Глава 18

Prohibited marriages in close kinship, adultery, fornication and other types of sexual crimes 3 Lev.18:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Lev.18:2. declare to the children of Israel and say to them: I am the Lord your God. Lev.18:3. You shall not do the works of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt, and you shall not do the works of the land of Canaan, where I am leading you, and you shall not walk in their statutes: Lev.18:4. Fulfill My laws and keep My statutes, walking according to them. I am the Lord your God. Lev.18:5. Keep My statutes and My laws, which by doing, a person will live. I am the Lord [your God]. In view of the well-known voluptuousness of the inhabitants of the East and the historical fact that entire states and individual nations of the East perished as a result of the loosening of moral foundations, the limitless arbitrariness of sexual intercourse and the cessation of all existing family and social relations, Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, pronounces with particular solemnity the decrees regulating family life. Doubt arising, in view of the extreme disgustingness of some of the sexual crimes prohibited here, about the possibility of their bliss. Theodoret (question 24 according to Lev.) allows this: “God would not prohibit something that no one dared to do. And that this is really so is evidenced by the same thing: “After the beginnings of Egypt, you will not create the land of Canaan.” Having said this, he explains what they dared to do there, and prohibits such deeds. And that people dared to do many similar things is evidenced by the Persians, who to this day enter into marriage not only with sisters, but with mothers and daughters. Many also dare to commit other iniquities.” Lev.18:6. No one should approach any relative according to the flesh in order to reveal nakedness. I am the Lord. General rule: marriages and sexual intercourse in close consanguinity (Vulg.: proxima sanguinis sui) should not take place in Israel. Lev.18:7. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. Lev.18:8. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is the nakedness of your father. Lev.18:9. The nakedness of your sister, your father's daughter, or your mother's daughter, whether born in the house or outside the house, you shall not uncover their nakedness. Lev.18:10. The nakedness of your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter, do not reveal their nakedness, for they are your nakedness. Lev.18:11. The nakedness of the daughter of your father's wife, born of your father, she is your [paternal] sister; you shall not uncover her nakedness. Lev.18:12. Do not reveal the nakedness of your father’s sister, she is your father’s half-blood. Lev.18:13. Do not reveal the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s half-blood. Lev.18:14. Do not reveal the nakedness of your father's brother, and do not approach his wife: she is your aunt. Lev.18:15. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness. Lev.18:16. Do not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife, it is your brother's nakedness. Lev.18:17. Do not reveal the nakedness of your wife and daughter; Do not take her son's daughter and her daughter's daughter to reveal their nakedness, they are her half-blood; this is lawlessness. Lev.18:18. Do not take a wife along with her sister, to make her a rival, to expose her nakedness in her presence, during her lifetime. Individual cases of prohibited and criminal sexual unions: 1) son with mother (Lev.18:7); 2) with the stepmother and in general with the father’s other wife (Lev. 18: 8; in patriarchal times, incest between Reuben and Bilhah, Gen. 35.22, a crime against this point, cf. 1 Cor. 5.1); 3) brother and sister by blood (Lev.18:9) or step-sister (Lev.18:11; in ancient times, marriages between step-sisters and among the Jews were not considered unacceptable, as can be seen from the example of Abraham-Sarah, Gen. 20.12, cf. conversation between Tamar and Amnon, 2 Samuel 13.12 et seq.); 4) with his granddaughter (Lev.18:10); 5) marriages with an aunt (the marriage of Moses’ parents Amram and Jochebed fit here, Exodus 6.20): a) father’s sister (Lev.18:12), b) mother’s sister (Lev.18:13), c) paternal uncle’s wife (Lev.18:14); 6) with his daughter-in-law, his son’s wife (Lev.18:15; such was the crime of Judah with Tamar, Gen. 38); 7) with his brother’s wife (except for her childlessness after the death of her husband: then, according to the law of Levirate, Deut. 25, marriage was even obligatory - cf., on the contrary, the crime of Herod Antipas, Matthew 