Page:The ancient interpretation of Leviticus XVIII. 18 - Marriage with a deceased wife's sister is lawful.djvu/45

 But, fourthly, Willett's assertion is not only untrue, it is built upon two assumptions, directly contradicting the first principles of interpretation; the first, that wherever a law occurs the first time, its meaning and extent are to be definitively settled without any respect to the context, or to the subsequent enactments or modifications of the lawgiver; and the second, that a command cannot be repeated, because it would not be "reasonable to revert to a case already provided for." They who read the Bible with moderate attention know that some commands, as those respecting the three great feasts, the paschal abstinence from leaven, the Sabbath, adultery, and murder, are repeated in various parts of the law; and also that in subsequent enactments it has pleased God to modify laws previously given. Thus, the command to eat the passover in the first month was modified (Numb. ix. 6—11), and, under certain circumstances, the celebration of the feast permitted in the second month. Thus, also, the prohibition (Lev. xvii. 3) to kill animals anywhere but at the door of the tabernacle, suitable whilst in the wilderness, was modified by Deut. xii. 15, so as to be adapted to their possession of the land. And thus the command (Numb. viii. 24) that the Levites should begin service at the age of twenty-five was modified (1 Chron. xxiii. 24 28), and the age fixed at twenty. Indeed, this absurd principle, that a law once given is incapable of change or modification, is the Rabbinic argument for the perpetuity of the whole Mosaic law. A Divine law, or the principle involved in it, may be modified by the Divine Lawgiver. Verse 16, therefore, cannot be interpreted without reference to what follows. If no modification or limitation had followed, then, on Willett's principle, the inference from the brother's wife to the wife's sister might have been adopted without limitation. But in verse 18 it has pleased God to limit the inference to the lifetime of the first wife. To make D 2