Leviticus 18:6-18

What boundaries protect family relationships?

Berean Standard Bible

6 None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD. 7 You must not expose the nakedness of your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her. 8 You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father. 9 You must not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere. 10 You must not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for that would shame your family. 11 You must not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister. 12 You must not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative. 13 You must not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s close relative. 14 You must not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations with her; she is your aunt. 15 You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sexual relations with her. 16 You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would shame your brother. 17 You must not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. You are not to marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and have sexual relations with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved. 18 You must not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is still alive.

What is the context?

The instructions name close family relationships in which sexual relations are forbidden. They include blood relatives and relatives through marriage, so that the protection extends through the household rather than stopping at biological parenthood.

The repeated concern for a relative’s nakedness describes the dishonor involved in violating these relationships. The final instruction also forbids taking a wife’s sister as a rival while the wife lives. The named relationships and that stated limit matter when comparing the laws with other passages.

How is this passage commonly understood?

Wesley stresses sexual relations in the repeated language about uncovering nakedness. The Westminster Confession 24.4 also applies Scripture’s forbidden family relationships to marriage itself. These approaches should not be collapsed into a claim that marriage automatically makes every forbidden relationship permissible.

On the brother’s wife, Wesley notes the particular exception in Deuteronomy 25 for the duty toward a deceased brother’s household. That specific case does not make the general prohibition meaningless.

Where does this fit in God's plan?

1 Corinthians 5:1–5 confronts a man’s relationship with his father’s wife and rebukes a church for tolerating it. The New Testament therefore treats such a family violation as a matter for the church’s moral discernment, while describing the church’s response in its own terms.

What is our position?

We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.

Where can I study this further?

No deeper study linked yet.

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