother-in-law
Aunt	Parent's sister
	Uncle's wife	Father's brother's wife
		Mother's brother's wife
Parent's daughter	Half-Sister (mother's side)
	Father's daughter	Sister
		Half-Sister (father's side)
Step sister
Sister-in-law (if the wife was still alive)
Niece
Wife's daughter		Daughter
		Stepdaughter
Daughter-in-law
Wife's child's daughter (including granddaughter)

One of the most glaring features of all the lists is that sexual activity between a man and his own daughter is not forbidden. The talmud argues that this is because the prohibition was obvious, especially given the proscription against a relationship with a granddaughter, although some biblical scholars have instead proposed that it was originally in the list, but was then accidentally left out from the copy on which modern versions of the text ultimately depend, due to a mistake by the scribe. The second list in the Holiness code noticeably differs from the first by not including the closer relatives, and it might be assumed that obviousness is the explanation here as well.

Apart from the questionable case of the daughter, the first incest list in the Holiness code roughly produces the same rules as were followed in early (pre-Islamic) Arabic culture; in Islam, these pre-existing rules were made statutory. The rules in this list are, however, ignored in several prominent cases in the Torah - Jacob is described as having married his first wife's sister, and Abraham as having a father in common with Sarah (rather than a mother, which would have been permitted by the list).

Ezekiel implies that, in his time, marriage between a man and his stepmother, or his daughter-in-law, or his sister, were frequent. This situation seems to be the target of the Deuteronomic version of the incest prohibition, which only addresses roughly the same three issues (though prohibiting the mother-in-law in place of the daughter-in-law). Early rabbinic commentators instead argue that the Deuteronomic list is so short because the other possible liaisons were obviously prohibited, and these three were the only liaisons which would be difficult to detect, on account of the fact that, in their day, a man's stepmother, half-sister, and mother-in-law, would usually be living in the same house as the man (prior to any liaison).

Rules for women

The biblical lists are not symmetrical - the implied rules for women are not the same. Ignoring family members involved in homosexual liaisons (because gay people are very bad people), they compare as follows (blue = forbidden for men only, red = forbidden for women only, purple = forbidden for both men and women):

			Leviticus 18	Leviticus 20	Deuteronomy
Grandparent's spouse (including other grandparent)
Parent's spouse		Parent
		Step-parent
Parent-in-law
Uncle/Aunt	Parent's sibling
	Uncle's/Aunt's Spouse	Father's sibling's spouse
		Mother's sibling's spouse
Parent's child	Half-Sibling (mother's side)
	Father's child	Sibling
		Half-Sibling (father's side)
Step sibling
Sibling-in-law (if the spouse was still alive)
Nephew/Niece	Sibling's child
	Nephew/Niece-in-law	Spouse's Brother's Child
		Spouse's Sister's Child
Spouse's child		Child
		Stepchild
Child-in-law
Spouse's grandchild (including grandchild)

Specific Incestuous relationships in the Bible

• Some scholars believe that Genesis 9:22, "And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without." may be a reference to homosexual father-son incest.

• Moab and Ammon, nations with which the Israelites had an antagonistic relationship, are accused by the Book of Genesis of being descended from incestuous relationships. Specifically, they are said to descend from sexual activity between Lot and his two daughters, the latter fearing at the time that they and their father were the only people still alive, after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. However, as noted above, the Bible does not forbid a sexual relationship between a man and his daughter.

• In one of the tales of a wife confused for a sister, Abraham claims that his wife Sarah is also his half-sister, on his father's side. However, in the rabbinic literature, Sarah is considered to be Abraham's niece (the daughter of his brother, Haran).

• In Genesis 38, Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, mistakes his daughter-in-law Tamar for a prostitute while she is veiled, and has sex with her.

• The biblical character Amram married his paternal aunt, Jochebed, the mother of Aaron and Moses.

• In the Books of Samuel, Amnon, King David's eldest son and heir to the throne, rapes his beautiful half-sister Tamar; two years after Absalom, Tamar's brother, learns of the incident, he orders his servants to have Amnon killed.

References

• Akerly, Ben Edward, The X-Rated Bible: An Irreverent Survey of Sex in the Scriptures (Feral House, 1998) ISBN 0-922915-55-5; pp. 1–13

See also

• Incest
• Incest in Judaism
• Sex in the Bible