Prohibition of Marriage to a Brother’s Wife and to a Wife’s Sister (2)
Prohibition of Marriage to a Brother’s Wife and to a Wife’s Sister (2)
In the past two issues, we spoke about the prohibition of marriage to a wife’s sister and to a husband’s brother, according to the teaching of the Holy Bible and according to what is stipulated in the laws of the Holy Church.
Today we answer eight questions related to the subject:
“(He who has ears to hear, let him hear)” (Mark 4:9).
First Question
Was the prohibition of marriage to a brother’s wife and to a wife’s sister due to avoiding the occurrence of the crime of murder? And was it a civil prohibition by orders of kings?
So that a brother would not kill his brother in order to marry his wife, and so that a sister would not poison her sister and kill her in order to marry her husband…?!
Answer:
The Scripture never mentioned at all that the reason for the prohibition was to avoid murder. Rather, it mentioned that the prohibition is because of forbidden kinship, for the preservation of chastity within the family circle, and that the prohibition is purely religious.
The wife’s sister is considered a sister to the husband, and the husband’s brother is considered a brother to the wife, because marriage has made the two spouses one. Thus, the relatives of one become relatives of the other. In this way, through affinity, the two families are bound together and become one family, united by kinship ties.
If a person looks at his brother’s wife as though she were his sister, he cannot desire her, nor would he ever think of her as becoming his wife. But for him to desire her, wish to marry her, and kill his brother in order to marry her—this is the worst that family relationships could ever reach, and the worst that human feelings could reach. Religion, however, elevates the human spirit and prevents such feelings from their very origin by establishing laws for forbidden kinships. This is what the divine revelation did in the first written law that God sent to us through Moses the Prophet.
Thus, marriage to a brother’s wife was described as “uncleanness” (Lev. 20:21).
Whoever does this has “uncovered his brother’s nakedness” (Lev. 20:21), and therefore it says in (Lev. 18:16):
“You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.”
Ecclesiastical laws have forbidden such a marriage, or such uncleanness.
The same situation applies to marriage to a wife’s sister.
If some emperors forbade these marriages for a secular reason that suited them—namely, avoiding crime—this is their own affair. But the Holy Bible did not mention this.
If the laws of kings prevent the commission of crime, the divine revelation has prevented the lust itself from its origin, which leads to crime, and the ecclesiastical laws have also forbidden it.
A man may travel and leave his wife and children in the care of his brother, and he is completely assured that his brother will not look at this wife with a lustful look. She is his sister; he has all the feelings of brotherhood toward her. On the other hand, if there is a married woman who becomes ill and bedridden, she may ask her sister to live with her and care for her in her illness, without it ever crossing her mind that she would desire this husband. He is her brother. Nor would she ever think that her sister would poison her during her illness in order to take her husband after her death!!
Thus, the divine order preserves the chastity and integrity of the family.
But if the brother feels that he could marry his brother’s wife after his death, and if the sister feels that she could marry her sister’s husband if she dies… what would the feelings then be within the family circle?!
It is uncleanness, as the Scripture says.
Second Question
Is it true that some Christian kings permit marriage to a wife’s sister if it is proven that her death was not criminal—that is, if it is proven that she did not kill her sister in order to marry her husband?!
Answer:
The permission of kings is a civil permission, not an ecclesiastical one. Civil permission without ecclesiastical permission is of no religious value. We are not here discussing civil marriage so as to give importance to the permissions of kings regarding marriage.
The ecclesiastical law is explicit in prohibiting marriage to a wife’s sister. We have mentioned in the previous issue ten points proving this matter. As for the civil aspect, there are Christian countries whose civil laws allow divorce for reasons not approved by the Church, and also permit marriage thereafter in violation of Church laws. Let us therefore set aside such permissions and speak about the opinion of religion.
Third Question
Does kinship end with the death of one of the spouses, so that the impediments which prevented marriage to a wife’s sister or to a husband’s brother are removed?
Answer:
Kinship does not cease with the death of one of the spouses, and the proofs are many:
Is it not forbidden for a person to marry his father’s wife (Lev. 18:8; Lev. 20:11)? Did the father’s death end the kinship so that his wife became permissible?!
Is it not for this reason that Solomon the Wise ordered the killing of his brother Adonijah when he wanted to marry Abishag the Shunammite (1 Kings 2:21, 24), even though his father David did not know her until his death (1 Kings 1:4)?
