Leviticus 18:2
_God, to whom the right of giving laws belongs. (Du Hamel)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_God, to whom the right of giving laws belongs. (Du Hamel)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ordinances respecting marriages, divine worship, &c. (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Live in them, a long and happy life, (Chaldean) attended with grace and glory. (Lyranus) --- Jesus Christ and St. Paul explain it of eternal life. (Matthew xix. 17; Romans x. 5.) (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Approach to marry, much less to gratify his sensual appetite. (Haydock) --- To him. Hebrew, "None shall approach to any of their descendants;" ad omnes reliquias carnis suæ; to any of those who spring from the same stock. The Jews assert, that all are bound by the law of nature to abstain from thei... [ Continue Reading ]
Father, with whom the daughters must not have any connexion, as Myrrha had with Cymoras. (Metam. x.) (Haydock) --- All relations in a right line are excluded for ever, according to the emperor Justinian. The reason of these various impediments is, 1. That God's people may not resemble infidels, who... [ Continue Reading ]
_Father. He hath known her; and to him she belongs, as being one flesh. (Haydock) --- If he were even dead, it would shew a want of respect to marry his widow, though she were not your own mother. (Calmet) --- This law, Ruben and the incestuous Corinthian transgressed. [1 Corinthians 5:1] (Tirinus)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Abroad; being born of your mother, while she was married to another. The marriages of brothers and sisters at the beginning, were authorized by necessity; but now they are the more to be condemned, as religion forbids them. (St. Augustine, City of God xv. 16.) Some Rabbins assert, that such connexi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Sister, by thy step-mother._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Father. Nearly related, and springing from the same source. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who....affinity. Hebrew, "she is thy aunt." Some say that, in the old law, a person might marry his niece, but not his aunt; as the order of nature would be inverted if the aunt were subject to her nephew. But others assert that the law was reciprocal, and excluded the marriage of both. The emperor... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER XVIII.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Brother; though she may be even divorced from him. (St. Augustine, q. 61.) If the brother were dead without offspring, the next relation was bound to marry her; (Deuteronomy xxv. 5) and the kinsman of Booz was accounted infamous for neglecting this duty, Ruth iv. 6._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Daughter, together, or successively; even if she were the child of another husband. --- Incest. Hebrew, "a crime." Aquila, "an abomination." Septuagint, "an impiety."_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Rival her, ( in pellicatum). Hebrew and Chaldean, "to trouble her." After the death of one sister, it seems, another might be taken. Jacob had two at once. Some think that polygamy is here forbidden. But the law seems to have tolerated it; and only condemns many, or too great a number, with respect... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thus, &c. The refractory were to be slain, chap xx. 18. It was thought that the infant would be in danger; and hence the Jews punished with death the man whose child was born lame. St. Augustine (q. 64,) believes that this law is still in force; and some accuse the person who neglects it, as guilty... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wife. This crime is to be punished like the rest, ver. 29._... [ Continue Reading ]
Consecrated. Hebrew, "to pass through the fire to Moloch." Septuagint, "to serve the ruler." Syriac, "to marry strange women;" as also chap. xx. 2. One of the sons of Achaz was offered to this idol of the Ammonites; and yet, perhaps, succeeded his father; (4 Kings xvi. 3; xviii. 1,) which shews that... [ Continue Reading ]
_Abomination, punished so severely in the Sodomites, Genesis xix. Yet, even the philosophers of Greece were not at all ashamed of it. Bardesanes assures us, that the eastern nations punished it with death, and would not allow the guilty the honours of burial. Those beyond the Euphrates were so shock... [ Continue Reading ]
_Crime. Hebrew, "confusion." The Egyptians did so with goats, as part of their religion. See chap. xx. 16. and An. Univ. Hist. We need not, however, infer from this law, that the crime was common among the Jews, as Voltaire would insinuate. (Haydock) --- Nothing but monsters can proceed from such wi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Vomited. Moses speaks of what would shortly happen, as if it had already come to pass, which is familiar with the prophets. (Calmet) --- He represents the earth as sick and disgusted with the crimes of its inhabitants, in the same manner as the Book of Wisdom (v. 23,) says, the water of the sea sha... [ Continue Reading ]
People. Hebrew hammam. The same temporal punishment is inflicted upon all the aforesaid crimes, though they were not all equally grievous. The smallest of them deserved to be treated with such severity, to prevent the spreading of such contagious vices. (Haydock) --- The regulations respecting marri... [ Continue Reading ]