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and given for one special object only, and is limited to one particular condition of things, incident only to the Jewish economy, to meet which it is definitely designed and restricted; that therefore it involves, rightly understood, no contradiction at all to the law laid down generally that none shall approach to any near of kin to him (v. 6), nor to the cases which follow illustrating the meaning of that law (v. 7—17), nor, therefore to the prohibitions generally, nor to that one among them particularly, that a woman shall not marry two brothers—extended by direct analogy to the converse case, that a man shall not marry two sisters; in other words, that though the translation, and the inference to a certain extent, be both conceded, yet there is an ample and true sense for the passage, and full scope for its intention and enactment, without its for a moment clashing with the prohibitions of the general law.
But first I would say a word to clear the position that but for this 18th verse of the xviii. chapter of Leviticus, no one would doubt, as to the prohibition in question.
How does the case stand? The xviii. chapter of Leviticus deals first (as the heading states), with "unlawful marriages." After declaring emphatically, in the first five verses, the importance of keeping God's law, and warning the people against falling into the sins of the Egyptians and the Canaanites, the matter itself is opened in the 6th verse—"None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord." "This," as you, my lord, observed at the meeting at Willis's Rooms, (February 1st, 1860,) "is the key-note to all that follows. The law then shows who are near of kin to us, and proceeds to mention more cases of affinity than of relationship by blood."[1] I am aware that it has been contended on philological grounds that the terms "near of kin" are
- ↑ Speech of Vice-Chancellor Sir W. P. Wood. p.5.
