Page:The ancient interpretation of Leviticus XVIII. 18 - Marriage with a deceased wife's sister is lawful.djvu/63

 near-akin, our English Bible has in the margin, "Remainder," and this was the sense current in the age of the Reformation, generally received until lately, and still advocated by some commentators. So Jerome ab Oleastro says: "Hebraice est, Vir vir ad ornne residuum carnis suæ, non appropinquabitis ad revelandum nuditatem ejus. Reputat Hebraismus unam cognationem unam carnem: et quemque illius cognationis, residuum illius carnis, sen reliquias carnis. A patre enim uno relinquuntur omnes ab eo descendentes, qui sunt residui et reliquiæ parentum. Et videtur esse sensus. Ad residuum carnis suæ non accedetis, i. ad partem carnis suæ non accedetis." This is the sense also given by Michaelis, and advocated recently by Professor Bush. According to this, sheer means those descended from one common stock, pertaining to one common flesh, in technical language, consanguinei. Dr. Pusey thinks the etymology, on which the sense "remainder" is founded, incorrect, and prefers translating sheer "flesh," and in this I agree with him, because the word "sheer" signifies flesh of birds or beasts just as well as of man, as Psalm lxxviii. 20, 27, "Can he give flesh, sheer." "He rained also flesh, sheer, upon them as dust." But in sense Dr Pusey does not differ much from the others, as he interprets "flesh" to mean "near-kin," which, according to common usage, signifies "blood-relations." But whichever etymology may be preferred, the real meaning is to be fixed by the use of the word in Scripture; and an examination of all the passages where it occurs will show that it signifies none but blood-relations—a patre uno