these verses in Leviticus that kinship and affinity are reckoned the same by God, whether relationship by marriage be henceforth one of sanguinity, when physiologists themselves would forbid it, or not.
God says to man—
| 1. | Thou shalt not marry thy father's sister. Reason: She is thy father's near kins-woman, i.e. she is thy aunt by kinship. | |
| 2. | Thou shalt not marry thy father's brother's wife. Reason: She is thy aunt (by marriage), i.e. it is thy uncle's nakedness, and he is related by blood to thee. |
But before your uncle was married to her, she was not related to you at all. Now, by marriage, she is your aunt, and as such, like your father's sister, in No. 1, forbidden to be married to you.
Surely, now, these are the same for the woman, She cannot marry her uncle, either by blood or affinity. Her aunt's husband is as much her uncle by marriage as her father or mother's brother is by blood.
We see, then, that by marriage affinity is established equal in God's sight to blood relationship.
Therefore, as the husband of your aunt becomes your uncle, so the husband of your sister becomes your brother. But a woman may not
