My husband and I are from Georgia, the Deep South. If you cut us open, we bleed sweet tea, and our hometown is a stone’s throw away from where famous country music singer Luke Bryan grew up.
Naturally, when we transplanted from Georgia to Colorado, we were constantly met with, “You’re not from here, are you?” We would smile, nod our affirmation, and make a joke of their guess at where we were from. More often than not, the guess sounded something like “Alabama.” Our common follow-up joke was, “No, and we aren’t married to our cousins.”
All joking aside, there’s a reason people joke about being married to relatives. Modern science shows the biological defects that a pre-related union can place on the next generation. For Christians, it’s only natural to wonder how this relates to biblical times, when family members married one another as the norm.
Was it biologically safer then? Did God approve of ancient inter-family marriages because there were literally only so many people in the world, so the only means by which to procreate was to have children with your third or fourth cousin?
These are valid questions that I’ve heard believers discuss many times, so let’s consider the cultural history of marriage and Scripture's present relevance to determine the moral baseline for marriage:
What Was Marriage Like before the Mosaic Law?
The Mosaic Law states in Leviticus 18:6, “You must never have sexual relations with a close relative, for I am the Lord.” The rest of the chapter fleshes this out with specifics that include prohibiting sexual relations with anyone from a parent to a sibling to a grandchild to an in-law.
However, before the Mosaic Law that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, there wasn’t an explicit moral rule against family members marrying each other. Abraham married his half-sister, Sarah. Jacob married his first cousins, Leah and Rachel.
But here’s the key point: Scripture doesn’t explicitly say that God approved of these relationships, nor is there strong scientific backing for its safety.
Adam and Eve’s children had to intermarry for the human race to survive. That’s a unique, never-seen-again circumstance. Meanwhile, certain nationalities and tribes often intermarried to preserve their people, which might be what we see when Abraham married Sarah, and Jacob married his cousins.
It’s important to recognize that none of these relationships are specifically approved by God, and, in fact, there is an instance in the pre-Mosaic Law in which we see God show complete disapproval for an incestual relationship. Though the text doesn't say verbatim “thou shalt not,” the context of the entire scenario reeks of sin and its lifelong consequences.
Let's take a closer look at this example.
Lot’s Incestuous Relationship with His Daughters
In Genesis 19, after Lot and his family flee the destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, his daughters realize that they are nomads. They don’t have a home, a community, or a potential husband to carry on their family name. To “remedy” this, each daughter sleeps with Lot after encouraging him to get drunk so he doesn't know what's happening.
It’s a hefty portion of text, but it’s vital to understand the detail of this account:
“Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said to the younger, ‘Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.’
That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
The next day the older daughter said to the younger, ‘Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.’
So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today” (Genesis 19:30-38).
We later learn that the Moabites and Ammonites became Israel’s largest political and spiritual enemies throughout the Old Testament. So while incest hasn’t been explicitly listed as a sin at this point in Scripture, and while it was culturally important for a woman to have children to carry on the family’s name, it’s clear that incest’s byproduct has a negative outcome. Excuses and cultural norms didn’t and don’t wipe away the reality of dishonorable choices.
This example illustrates why it’s important to understand inference. Using this literary tool helps you decipher what the Bible is saying even when it doesn’t explicitly list a “thou shalt not.”
The New Testament’s Warnings against Incest
1 Corinthians 5:1-2 says, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and put out of the fellowship the man who had been doing this?”
It’s important to understand that Paul is a bit frustrated with the Corinthian church. They claim to be Christians but act just like, if not worse than, pagans. In this instance, a Corinthian man is sleeping with his mother—or stepmother, as scholars debate this issue. Nonetheless, Paul is clear that, regardless, this isn’t acceptable.
If Paul’s rebuke isn’t heavy enough, John the Baptist publicly condemns King Herod’s incestual relationship, which ultimately incites Herod's wrath and gets him beheaded. In Mark 6:17-18 and Luke 3:19-20, Scripture records that John calls Herod out for marrying Herodias, who was both his sister-in-law and niece.
Later, in Matthew 14:1-12, we see that Herodias is infuriated by John the Baptist’s rebuke and personally requests the prophet’s death.
John the Baptist knew what could happen if he openly condemned the king, so if incest wasn’t such a violation of God’s holy ordinance, why would John the Baptist have risked his life?
John the Baptist understood what many modern Christians miss: it isn’t about looking for ways to dodge rules or dismiss what isn’t explicitly mentioned in Scripture; it’s about pursuing the heart of God and discovering that, when we pursue Him, His law of love is made evident—no matter what is spelled out in black and white.
Consider these verses as you seek to honor God’s law in marriage and all other relationships:
- “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8
- "For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Galatians 5:14
- "In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome." 1 John 5:3
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/Tero Vesalainen
