Biblical Marriages of Close Relatives

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There are numerous examples of, what we in modern times call¹, incest in the Bible. The most commonly thought-of examples are the sons/daughters of Adam and Eve (Genesis 4), Abraham marrying his half-sister Sarah (Genesis 20:12), Lot and his daughters (Genesis 19), Moses’ father Amram who married his aunt Jochebed his aunt² (Exodus 6:20), and David’s son Amnon with his half-sister Tamar (2 Samuel 13). It is important to note, however, that in two of the above instances (Tamar and Lot), one of the parties involved was an unwilling participant³—better described as rape in those cases as it was called in the case of Dinah⁴.

It is important to distinguish between permitted⁵ marriages of close relatives⁶ prior to God commanding against them (Leviticus 18:6–18) and how these relationships were defined⁷  after God’s commands had been revealed to Moses⁸. Until God commanded against it, it was permitted⁹. It was just marrying a close relative. It is undeniable that God allowed these marriages¹ᴼ in the early centuries of humanity. Since Adam and Eve were the only two human beings on earth, their sons and daughters had no choice but to marry and reproduce with their siblings or close relatives. The second generation (referring to the off-spring of Adam and Eve’s children)¹¹ had to marry their cousins, just as after the flood the grandchildren of Noah had to intermarry amongst their cousins. One reason that these types of marriages are ¹² strongly discouraged in the world today is the understanding that reproduction between closely related individuals has a much higher risk of causing genetic abnormalities. In the United States it is illegal to marry a sibling and in about half of the states it is illegal to marry a first cousin.¹³  In the early days of humanity, though, this was not a risk due to the fact that the human genetic code was relatively free of defects, but by the time of Moses enough mutations had occurred that it was no longer safe to have immediate family marriages therefore they were forbidden.¹⁴

Another consideration is that incest today almost always involves a pre-pubescent or powerless victim, and the perpetrator is abusing his or her authority with the goal of unilateral sexual pleasure. By that standard, the close family marriages of the Bible has nothing whatsoever in common with modern-day incest. There was no power difference between Cain and his wife, for example; the goal of Abraham and Sarah’s marriage was to create a family. Intermarriage among close family members was a necessity in the generations immediately following Adam and Noah and was not a sinful perversion of sex.

It seems that, by the time of Moses, the human genetic code had become polluted enough that close intermarriage was no longer safe. So, God commanded against sexual relations with siblings, half-siblings, parents, and aunts/uncles (Genesis 2:24 seems to indicate that marriage and sexual relations between parents and children were never allowed by God). It was not until many centuries later that humanity discovered the genetic reason that incest is unsafe and unwise. Genetics was not an issue in the early centuries of humanity, and the marriages that occurred between Adam and Eve’s children, Abraham and Sarah, and Amram and Jochebed were not selfish pursuits of sexual gratification or abuses of authority; accordingly, those relationships should not be viewed as incestuous. The key is that sexual relations between close relatives were viewed differently prior to the command not to marry close relatives – for no harmful genetic traits had appeared up to that time.¹⁶. It did not become forbidden and defined as sin¹⁷ until God commanded against it. No harmful genetic traits had appears at this point

Removed, Replaced, Added
¹ what we in modern times call
² his aunt
³ in the incest
⁴ as it was called in the case of Dinah (Genesis 30:21; 34; 46:15: was the daughter of Jacob by Leah – Dinah was abducted and raped near the city of Shechem, by Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, Hivites were a Canaanitish people)
⁵ permitted
⁶ incestuous relationships, marriages of close relatives
⁷ incest that occurred, how these relationships were defined⁸ to Moses
⁹ not incest, permitted
¹ᴼ  “incest”, these marriages
¹¹ (referring to the off-spring of Adam and Eve’s children)
¹² incest is so, these types of marriages are
¹³ In the United States it is illegal to marry a sibling and in about half of the states it is illegal to marry a first cousin.
¹⁴ but by the time of Moses enough mutations had occurred that it was no longer safe to have immediate family marriages therefore they were forbidden
¹⁵ “incest”,close family marriages
¹⁶ pre-Law and post-Law, the command not to marry close relatives – for no harmful genetic traits had appeared up to that point
¹⁷ “incest”,forbidden and defined as sin
Original article, “Why Did God Allow Incest in the Bible? GotQuestions.org

Satan

Our enemy employs many tactics in an attempt to distort the Word of God and the Christian faith. The Bible has been questioned and challenged for centuries by skeptics and by those within the faith.  However, the Bible has proven to be reliable when carefully studied. One question that frequently is asked is about close family members marrying each other.

In order to perpetuate humanity from a single couple, Adam and Eve, means the early generations would have had to marry close relatives, and would have had at least one instance of brother-sister marriage. For example, if Cain himself did not marry his sister, but rather a niece, that means that at least one of Cain’s brothers must have married a sister.

