Consequently, when a man's wife dies, if he wish to marry again, he is at liberty to marry any of his wife's sisters by nation or by common sisterhood, but not his wife's own sister by blood (or affinity), because God's law forbids him so to do, she being considered by God near of kin to him through his marriage with her sister.
We now see what this 18th verse means. It is this—
(1) A man shall not marry a second woman, who is not "near of kin" even to his wife, while that wife is alive.
Why? Because God forbids polygamy.
Or (2), if for sake of argument, the word sister be counted blood relationship, it means then, "a man shall not marry a woman, who is his wife's own sister, while that wife is alive.
Why? Because (i.) God forbids polygamy. (ii.) It would be more incestuous even than the other, for a man cannot even marry this one, even if his wife were dead, because God forbids him, as she is near of kin to him through his deceased wife. It is seen from God's Word that a man may not marry at any time his deceased wife's own sister.
God, who is the Lord of Nature, says it is wickedness. The Hebrew word translated wickedness expresses the vilest kind of lewdness.
But it may be argued that the moral law of the Jews is not binding on Christians. What?
