Thus, too, it is clear that the law of this 18th verse is a law of prohibition, not of relaxation, and therefore naturally and properly comes in its place with the other prohibitions of this 18th chapter of Leviticus.
And I venture to submit, that this is the whole meaning and application of this much controverted verse: viz., that it is not in the nature of a general law at all, but is merely the declaration of an exception to an exception—an exception to preclude two living sisters being simultaneously the wives of one man, even when the law of the Levirate, but for this prohibition, would lead to such result. I must add, that to me it seems to be a full, natural and sufficient explanation of the passage without any further application at all, that is, without supposing it to have anything to do with the general law, or to be any relaxation of the prohibition of the 16th verse as to the brother’s wife, or the converse case to it, by analogy, as to the wife’s sister.
Possibly the exact bearing of the foregoing argument may be made plainer by a paraphrase of the Scriptural statements, putting them something into the form of statute law, by which means the different provisions of the several passages may be combined and their connection be seen, as various provisions in the clauses or sections of an Act of Parliament are read together. I dare say I shall expose myself to not unjust criticism for technical blunders, in attempting to adopt Act-of-Parliament phraseology; but I shall be content to bear this, if I may attain my main object, viz., to shew how the different parts of the law combine and should be read in connection with each other, and especially what is the force and due application of what will be, so to speak, the last clause or section in the Act.
Suppose, then, God’s law as to these marriages to stand in the statute-book of a Jewish Parliament, imagining for the moment such to have existed. Might not the principal enactments stand something in this way? It will be understood that a permission or tacit sanction of polygamy must be assumed, as part of the common law of the community. Say, then, that the enactments in question stood thus:—
[None to intermarry with those near of kin.]
§ 1. Be it enacted, that none shall inter-marry with any related to them, whether by blood relationship or by affinity, within the following degrees, as set forth in the annexed schedule:—
[Schedule of Prohibited Degrees.]
(Then suppose Archbishop Parker’s Table of Prohibited Degrees here annexed as the schedule.)
The Act would then continue:—
[Brother to marry deceased Brother’s Wife, to raise up seed to his Brother.]