His Holiness Pope Shenouda III explains that marriage to a deceased spouse’s sister, or marriage to a deceased spouse’s brother, is ecclesiastically forbidden and biblically prohibited; the impediment is present in both the Old and New Testaments as well as in the Church’s laws and apostolic teaching.

Biblical evidence

• The speaker cites passages from Leviticus and Deuteronomy that list forbidden marriages, affirming that the Israelite law regarded such marriages as uncleanness in certain chapters.

• He also refers to New Testament examples: the Lord’s discussion with the Sadducees about the resurrection, and the story of John the Baptist rebuking Herod for taking his brother’s wife, indicating that the prohibition extended into the New Testament.

Old and limited exceptions

• The speaker mentions the one case in the Torah (the levirate law in Deuteronomy 25) where a brother takes his brother’s wife if the brother died without offspring, but clarifies that this was for a specific historical context and does not apply to our present-day civil or practical circumstances.

Fathers’ and Church laws

• He affirms that the teachings of the Church Fathers (such as the rules of Saint Basil) and recognized fathers, and the councils of the Church, set texts forbidding this sort of marriage and consider it ecclesiastically illegitimate, with spiritual penalties and exclusion from communion until the forbidden marriage is annulled.

Spiritual and practical reasons for the ban

• The ban is spiritual and moral: to preserve the chastity of the family and the clear boundaries of kinship roles.

• The practical and historical reason: the prohibition also aimed to prevent crimes that could occur for the sake of marriage (murder or poisoning), as historical examples showed, and to protect modesty, rights, and inheritance.

Practical conclusion

• The practical outcome is that this marriage is ecclesiastically forbidden, while it may not always be civilly prohibited under every secular law, the Church rejects it because it preserves family sanctity and spiritual order.

• The speaker encourages listeners to refer to Church laws and the teachings of the Fathers for detailed questions.

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