THE SANCTIFICATION AND THE FAMILIAL RELATIONSHIPS He started His talk here by the statutes of sanctification, in particular those of forbidden marriages, not as commands by which the congregation are committed by force to follow, but as a way by which they would enjoy the holy life, that was not enjoyed by the other nations; and so that the congregation would be qualified to be counted as the people of the Holy God. And finally, so as not to defile the land by evil, to make it drive them out of it. 1- An introduction 1 - 5 2- The forbidden marriages 6 - 18 3- The carnal perversions 19 - 23 4- The consequences of ungodly abominations 24 – 30 1- AN INTRODUCTION: Starting by “the forbidden matrimonies”, Lest they might think that those statutes are deprivation or refrain, He proclaims their goal by saying: “I am the Lord your God; According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them; I am the Lord” (2-5). In this introduction, it is to be noticed: (1) He starts and ends it; and in its middle, as well, by saying: “I am the Lord your God”; and repeats this expression when he mentions the statutes themselves. It is as though He intends to say: I am the Lord your God; I am the beginning, I am the end; and I am the way. The statutes I present to you are not deprivation, nor refrain from doing things, but they are rather to acquire Me; your Satisfier! … God is the Goal of the commandment; We receive His commandment and statute, to discover and acquire Him as the secret of our life. (2) In this introduction He made it clear that by those statutes He intends to separate them for Himself. Having set them free of the land of bondage, and having granted them the land of Canaan as an inheritance, it is not befitting of them to walk according to the ways of those who enslaved them, nor according to those whose land they acquired. It is befitting of the people of God, and of every member in them, to have his spiritual statute that distinguish him from the lovers of the world. (3) According to St. Clement of Alexandria, “Egypt” in this phrase refers to the love of the world, while “the people of Canaan” refer to deception, against both of which the divine commandment warn us. (4) Commenting on the phrase, saying: “You shall therefore keep My statutes and judgments, which if a man does he shall live by them”, St. John Chrysostom says: There is no other way by which man would be righteous, except by keeping the whole divine law. Yet, as it is actually impossible for anyone to do that; and the Jews have failed to enjoy such righteousness, there was therefore a need for Him who keeps the law , while not breaking any of its commandments; namely, a need for our Lord Jesus Christ, He who bowed under the law, to consummate it by His own will, setting us free from the curse that dwelt upon us through breaking its commandments. Hence, the apostle St. Peter said: “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6: 68). 2- THE FORBIDDEN MARRIAGES: After the introduction, He paraded the forbidden marriages, banning approaching the bodies of relatives, and uncovering their nakedness, namely refraining from uniting with them in matrimonial relationship. The forbidden marriages were proclaimed as follows: a- Marrying the father or the mother (7); so as not to fall into what Lot’s daughters have done (Genesis 19: 30-38); by which they brought forth into the world Moab and Ammon, setting two nations opposing God b- Marrying the father’s wife (8), whether during his father’s life or after his death. The soul of Jacob was embittered when he heard that Reuben, his firstborn, slept with his concubine Belhah (Genesis 35: 22); and defiled his father’s bed; because of which he has lost his firstborn status (Genesis 48: 22). Absalom committed the same fault when he rebelled against his father David, set himself a king, and slept with his father’s concubines (2 Samuel 16: 22). c- Marrying one’s sister (9) d- Marrying one’s granddaughter (10) e- Marrying the daughter of his father’s wife (11); if she is borne by his father… Namely, the daughter of his father’s wife, even if she is borne neither by his father nor by his mother, she is counted as though borne by his father, because her mother’s bond to him as a wife. In other words, it is not allowed to marry the daughter of the father’s wife, even if she is borne by another father, on account of that she is counted as his father’s daughter, through the union of her mother to him. f- Marrying the father’s sister or the mother’s sister (12, 13) g- Marrying the wife of the father’s brother (14) h- Marrying the daughter-in-law (15) i- Marrying the brother’s wife (16) j- Marrying a woman and her daughter, nor a woman and her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter (17) k- Marrying a woman as a rival to her sister, while the other is alive (18); Namely, marrying