The Prohibition of Marriage to the Wife’s Sister and the Prohibition of Marriage to a Brother’s Wife
Church Laws
Questions About
The Prohibition of Marriage to the Wife’s Sister
and the Prohibition of Marriage to a Brother’s Wife¹
I will answer here the questions that have reached me on this subject, and any questions that may reach me about it in the future.
The First Question:
Was the prohibition of marriage to a brother’s wife and to a wife’s sister intended to avoid falling into 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?!
The Answer:
The Scripture never mentioned at all that the prohibition was to avoid murder.
Rather, it mentioned that the prohibition was because of forbidden kinship, in order to preserve chastity within the family circle, and that the prohibition is purely religious.
For 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. So the relatives of one are relatives of the other. Thus, through affinity, the two families are connected and become one family, united by kinship.
If a person looks at his brother’s wife as if she were his sister, he cannot desire her, nor think at all that she could be his wife.
As for desiring her, wishing to marry her, and killing his brother in order to marry her, this is the worst that family relationships can reach, and the worst that human feelings can reach. But religion elevates the human spirit and prevents these feelings from their very origin, by establishing laws of forbidden kinship. 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).
And whoever does this has uncovered the nakedness of his brother (Lev. 20:21). Therefore, it was said in (Lev. 18:16): “You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.”
Church laws have forbidden such a marriage, or such uncleanness. The same applies to marriage to a wife’s sister.
If some emperors forbade these marriages for a secular reason that suited them—namely, avoiding crime—that is their affair. But Holy Scripture did not mention this.
And 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 likewise the church laws have forbidden it.
A man may travel and leave his wife and children in the care of his brother, fully assured that his brother will not look at this wife with a lustful look. She is his sister. She has all the feelings of sisterhood. On the other hand, if there is a married woman who becomes ill and confined to bed, she may ask her sister to live with her and care for her during her illness, without it ever occurring to her that she would desire this husband. He is her brother. Nor does 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 a brother feels that he can marry his brother’s wife after his death, or if a sister feels that she can marry her sister’s husband if she dies—
What would the feelings then be within the family circle?! It is uncleanness, as the Scripture said.
The Second Question:
Is it true that some Christian kings permitted marriage to a wife’s sister, if it was proven that her death was not criminal?
That is, if it was proven that she did not kill her sister in order to marry her husband?!
The Answer:
The permission of kings is a civil permission, not an ecclesiastical one. And civil permission without ecclesiastical permission is not recognized from a religious standpoint. We are not here speaking about civil marriage, so as to give importance to the permissions of kings for marriage.
Church law is explicit in forbidding 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 permit divorce for reasons that the Church does not approve, and also permit remarriage thereafter in violation of church laws. Let such permissions, then, be set aside, and let us speak about the opinion of religion.
The Third Question:
Does kinship end with the death of one of the spouses, so that the impediments that prevented marriage to a wife’s sister or a husband’s brother are removed?
The Answer:
Kinship does not end with the death of one of the spouses. The proofs are many:
Is it not forbidden for a man 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 lawful?!
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 man to marry his mother-in-law (Lev. 18:17)?
Would anyone dare say that the forbidden kinship ended with the death of her daughter?!
Similarly, is it not forbidden for a man to marry his uncle’s wife or his maternal uncle’s wife (Lev. 18:20) after the death of the uncle?
Is it not also forbidden to marry one’s daughter-in-law (the wife of one’s son) (Lev. 18:15; Lev. 20:12)? Would anyone dare say that the death of the son ended the kinship?! Truly, the prohibitions of kinship preserve the chastity of the family.
The Fourth Question:
Why is there an exception for marriage to a brother’s wife if he dies without offspring (Deut. 25)?
The 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 be preserved. All of this no longer exists at all today and ended with the end of preserving tribal portions and genealogies in the Old Testament.
The 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 give?
The Answer:
I would like to mention among these two reasons: that it is not permissible for a sister to ascend to her sister’s bed. And that the sister of the mother—the maternal aunt—who is as a mother, should never be transformed into a father’s wife.
How much I wish to translate for you the letter of Saint Basil to Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, and publish it, for it is full of deep meanings on this subject.
The Sixth Question:
Is the brother the best person to marry his brother’s wife in order to care for his brother’s children?
The Answer:
If the deceased brother has children, it is forbidden for his brother to marry his wife. It was permitted only as an exception in the case where there was 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 his wife. God has forbidden this marriage, despite what is said about the brother’s suitability to care for his brother’s children, because God cares about the chastity of the family and the sanctity of marriage above all else.
Here I note an observation: the brother who is feared might kill his brother to take his wife, according to what the laws of kings claim!! Can such a one be trusted to care for his brother’s children?! As for the righteous brother who can care for his brother’s children, he is the one who does not ascend to his brother’s bed.
The Seventh Question:
You mentioned that a marriage which causes confusion in kinships and genealogies is considered forbidden. Does marriage to a wife’s sister or a husband’s brother result in confusion in kinships? And how?
The Answer:
Yes. These forbidden marriages result in confusion in kinships, among which we mention:
A man marries his brother’s wife, who had borne a son from his brother, and then he begets from her a daughter. The son and the daughter are siblings from the mother’s side, and cousins from the fathers’ side.
A man marries his deceased wife’s sister, and he had offspring from the deceased wife, then he begets offspring from her sister. The children are maternal cousins from the side of each mother, and they are siblings from the father’s side.
The Eighth Question:
Is the prohibition of these marriages linked to a particular era?
The 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 era of the apostles, in the fourth century, and in the thirteenth century in the canons of Cyril ibn Laqlaq.
In the late nineteenth century, their prohibition was published in a work on personal status by Archpriest Philotheos Ibrahim, the teacher of our teacher Habib Girgis.
This man was a great theologian and the first teacher of theology in the seminary in its modern era. His work included the prohibition of marriage to a wife’s sister and to all her forbidden relatives: her sister, her mother, her maternal aunt, her maternal uncle’s wife, her paternal aunt, her paternal uncle’s wife, etc.
The prohibition of this marriage was included in the 1938 bylaw.
Despite the facilitations that this bylaw introduced in the matter of divorce, for example—which we do not agree with at all—the spirit of facilitation could not include such a forbidden marriage. Rather, this bylaw prohibited it and relied on the canons presented by Archpriest Philotheos Ibrahim. This is the same that is taught in the theological college.
I also mention here that one of the fathers permitted a man years ago to take his brother’s wife. Then his conscience troubled him, so he filed a case, and the court ruled in his favor, declaring the marriage void because it was among the forbidden kinships.
I have in my possession the number of this case and the court ruling in it.
Here I wish to conclude my talk with you on this subject. Nevertheless, I will leave it open to any question that may reach me, as we stand by the laws of the Church, and before them the teaching of the Scripture.
¹ An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Sixth Year (Issue Thirty-Six) – 07-03-2008.
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