Page:The ancient interpretation of Leviticus XVIII. 18 - Marriage with a deceased wife's sister is lawful.djvu/35

25 ' note given above: "Uxoris demortuæ sororem ducere licebat."

Luke Osiander, whose great work appeared at Tübingen in 1578, and passed through thirteen editions in a very few years, correcting the Vulgate in pellicatum, says:—"Non accipies ad affligendum ad revelandum turpitudinem ejus (i.e., ne affligas uxorem tuam ducendo ipsius sororem) adhuc illa priore tua uxore vivente, quia ea res inter sorores acerbissimas æmulationes excitat, id quod ex matrimonio patriarchæ Jacobi manifestum est."

Menochius, in his book, De Republica Judæorum, 1607, says:—"Conceditur tamen ut priore mortuâ alteram ducat;" and, in his "Commentary on Leviticus": "Adhuc illâ vivente, quia mortuâ illâ poterant accipere sororem in conjugem."

The profoundly learned, judicious, and pious authors of our own Authorized Version evidently preferred this rendering by inserting it in the text, and throwing the other into the margin.

John Lorinus, in his "Commentary to Leviticus" (Antwerp, 1620), says, on Leviticus xviii. 18:—"Interdicitur carnalis conjunctio cum sorore uxoris, dum hæc vivit, tam nomine matrimonii, in quo soror habeat minus præcipuum locum, nempe pellicis sive concubinæ, quam alio nomine, sed et ne ambas quis ducat æquo jure primariarum, vel concubinarum: denique ut nullo modo rem habeat cum ambabus sororibus simul viventibus. Quare indicatur posse sororem defunctæ uxoris in uxorem accipi."