"Incest in Law" Topic

My Brother is dating my wife's sister…

link

Sounds like you may be in need of Iceland's incest app

well that is not incest and nether is your mom dating your wife's dad. This happens all the time

I know its not, just feels odd! Last year was the first time they met, despite us being together 18 years at that point!

thats nothing. I know a family where two sisters married different men. they both got divorced from their first husbands and remarried the others previous husband. The kids go by their first dads last name. the first time you meet them it's very confusing.

My brother was an only child!

My dog's father is also her grandfather. THAT's incest.

Not hardly Last Hussar.

My father married the older sister of his older brother's wife.

Not that there was any interest, but had there been that definitely put the cousins 'out of bounds.'

My youngest (15 years) just keeps going 'ewww'.

The older ya get, the less ya care about where it came from.

Then there was that Old Testament custom of a brother having to marry the widow if his married brother died.

If I remember correctly one widow went through seven.

Nah- He was a pain in the bum as a kid, but that wouldn't be fair on him.

Then there was that Old Testament custom of a brother having to marry the widow if his married brother died.

If I remember correctly one widow went through seven.

Yup. And because they wouldn't impregnate her (because a son would inherit the original brother's property, keeping them from receiving it), she tricked the father-in-law into a one-night stand by pretending to be a prostitute (wearing a veil), and then proved the child was his by presenting the ring that had been given her as payment. Beat that, Hollywood.

Well, the one who married 7 brothers was a hypothetical situation presented by Pharisees, if I remember correctly. And I think you are mixing two completely different stories.

Lot (of Sodom and Gammorah fame) got both of his daughters pregnant after fleeing the city. It seems that their fiancées both died in the destruction, and he was currently unattached since his wife became a pillar of salt. So the girls did the only logical thing they could do in the situation. They got their dad drunk and took turns having their way with him. I don't remember who their descendants became. Probably a tribe in which congenital defects were common.

Yup, a couple bible stories were conflated there.

In Mark 12 and Luke 20 the pharisees present Jesus with a hypothetical about a widow who goes through seven brothers.

In Genesis 38 Judah (the patriarch of the tribe of that name) marries his son to a woman named Tamar. The son dies and the next son is supposed to get Tamar pregnant, but he foils this (remember the Jewish las doesn't exist yet, this is a previous legal system or just custom). When the second son dies Judah tells the widow Tamar to go live with her father until Judah's third son grows up, but when Tamar didn't get what she was owed she disguised herself as a prostitute to "hooked up" with Judah and get the son she as owed. Interesting ending after that. Not technically incest, but a pretty clear example o why you should keep your obligations.

So no (recorded) woman actually went through seven brothers, but one did go through two brothers and a father.

All very interesting, but not sure how this helps with the fact he is sending her flowers to her office.

This is making the rest of us look bad.

They got their dad drunk and took turns having their way with him. I don't remember who their descendants became.

According to Genesis, the boys' names were Moab and ben-Ammi, and they became founding fathers of the nations of Moab and Ammon respectively.

This is a very insulting story.

Moab and Ammon were Hebrew-speaking neighbors of Israel who never joined the Israelite confederation and worshipped their own gods. Their relations with Israel were fraught – sometimes peaceful, as in the Book of Ruth, sometimes hostile, as in the Mesha Stele.

The Israelites also recorded their opinion that Moabite women were ty. Hot, and ty.

So. The Israelite priests in their Big Book of Tales recorded an insulting just-so story about the origins of their frenemies Moab and Ammon. I will be very interested if we ever find Ammonite or Moabite writings that illustrate their views on Israel.

Before we decide that the big book of tales was edited for the convenience of its keepers, remember that this account makes the Moabites and Ammonites descendants of Abraham, which was a big deal. God commanded the Israelites to treat these two nations with special consideration as a result.

And remember that Judah was an important patriarch – if we're selectively remembering our past, Judah's indiscretion is on the list of top ten things we're going to edit out for the sake of space, along with Aaron making the gold calf, Moses losing his temper and being forbidden to enter the promised land, David committing adultery and treacherous murder, Abraham sleeping with Hagar (essentially doubting God's promise when he's known for his faith), and a host of other incidents.

Nope, if the bible was edited for convenience it wasn't done thoroughly or with subtlety.

…remember that this account makes the Moabites and Ammonites descendants of Abraham, which was a big deal.

Not exactly. Lot is said to be Abraham's uncle. Both Lot and Abraham descend from Heber, the Eponymous Ancestor of all the Hebrews (Hebrew speakers). The Israelite priests sorted the nations by their language affinities, which is explained as lines of descent in the Genesis genealogies.

Nope, if the bible was edited for convenience it wasn't done thoroughly or with subtlety.

I wouldn't say 'edited for convenience', but written according to the authors' understanding. Which I find fascinating – few such extensive documents survive from the 7th century BC. I presume the story about Lot and his daughters was current when the mazoretic version of Genesis was finalized.

Many of the stories reflect badly on their protagonists because the purpose of The Books was not to flatter, nor to record an accurate history, but to illustrate a repeated theme:

Israel sins, Yahu punishes Israel, Israel returns to obedient right conduct, Yahu lifts the punishment. Other details may be historical, or just added color.

My dads brother married my mothers sister and they had four kids. We are all double first cousins.

And your dad and his brother were brothers-in-law!