Levitico 18:8

8 Non iscoprir le vergogne della moglie di tuo padre; esse son le vergogne di tuo padre.

Levitico 18:8 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 18:8

The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover
That is, who is indeed a man's father's wife, but not his own mother, but a stepmother or mother-in-law; or otherwise this law would coincide with the former; a man lying with such an one is accursed by the law, ( Deuteronomy 27:23 ) ; such an incestuous copulation was that of Reuben with Bilhah, and Absalom with his father's concubines or secondary wives, and such an incestuous marriage was that of the Corinthians, ( 1 Corinthians 5:1 ) ; and of Antiochus Soter, king of Syria, with Stratonice his mother-in-law {c}: and even it was criminal to do this after a father's death, as Jarchi interprets it; and though she was only betrothed, and not married, and the father dead after such betrothing; as Gersom; nay, though she was divorced by the father, yet was not lawful for the son to have, no, not after his death: it is thy father's nakedness;
being espoused to him, and so one flesh with him; and the son and father being one flesh, such a mixture must be unlawful; and since then the nakedness of a mother-in-law is the father's, then surely that of an own mother's must be so likewise, which confirms a sense given of it in ( Leviticus 18:7 ) : Cicero ^F4 exclaims against such marriages as incredible and unheard of, as instances of unbridled lust and singular impudence.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 Vid. Julian. in Misopogon, p. 72
F4 Orat. 14. pro A. Cluentio Avito.

Levitico 18:8 In-Context

6 Niuno si accosti ad alcuna sua carnal parente, per iscoprire le sue vergogne. Io sono il Signore.

7 Non iscoprir le vergogne di tuo padre, nè le vergogne di tua madre: ell’è tua madre; non iscoprir le sue vergogne.

8 Non iscoprir le vergogne della moglie di tuo padre; esse son le vergogne di tuo padre.

9 Non iscoprir le vergogne di tua sorella, figliuola di tuo padre, o figliuola di tua madre, generata in casa, o generata fuori.

10 Non iscoprir le vergogne della figliuola del tuo figliuolo, o della figliuola della tua figliuola; conciossiachè esse sieno le tue vergogne proprie.