faulty Greek and Latin versions ceased to he slavishly followed, and the original Hebrew text and its idioms began to he more carefully studied, many of the most distinguished Reformers (Calvin, for example), while translating as in the English text, unhesitatingly rejected the inference that marriage with a deceased wife's sister was permitted; holding that it was clearly forbidden in the previous verses. So also the rendering of the text is accepted by distinguished writers of the present day, who, nevertheless, contend that it affords no warrant to the marriage in question.
But if the marginal translation is adopted, there remains not even the slightest apparent countenance to marriage with a deceased wife's sister. The marginal translation is: "Neither shalt thou take one wife to another to vex her, &c." According to this translation, the 18th verse simply forbids the sin of polygamy, and does not touch upon the question of marriage with a wife's sister. There are many reasons on account of which I cannot resist the conclusion that this is the correct translation. These are fully exhibited by Dr. James Gibson, of Glasgow, whose treatise on the "Marriage affinity question" is the most satisfactory which I have seen on the subject. The chief reason is that the idiomatic form of expression translated in the text "wife to a sister," is elsewhere uniformly and, as is admitted, correctly translated "one to another," or by words of similar import. There are upwards of thirty cases, and the rendering in the text is the only case in which there is a departure from the general rule. The following are a few of the cases: In Gen. xiii. 11, it is said of Abraham and Lot that they separated themselves "one from the other"—the literal words are "a man from his brother." In Gen. xxvi. 31, it is said of Abimelech and Isaac that they sware "one to another,"—literally, "a man to his brother." In Ex. xxvi. 17, we read: "two tenons shall there be in one board, set in order, one against another"—literally, "a woman against her sister." In Ex. xxxvii. 9, it is said of the Cherubims that they "covered with their wings over the mercy seat, with their faces one to another"—literally, "a man to his brother." Now there is no good reason to depart from the usual meaning of the words in the translation of Lev. xviii. 18. If the same, or a similar form of expression, be translated by "one to another," or words of similar import, in thirty-four out of thirty-five cases, it is fair to conclude that it should be similarly translated in the remaining case.[1] The marginal translation, it
- ↑ It has been objected to the marginal translation, that it would require the plural noun "women" to be inserted before the phrase "woman to her sister," translated, "one woman to another." But why should we require the word "women" here, more than the word "men" in Gen. xiii. 11 and Gen. xxvi. 31? In all these places the plural noun is alike needless, and alike omitted. When Moses had been speaking of Abraham and Lot, it was needless to say, and he does not say "they separated themselves, the men, a man from his brother" (that is, one from another).