a woman after divorcing her sister; nor marrying two sisters together, as Jacob did when he married Leah and Rachel (before the law). Now, why did the law forbid marrying those bodily-related women? a- To keep the sanctity of the family life; on account of that many families used to live together under the same roof; in which case one should look with sanctity toward his close relatives, that they are his flesh and blood … Feeling that he is not allowed to marry any of them, he will deal with them with pure brotherly or sonhood love, far from any carnal thought. b- Health-wise, according to heredity scientists, intermarriage among relatives, like cousins and nieces, may expose their seed to more hereditary defects, than marriage of non-relatives. c- According to St. John Chrysostom, marriage implies entering into strong bonds of lave, so that man, counting his wife’s relatives as his own, he will not marry any of them. According to the same line of thought, according to St. Basil the great, man cannot marry his wife’s sister, even after her death; on account of that, being one with his wife, he will not be allowed to marry her mother, her daughter, or her sister, having become like his mother, daughter, and sister. d- Forbidden such marriages, will help widen the circle of family bondages; namely, when the children marry of different families, diverse families would bond together. 3- THE CARNAL PERVERSIONS: After forbidding marriages among close relatives, the law warned against bodily perversions that were wide spread among some heathen peoples, like: a- “You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness as long as she is in her customary impurity” (19). The law forbids sexual relationship between husband and wife during her customary impurity, or if she has a flow of blood; Otherwise, both of them shall be cut off from their people (20: 18); … but in case that was unintentionally done, man shall be unclean seven days. This ban is based on the fact that, psychologically, and health-wise, the wife is usually not prepared for sexual relationship. On a spiritual aspect, as it came in the laws of the apostles: [That, being done, not for the purpose of producing children, but for the sake of pleasure; it is, therefore befitting of him who loves God, not to do it]. b- To keep away from adultery (20). “Man who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death” (20: 10; Deuteronomy 22: 22). c- To keep away from delivering children as human sacrifices, as it was done to Molech, god of the Ammonites (21) d- To keep away from sexual perversion, like homosexuality between man and man (22), or between woman and woman; or mating with animals (23) 4- THE CONSEQUENCES OF UNGODLY ABOMINATIONS: If, in the introduction, God proclaimed His longing for His people to live in holiness, to have the features that befit their God, and which separate them from the heathen nations around them; Now, at the end of this statute, God reveals the negative aspect, namely, the fruit of sin, in particular of the bodily abominations: a- “The land vomit you out when you defile it” (28). If God created the land for man’s sake; Once man, the master of the land becomes corrupt, he will corrupt the land as well, and it will vomit him out of it. In the old, when Adam and Eve sinned, the land fell under curse, to produce thorns and thistles (Genesis 3: 17). And when Cain killed his brother Abel, it was said: “The land will no longer yield to you its strength” (Genesis 4: 12). And the apostle says: “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now” (Romans 8: 22).. And now, as we return sanctified to the Lord in His blood, creation will bless and glorify Him. b- If the land or the creation, not enduring the corruption of man, will vomit him out; the holy Church of God, not enduring whoever persists on his wickedness, will separate him, and drive him out of membership in the Holy Body: “Whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people” (29). In the old covenant, the cutting off was mostly done by stoning to death; but in the new covenant, it is done by the deprivation of fellowship, according to the words of the apostle concerning him who has done evil with his father’s wife: “For indeed as absent in body, but present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, concerning him who has done this deed. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, … deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5: 3, 4). By driving him out of the fellowship of life, he delivers him to Satan; not out of hatred, but with hope that once his life is embittered, he may return with repentance, to hear the words of the apostle, concerning the same man, saying: “You ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow” (2 Corinthians 2: 7).
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