Page:The ancient interpretation of Leviticus XVIII. 18 - Marriage with a deceased wife's sister is lawful.djvu/41

 which of itself implies a liberty to marry the sister after her death—beside implying a connivance at polygamy."—Daily Scripture Readings, p. 225.

Professor Robinson, of Palestine fame, than whom a greater authority can hardly be named in Hebrew and Biblical literature, has considered the whole subject in the "Bibliotheca Sacra" for 1843. On p. 293 he says:—"Let us look now at the bearing of verse 18 upon the question. It reads as follows in the original:—

"Verse 18.—'And a wife to her sister thou shalt not take, to vex, to uncover her nakedness, besides her, in her life-time.'

"Now, taking this verse in its obvious sense, as it here stands, nothing could be more appropriate, either to the usage of the words or the logical connexion. The words here translated wife and sister are the same which are so used and so translated in the preceding verses—viz., 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. And when the lawgiver had turned, in verse 17, to speak of the wife's relatives, her mother's daughter and granddaughter, with whom marriage was to be forbidden, it certainly would be exceedingly natural for him to proceed, in verse 18, to speak of the wife's sister, with whom the probability of a marriage could not but be tenfold greater. So strong, indeed, is here the fitness of the obvious sense, both in respect to the words and the connexion, that leading modern commentators on the original text (Grotius, Michaelis, Rosenmüller, and others) do not hesitate to adopt it even on these grounds alone.

"If this view be admitted, this verse, as most agree, would seem to settle the question. It does not prohibit, but merely regulate, the marriage of a wife's sister; forbidding only that it should take place during the lifetime of the former. It precludes the occurrence of cases like that of Jacob with Leah and Rachel."

Even Professor Bush, after entering into a minute investigation of the words and phrases, feels himself