Likewise, is it not forbidden for a person to marry his mother-in-law (Lev. 18:17)?
Would anyone dare to say that the forbidden kinship ended with the death of her daughter?!
In the same way, is it not forbidden for a person to marry his uncle’s wife or his aunt’s husband (Lev. 20:20) after the death of the uncle or the aunt?!
Is it not also forbidden for a person to marry his daughter-in-law (his son’s wife) (Lev. 18:15; Lev. 20:12)?
Would anyone dare to say that the death of his son has ended the kinship?!
Indeed, the forbidden degrees of kinship preserve the chastity of the family.
Fourth Question
Why is there an exception in marriage to a brother’s wife if he dies without offspring (Deut. 25)?
Answer:
The Scripture mentioned an important reason, which is to raise up offspring for this brother, so that the firstborn son would be attributed to him, and his inheritance would also be preserved. All of this does not exist at all at the present time and ended with the end of preserving the portions of the tribes and the preservation of genealogies in the Old Testament.
Fifth Question
You mentioned that Saint Basil the Great forbade marriage to a wife’s sister in many of his canons. What reasons did he present?
Answer:
I would like to mention two reasons among them: that it is not permissible for a sister to ascend the bed of her sister. Also, the mother’s sister (“the aunt”), who is like a mother, is not at all fitting to be transformed into a father’s wife.
How I wish I could translate for you the letter of Saint Basil to Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, and publish it, for it is filled with profound meanings on this subject.
Sixth Question
Is the brother the best person to marry his brother’s wife in order to care for his brother’s children?
Answer:
If the deceased brother has children, it is forbidden for his brother to marry his wife. God permitted the exception only in the case where there is no offspring, in order to raise up offspring for the deceased.
If you see that the brother is the best to care for his brother’s children, let him care for them without taking their mother as a wife. God forbade this marriage, despite what is said about the suitability of the brother to care for his brother’s children, because God is concerned with the chastity of the family and the sanctity of marriage above all else.
Here I make an observation: the brother who was feared might kill his brother in order to take his wife—“as alleged by those who speak about the laws of kings!!”—can such a brother be trusted to care for his brother’s children?! But the righteous brother who can care for his brother’s children is the one who does not ascend his brother’s bed.
Seventh Question
You mentioned that marriage which causes confusion in kinships and genealogies is considered forbidden. Does marriage to a wife’s sister or to a husband’s brother produce confusion in kinships? And how?
Answer:
Yes. These forbidden marriages produce confusion in kinships, among them:
A) A person marries his brother’s wife, who had previously borne a son by his brother. Then he begets from her a daughter. Thus, the son and the daughter are siblings from the mother’s side and cousins from the fathers’ side.
B) A person marries his deceased wife’s sister and has offspring from that deceased wife, then begets offspring from her sister. Thus, the children are cousins from the mothers’ side and siblings from the father’s side.
Eighth Question
Is the prohibition of these marriages linked to a particular era?
Answer:
These marriages are forbidden throughout generations and ages. Marriage to a brother’s wife was forbidden in the law of Moses the Prophet fifteen centuries before Christ. Then this prohibition was renewed in the apostolic age, in the fourth century, and in the thirteenth century in the canons of Cyril ibn Laqlaq.
In the late nineteenth century, its prohibition was published in a work on personal status by Archpriest Philotheos Ibrahim, professor of our teacher Habib Girgis.
This man was a great theologian and the first teacher of theology in the Theological Seminary in its modern era.
In his work, the prohibition of marriage to a wife’s sister and to all her forbidden relatives was mentioned: her sister, her mother, her aunt, her aunt’s husband, her paternal aunt, her paternal aunt’s husband, etc.
The prohibition of this marriage was also mentioned in the regulations of the year 1938, as previously stated.
I mention here that one of the fathers, years ago, permitted a man to take his brother’s wife. Then his conscience troubled him, so he filed a lawsuit, and the court ruled in his favor with the nullity of the marriage because it is among the forbidden degrees of kinship.
I have in my possession the number of this case and the court’s ruling in it.
Here, I would like to conclude my talk with you on this subject… and yet I will leave it open to any question that reaches me, as we stand by the laws of the Church, and before them, the teachings of the Scripture.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Al-Keraza Magazine, Year 16, Issue 17, dated December 30, 1988.
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