14: 3–4); 8) sequential or simultaneous cohabitation: a) with mother and daughter, b) with grandmother and granddaughter (Lev.18:17); 9) simultaneous cohabitation with two sisters - marriage with a sister-in-law during the life of the wife (Lev. 18:18), “so as not to make her a rival” (Jacob’s marriage to Leah and Rachel). Thus, the legislator prohibits marriages and sexual unions in close kinship - the first three degrees, thereby protecting moral relations of respect and love between blood relatives from the attractions and bonds of carnal sexual love and fostering mutual respect, modesty and chastity in members of the home and family. In a legal sense, not all prohibited couplings were recognized as equally severely punishable. Thus, the death penalty was imposed for cohabitation with his father’s wife and daughter-in-law (Lev.20:11–12); cohabitation with a mother and daughter was punished not just by death (usually through stoning), but also by burning the corpses of the guilty (Lev. 20:14); on the contrary, for marrying one’s brother’s aunt or wife he was only threatened with childlessness (Lev. 20:20–21). Lev.18:19. And do not approach a woman while she is cleansing her uncleanness, so as to expose her nakedness. Lev.18:20. And you shall not lie with your neighbor's wife, so as to shed semen and become defiled with her. The prohibition of marital intercourse with a menstruating woman (cf. Lev. 15.24), adultery with a married woman (cf. Ex. 20.14) - in both cases without clear proof of the crime, since otherwise the punishment in the first case was extermination from the people ( Lev. 20.18: if the woman was sick), in the second - death ( Lev. 20:10). Lev.18:21. Do not give any of your children to serve Molech, and do not dishonor the name of your God. I am the Lord. The cruel cult of Moloch, which consisted of carrying children through fire (and not in consecrating them to serve at the church of the idol - Blessed Theodore. Issue 25) in honor of the idol (in the form of a copper, empty bull inside) Moloch, the deity of the Ammonites (1 Kings 11.7) and other Central Asian peoples, but from the very exit from Egypt had admirers among Israel (Deut. 12.31; Am 5.26; cf. Acts 7.43) almost all the time before the Babylonian captivity (1 Kings 11.7; Jer 32.35; 2 Kings 23.10). For a severe condemnation of the cult of Moloch, see below Lev.20.2–5. Lev.18:22. Do not lie with a man as with a woman: this is an abomination. Lev.18:23. And do not lie with any cattle, so as to shed [semen] and become defiled by it; and a woman should not stand in front of cattle to have sex with them: this is disgusting. Lev.18:24. Do not defile yourselves with any of this, for the nations whom I am driving out from before you have defiled themselves with all of this: Lev.18:25. and the land was defiled, and I looked upon its iniquity, and the land cast out the inhabitants of it. The prohibition of the most disgusting types of carnal sin - sodomy (Lev.18:22, cf. Gen. 19.5; Rom. 1.27) and bestiality (Lev.18:23) is accompanied by an indication of their existence among those tribes (Canaanites), which, after their iniquities fulfill the measure of long-suffering (Gen. 15.16) of God, will be cast out from the desecrated place. land. Lev.18:26. But you shall keep My statutes and My laws, and do not do all these abominations, neither the native nor the stranger who dwells among you, Lev.18:27. For all these abominations have been done by the people of this land that is before you, and the land has become defiled; Lev.18:28. so that the earth does not overthrow you when you begin to desecrate it, as it overthrew the nations that were before you; Lev.18:29. for if anyone does all these abominations, the souls of those who do these things will be cut off from their people. Lev.18:30. Therefore keep My commandments, so as not to walk in the vile customs in which people walked before you, and not to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God. Taught by this formidable visit to the Canaanites, Israel must sacredly observe the divine laws and not desecrate either themselves or the land given to them by God, remembering that Jehovah, as the Lord of nations and history, in the event of the depravity of his members, he will be cast out from the land of promise: “just as for many iniquities I delivered the Canaanites to final destruction, I will hand over their land to you, so I will punish you too if you do the same” (Blessed. Theodoret, question 26). On ancient Jewish marriage magist. thesis of the priest. N. Stelletsky “Marriage among the Ancient Jews”, Kiev, 1891. You might be interested in: