Incest in the Bible

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:

• In {{Bibleverse|Genesis|9:20–27|9}}, Ham saw his father Noah's nakedness. The Talmud suggests that Ham may have sodomized Noah (Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 70a). In more recent times, some scholars have suggested that Ham may have had intercourse with his father's wife.{{cite journal |last1=Bassett |first1=Frederick W. |title=Noah's Nakedness and the Curse of Canaan a Case of Incest? |journal=Vetus Testamentum |date=1971 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=232–237 |doi=10.2307/1517286 |jstor=1517286 }}{{cite journal |last1=Bergsma |first1=John Sietze |last2=Hahn |first2=Scott Walker |title=Noah's Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan (Genesis 9:20-27) |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |date=2005 |volume=124 |issue=1 |pages=25–40 |id={{ProQuest|214611724}} |doi=10.2307/30040989 |jstor=30040989 }}
• Abraham's brother Nahor married his niece Milcah, the daughter of his other brother Haran.{{Bibleverse|Genesis|11:29|HE}}
• Living in an isolated area after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the two daughters of Lot conspired to inebriate and seduce their father due to the lack of available sexual partners.{{cite journal |last1=Sabo |first1=Peter J |title=Moabite women, Transjordanian women, and incest and exogamy: The gendered dimensions of boundaries in the Hebrew Bible |journal=Journal for the Study of the Old Testament |date=September 2020 |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=93–110 |doi=10.1177/0309089219862807 |doi-access=free }} Because of intoxication, Lot "perceived not" when his first-born daughter, and the following night his younger daughter, lay with him. ({{Bibleverse|Genesis|19:32–35|HE}}) The two children born were directly Lot's sons and indirectly his grandsons, being his daughters' sons. Likewise, their sons were also half-brothers (between them and with their mothers), having the same father, as well as cousins, having mothers that were sisters.{{Bibleverse|Genesis|19:30–38|HE}}
• In one of the tales of a wife confused for a sister, Abraham states that his wife Sarah is his half-sister—the daughter of his father, but not his mother. However, in rabbinic literature, Sarah is considered Abraham's niece (the daughter of his brother, Haran).
• Marriage of cousins was common in the pre-Sinai period. Abraham's son Isaac married Rebekah, his first cousin once removed, the granddaughter of his father Abraham's brother Nahor with Milcah.{{Bibleverse|Genesis|24:15|HE}}
• Isaac and Rebekah's firstborn son Esau resorted to marrying his cousin Mahalath, daughter of his father's brother Ishmael because his parents didn't approve of him having relationships with Canaanites.{{Bibleverse|Genesis|28:9|HE}}
• Isaac and Rebekah's second son Jacob married his cousins Leah and Rachel, who were daughters of his mother's brother Laban.{{Bibleverse|Genesis|29:16–28|HE}} Leah and Rachel were sisters; a wife's sister is also forbidden.
• Jacob's firstborn son Reuben had sex with his father's concubine Bilhah.{{Bibleverse|Genesis|35:22|HE}}
• Judah, Jacob's fourth son, mistook his daughter-in-law Tamar for a prostitute while she was veiled, and had sex with her.{{Bibleverse|Genesis|38|HE}}
• Amram married his paternal aunt Jochebed, the mother of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses.{{Bibleverse|Exodus|6:20|HE}} However, according to the Septuagint, she was his cousin.[http://www.ecmarsh.com/lxx-kjv/exodus/exo_006.htm Exodus Chapter 6:20, LXX].
• Amnon, King David's eldest son and heir to the throne, raped his half-sister Tamar. Tamar's brother, Absalom, learned of the incident and, two years later, ordered his servants to have Amnon killed.{{Bibleverse|2 Samuel|13|HE}} In vain with Amnon, Tamar said, "Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee".{{Bibleverse|2 Samuel|13:13|HE}}
• Absalom, son of King David, in the middle of a rebellion against his father, had sex with his father's concubines on the roof inside a tent.{{Bibleverse|2 Samuel|16:22|HE}}
• Rehoboam, son of Solomon and Naamah,{{cite web |title=1 Kings 14:21 cev: Rehoboam son of Solomon, His mother Naamah;1 Chronicles 3:10–15 cev: Solomon's descendants included the following kings: Rehoboam |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=solomon+rehoboam&qs_version=CEV}} married Maacah daughter of Absalom.{{cite web |title=2 Chronicles 11:20 cev: Then Rehoboam married Maacah the daughter of Absalom |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=rehoboam+maacah&qs_version=CEV}} 2 Samuel 14:27 does not list Maacah as a daughter of Absalom,{{cite web |title=2 Samuel 14:27 cev: 27 Absalom had three sons. He also had a daughter named Tamar, who grew up to be very beautiful |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Samuel+14:27&version=CEV}} but Absalom seems to have had sex with the wives of David, his father, at the advice of Ahitophel.{{cite web |title=2 Samuel 16 cev: 22 Absalom had a tent set up on the flat roof of the palace, and everyone watched as he went into the tent with his father's wives |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Samuel+16&version=CEV}}
• Zelophehad's daughters, Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, married their cousins on their father's side to obey the Lord's command. The Lord said: "no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another".{{cite web |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+36%3A1-11&version=ESV |title=Bible Gateway passage: Numbers 36:1–11 – English Standard Version |website=Bible Gateway |access-date=2019-02-09}}{{cite book |url=https://www.bible.com/bible/116/NUM.36.NLT |title=Numbers 36, New Living Translation (NLT) {{!}} The Bible App|language=en}}
• Caleb said, "I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the one who attacks and captures Kiriath-sepher." Othniel, son of Caleb's brother Kenaz, was the one who conquered it, so Acsah became Othniel's wife.{{cite web |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua+15&version=NLT |title=Joshua 15:16–17}}

