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S2. Having Sexual Relations with Family Members.    [Make a Comment]

We are not to have close physical contact & sexual intimacy with family members.

This precept is derived from His Word (blessed be He):

Key Scriptures

Leviticus 18:3 (Maimonides RN353; Chinuch C188)
You are not to engage in the activities found in the land of Egypt, where you used to live; and you are not to engage in the activities found in the land of Kena'an, where I am bringing you; nor are you to live by their laws.

Leviticus 18:6-18 (Maimonides RN330-RN336, RN340-RN345, RN353; Meir MN110, MN112-MN113, MN115, MN119-MN120, MN125-MN131; Chinuch C188, C190-C198, C200-C202, C206)
None of you is to approach anyone who is a close relative in order to have sexual relations; I am ADONAI. You are not to have sexual relations with your father, and you are not to have sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother - do not have sexual relations with her. You are not to have sexual relations with your father's wife; that is your father's prerogative. You are not to have sexual relations with your sister, the daughter of your father or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or elsewhere. Do not have sexual relations with them. You are not to have sexual relations with your son's daughter or with your daughter's daughter. Do not have sexual relations with them, because their sexual disgrace will be your own. You are not to have sexual relations with your father's wife's daughter, born to your father, because she is your sister; do not have sexual relations with her. You are not to have sexual relations with your father's sister, because she is your father's close relative. You are not to have sexual relations with your mother's sister, because she is your mother's close relative. You are not to disgrace your father's brother by having sexual relations with his wife, because she is your aunt. You are not to have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law; because she is your son's wife. Do not have sexual relations with her. You are not to have sexual relations with your brother's wife, because this is your brother's prerogative. You are not to have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter, nor are you to have sexual relations with her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; they are close relatives of hers, and it would be shameful. You are not to take a woman to be a rival with her sister and have sexual relations with her while her sister is still alive.

Leviticus 20:11-12
The man who goes to bed with his father's wife has disgraced his father sexually, and both of them must be put to death; their blood is on them. If a man goes to bed with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death; they have committed a perversion, and their blood is on them.

Leviticus 20:14 (Maimonides RN336; Chinuch C195)
If a man marries a woman and her mother, it is depravity; they are to be put to death by fire, both he and they, so that there will not be depravity among you.

Leviticus 20:17
If a man takes his sister, his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, and has sexual relations with her, and she consents, it is a shameful thing; they are to be cut off publicly - he has had sexual relations with his sister, and he will bear the consequences of their wrongdoing.

Leviticus 20:19-21
You are not to have sexual relations with your mother's sister or your father's sister; a person who does this has had sexual relations with his close relative; they will bear the consequences of their wrongdoing. If a man goes to bed with his uncle's wife, he has disgraced his uncle sexually; they will bear the consequences of their sin and die childless. If a man takes his brother's wife, it is uncleanness; he has disgraced his brother sexually; they will be childless.

Deuteronomy 23:1(22:30)
A man is not to take his father's wife, thus violating his father's rights.

1 Corinthians 5:1-5
It is actually being reported that there is sexual sin among you, and it is sexual sin of a kind that is condemned even by pagans - a man is living with his stepmother! And you stay proud? Shouldn't you rather have felt some sadness that would have led you to remove from your company the man who has done this thing? For I myself, even though I am absent physically, am with you spiritually; and I have already judged the man who has done this as if I were present. In the name of the Lord Yeshua, when you are assembled, with me present spiritually and the power of our Lord Yeshua among us, hand over such a person to the Adversary for his old nature to be destroyed, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.

Supportive Scriptures

Matthew 15:19-20
For out of the heart come forth wicked thoughts, murder, adultery and other kinds of sexual immorality, theft, lies, slanders ... These are what really make a person unclean, but eating without doing n'tilat-yadayim does not make a person unclean.

Romans 1:26-28
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting

Romans 13:13-14
Let us live properly, as people do in the daytime - not partying and getting drunk, not engaging in sexual immorality and other excesses, not quarrelling and being jealous. Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Yeshua the Messiah; and don't waste your time thinking about how to provide for the sinful desires of your old nature.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13
In my earlier letter I wrote you not to associate with people who engage in sexual immorality. I didn't mean the sexually immoral people outside your community, or the greedy, or the thieves or the idol-worshippers - for then you would have to leave the world altogether! No, what I wrote you was not to associate with anyone who is supposedly a brother but who also engages in sexual immorality, is greedy, worships idols, is abusive, gets drunk or steals. With such a person you shouldn't even eat! For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Isn't it those who are part of the community that you should be judging? God will judge those who are outside. Just expel the evildoer from among yourselves.

1 Corinthians 6:13
"Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"? Maybe, but God will put an end to both of them. Anyhow, the body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

1 Corinthians 6:18-19
Run from sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body. Or don't you know that your body is a temple for the Ruach HaKodesh who lives inside you, whom you received from God? The fact is, you don't belong to yourselves

1 Corinthians 10:8
And let us not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, with the consequence that 23,000 died in a single day.

Galatians 5:19
And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity and indecency

Ephesians 5:3
Among you there should not even be mentioned sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or greed; these are utterly inappropriate for God's holy people.

Colossians 3:5
Therefore, put to death the earthly parts of your nature- sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed (which is a form of idolatry)

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
What God wants is that you be holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to manage his sexual impulses in a holy and honorable manner, without giving in to lustful desires, like the pagans who don't know God.

Commentary

This Mitzvah commands against having sexual relations with defined members of one's family - even members by marriage (i.e. in-laws). Since the list includes both married and umarried family members, this Miztvah may also be considered as defining a class of perons whom we cannot marry.

Classical Commentators:
No special comment.

NCLA: JMm JFm KMm KFm GMm GFm

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