Narratives featuring incest can be found in the Hebrew Bible, which contains mentions of various types of sexual relationships. It also lays out rules and regulations with regard to prohibited degree of kinship. These prohibitions are found predominantly in18:7–18 HE and nobook=yes 20:11–21, but also in Deuteronomy.
Endogamy was the preferred practice in many parts of the ancient Near East; the ideal marriage, in fact, was usually one to a cousin, and it was often forbidden for an eldest daughter to even marry outside of the family at all. Other endogamous relationships, namely avunculate marriages and sibling marriages, while considered outright incestuous by most of the world today, were also common among a number of ancient Near Eastern societies, such as that of Egypt's pharaohs.
Biblical commentary on human sexual behaviour is less critical for events that are described as taking place before the Law of Moses was issued by God to the Israelites. For example, the Book of Genesis discusses the marriage of Abraham and Sarah without criticizing the fact that they were half-siblings,[1] and the Book of Samuel treats the marriage of a royal prince to his half-sister as simply unusual, rather than wicked.
The Hebrew Bible mentions a number of instances in which marriage and sexual intercourse occurs between close kin, mostly dated to before the Sinai period:
18:7–11 HE and Leviticus 20:11–21 sets out lists of prohibited relationships, and two chapters later specify punishments for such unions, but the second list of unions is much shorter than the first. Critical scholars regard the lists as having originally been independent documents, bound together at a later point.[23] [24] The Deuteronomic Code gives a yet more simple list of prohibited relationships a man's parent's daughter (including his sister), a man's father's wife (including his mother), and a man's mother-in-law.[25] [26] In the Hebrew Bible, sexual relationships between siblings are forbidden to Jews but permissible to Gentiles (non-Jews).[27]
The relationships prohibited by Leviticus 18 are:
The lists of prohibited relationships can be summarised as follows (the relations highlighted in red are those that are prohibited):
| Leviticus 18 | Leviticus 20 | Deuteronomy | |||
| Grandfather's wife (including grandmother) | |||||
| Father's wife | Mother | ||||
| Stepmother | |||||
| Mother-in-law | |||||
| Aunt | Parent's sister | ||||
| Uncle's wife | Father's brother's wife | ||||
| Mother's brother's wife | |||||
| Parent's daughter | Half-sister (on the mother's side) | ||||
| Father's daughter | Sister | ||||
| Half-sister (on the father's side) | |||||
| Step sister | |||||
| Sister-in-law (except in case of Levirate marriage) | |||||
| Niece | |||||
| Wife's daughter | Daughter | ||||
| Stepdaughter | |||||
| Daughter-in-law | |||||
| Wife's child's daughter (including granddaughter) | |||||
One of the most notable features of each list is that sexual relations between a man and his own daughter is not explicitly prohibited. Although the first relation mentioned after the Levitical prohibition of sex with "near kin" names that of "thy father",[28] it must be taken into account that the Hebrew original text only addresses male Jews with regard to their female relatives.[29] The Talmud argues that the absence is because the prohibition was obvious, especially given the proscription against a relationship with a granddaughter,[30] although some biblical scholars have instead proposed that it was originally in the list, but was then accidentally left out from the copy on which modern versions of the text ultimately depend, due to a mistake by the scribe. The second list in the Holiness code noticeably differs from the first by not including the closer relatives, and it might be assumed that obviousness is the explanation here as well. One might argue that the explicit prohibition against engaging in sexual activity with a woman as well as with her daughter,[31] implicitly forbids sexual activity between a man and his daughter. However, the rationale might suggest otherwise (the original text is unclear here), since it mentions only that "they" (i.e., the woman and the daughter) are related.[32] John Calvin did not consider the father-daughter-relation to be explicitly forbidden by the Bible, but regarded it as immoral nevertheless.[33]
Apart from the case of the daughter, the first incest list in Leviticus roughly produces the same rules as applied in early (pre-Islamic) Arabic culture; in Islam, these pre-Islamic rules were made statutory.
Ezekiel implies that, in his time, marriage between a man and his stepmother, or his daughter-in-law, or his sister, were frequent.[34] This situation seems to be the target of the Deuteronomic version of the incest prohibition, which only addresses roughly the same three issues (though prohibiting the mother-in-law in place of the daughter-in-law). Early rabbinic commentators instead argue that the Deuteronomic list is so short because the other possible liaisons were obviously prohibited, and these three were the only liaisons difficult to detect, as, in their day, a man's stepmother, half-sister, and mother-in-law usually lived in the same house as the man (prior to any liaison).[35]
Also, cousins are not included in the lists of prohibited relationships. It is not considered incestuous.
The biblical lists are not symmetrical the implied rules for women are not the same – they compare as follows:
| Leviticus 18 | Leviticus 20 | Deuteronomy | |||
| Grandparent's spouse (including other grandparent) | |||||
| Parent's spouse | Parent | ||||
| Stepparent | |||||
| Parent-in-law | |||||
| Uncle/Aunt | Parent's sibling | ||||
| Uncle's/Aunt's spouse | Father's sibling's spouse | ||||
| Mother's sibling's spouse | |||||
| Parent's child | Half-sibling (on the mother's side) | ||||
| Father's child | Sibling | ||||
| Half-sibling (on the father's side) | |||||
| Step-sibling | |||||
| Sibling-in-law (if the spouse was still alive) | |||||
| Nephew/Niece | Sibling's child | ||||
| Nephew/Niece-in-law | Spouse's brother's child | ||||
| Spouse's sister's child | |||||
| Spouse's child | Child | ||||
| Stepchild | |||||
| Child-in-law | |||||
| Spouse's grandchild (including grandchild) | |||||