The Scriptures tell us that Eve is the mother of all the living (Genesis 3:20). There were no other groups of people apart from Adam and Eve, otherwise she would not have been called ‘the mother of all living’. The Bible also teaches us that sin was passed down to all human beings from Adam, their ancestor, and that salvation was provided by Christ, Adam’s descendant. This is why Jesus is referred to as the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45; Romans 5:12-21). Therefore, it was crucial that Jesus be a descendant of Adam. Second, God commanded humanity to be fruitful and multiply, making it necessary to marry one’s own relative. Many of the patriarchs of the faith married close relatives to obey God’s command of being fruitful and to avoid intermarrying non-believers. Abraham married his half-sister, Sarai. Isaac married his second cousin, Rebekah. Jacob married two first cousins, Leah and Rachel. Prohibitions of this practice would only come later during the time of Moses.

The closing statement of the first chapter in the Bible claims that God looked upon all that He had made and declared it “very good.” Though it may feel like an odd train of thought, this declaration of “very good” from the Creator would include human genetics as well. A major concern about marrying relatives would include the possibility of mutated genes and offspring with deformities. Everyone is actually related in varying degrees because every human being descends from Adam and Eve.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (bit.ly/marriagegenetics) there are basic facts about genetics that can help provide clarity to this biological concern. The hereditary information that is passed on from generation to generation is encoded on strands of DNA. As that information is copied repeatedly, it is copied letter by letter. Because of our fall into sin, as more and more copies are repeated, mistakes can arise within the genetic code. These mistakes are referred to as mutations. Mutations are responsible for thousands of inherited diseases. These are passed on through the generations because once such a mistake or “copying error” has arisen, that error is also copied. If there are consecutive generations of copying, then that mistake is not only passed on, but sooner or later another mutation will arise, which is then added to the original mutation. And this continues. Therefore, a population containing only one genetic mutation can produce offspring, but eventually that population will carry genetic information containing two mutations. And then three; and then four; and so on. Future mutations will be added to the already existing mutations. The more that time passes, the higher the accumulation of mistakes within the genetic information.  This helps us to understand that at a point in time it was no longer acceptable to marry immediate family members.

If we move backward far enough in time to the first family, we can also accurately project the non-existence of mutations within the genetic information. Remember that God declared His creation as “very good” at the end of Genesis 1. Therefore, Cain could have married his sister or any close relative without any biological risk because of the “very good” stamp on human genetics. Much later God established moral laws concerning intermarriage because of the ever-increasing amount of genetic mutations.

The Scripture can be trusted, and we can ask questions because there are logical answers to questions we have about the Bible. There was no biological dilemma to Cain’s marrying his close relative because genetic mutations did not yet exist. At the time of Cain and his wife, it was not a problem.

The common reaction to this truth is that God contradicts Himself because He established laws against this kind of thing. After all, doesn’t the Bible look down on incest? Doesn’t the Bible condemn these behaviors? Scripture does condemn these behaviors, but those commands and laws were not established until later in human history. God clearly allowed intermarriage between close relatives early on in order to populate the earth from one man and woman. Eventually, God chose to institute further define marriage relationships. This was especially important for the nation of Israel because, following their deliverance from Egypt, God commanded them to not marry anyone outside of their people unless those foreigners had become followers of the God of Israel. This would have made Israel a genetically isolated nation. By that time in human history, the gene pool was deep with mutations and defects. Therefore, as seen in Leviticus 18, God further defined sexual relations in order to prohibit more intermarriage that was becoming detrimental to His people. This was initiated approximately 2,500 years after the creation of Adam and Eve these were necessary to alleviate the potential of producing children with genetic defects. The promised Messiah would come from the line of Abraham, so it was of the highest importance to preserve the line of the nation of Israel. Until the change was instituted under Moses’ leadership, intermarriage was not considered immoral and was more common. There would be no moral dilemma from the time of Adam to the time of the Mosaic covenant. It was only after God established these new boundaries (instituted for the benefit of mankind).

The biological, genetic issues now present were not concerns at the time of Cain and his wife. Morally this marriage was permitted because the human race depended on the descendants of Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. Also, God instituted the Levitical code and Mosaic laws to protect the children of Israel both biologically and morally from marrying close relatives. But those laws would come later, at the appropriate time for human flourishing.

Marriage was designed by God to provide for human flourishing. When marriages are broken, changed, or deemed unnecessary, all sorts of things happen, and most of them are bad. But when marriages are strong and families are well cared for, all of society benefits.

Wikipedia – Prohibited relationships

Leviticus 18:7–11 and 20:11–21 sets out lists of prohibited relationships, and two chapters later specifies punishments for such unions, but the second list of unions is much shorter than the first. Critical scholars regard the lists as having originally been independent documents, bound together at a later point. The Deuteronomic Code gives a yet more simple list of prohibited relationships – a man’s parent’s daughter (including his sister), a man’s father’s wife (including his mother), and a man’s mother-in-law. In the Hebrew Bible, sexual relationships between siblings are forbidden to Jews but permissible to Gentiles (non-Jews).

The relationships prohibited by Leviticus 18 are:

To note: It is against the law in the United States to marry a full or half sibling and in
many states marrying a first cousin is illegal.

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