{{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:7–11|HE}} and {{Bibleverse|nobook=yes|Leviticus|20:11–21|HE}} 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.{{Jewish Encyclopedia |article=Leviticus |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=L&artid=301}}{{cite book |last=Friedman |first=Richard Elliott |author-link=Richard Elliott Friedman |year=2019 |orig-date=1987 |title=Who Wrote the Bible? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9SuDDwAAQBAJ |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-5011-9240-1}}{{cite encyclopedia |last=Moore |first=George F. |author-link=George Foot Moore |title=LEVITICUS - 16. "Chap. 18: Incest"; 18. "Chap. 20: Incest, etc." |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabib03cheyuoft/page/n69/mode/2up |year=1902 |editor1-last=Black |editor1-first=John S. |editor1-link=John Sutherland Black |editor2-last=Cheyne |editor2-first=Thomas K. |editor2-link=Thomas Kelly Cheyne |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Biblica |publisher=Macmillan Company |volume=3 |location=Toronto |pages=69–70 |via=Internet Archive |access-date=10 August 2020}} The Deuteronomic Code gives a yet more simple list of prohibited relationships{{snd}} 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.{{Bibleverse|Deuteronomy|22:30|HE}}{{Bibleverse|Deuteronomy|27:20–23|HE}} In the Hebrew Bible, sexual relationships between siblings are forbidden to Jews but permissible to Gentiles (non-Jews).{{cite book |last=Kiel |first=Yishai |year=2015 |chapter=Noahide Law and the Inclusiveness of Sexual Ethics: Between Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9pc0CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA64 |editor-last=Porat |editor-first=Benjamin |title=Jewish Law Annual |location=Abingdon, Oxfordshire |publisher=Routledge |volume=21 |pages=64–65 |isbn=978-0-415-74269-6}}

The relationships prohibited by Leviticus 18 are:

• One's mother ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:7|HE}})
• One's father ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:7|HE}})
• One's stepmother ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:8|HE}})
• One's paternal or maternal sister ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:9|HE}})
• One's paternal sister through one's father's wife ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:11|HE}})
• One's daughter (inferred from {{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:10|HE}})
• One's granddaughter ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:10|HE}})
• A woman and her daughter ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:17|HE}})
• A woman and her granddaughter ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:17|HE}})
• One's aunt by blood ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:12–13|HE}})
• One's father's brother (uncle) ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:14|HE}})
• One's father's brother's wife (aunt) ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:14|HE}})
• One's daughter-in-law ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:15|HE}})
• One's brother's wife (sister-in-law) ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:16|HE}}), with the exception of Yibum
• One's wife's sister (sister-in-law) during one's wife's lifetime, even if since divorced ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:18|HE}})

The lists of prohibited relationships can be summarised as follows (the relations highlighted in red are those that are prohibited):

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",{{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:6–7|HE}}; {{Bibleverse|Deuteronomy|22:30|HE}} it must be taken into account that the Hebrew original text only addresses male Jews with regard to their female relatives.Cf. the Revised Standard Version: {{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:6|RSV}} The Talmud argues that the absence is because the prohibition was obvious, especially given the proscription against a relationship with a granddaughter,Yebamot 3a 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.{{EncyclopaediaBiblica|article=marriage|section=Manius-Mash}} 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,{{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:17|}} 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.Cf. the footnote in the Revised Standard Version ({{Bibleverse|Lev|18:17|RSV}}) as well as the King James Version ({{Bibleverse|Lev|18:17|KJV}}) John Calvin did not consider the father-daughter-relation to be explicitly forbidden by the Bible, but regarded it as immoral nevertheless.John Calvin, Bible Commentary, Harmony of the Law (Vol. 3), Leviticus 18 ([http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom05.ii.iii.iv.xiv.html online version])

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.{{Bibleverse|Ezekiel|22:10–11|}} 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).Samuel ben Meir, Commentary, ad loc.

Also, cousins are not included in the lists of prohibited relationships. It is not considered incestuous.{{fact|date=May 2025}}

The biblical lists are not symmetrical{{snd}} the implied rules for women are not the same – they compare as follows:

{{legend|blue|Forbidden for men only}}

{{legend|red |Forbidden for women only}}

{{legend|yellow|Forbidden for both men and women}}

• Jewish views on incest
• Levirate marriage
• Sex in the Hebrew Bible

• Forbidden relationships in Judaism
• Karaites
• Incest
• Affinity (Catholic canon law)
• Legality of incest

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |last1=Akerley |first1=Ben Edward |title=The X-rated Bible: An Irreverent Survey of Sex in the Scriptures |date=1998 |publisher=Feral House |isbn=978-0-922915-55-2 |pages=1–13 }}

{{Incest}}

Category:Incest

Category:Sexuality in the Bible