Levirate Marriage and the Family[ ]also marked by special terminology, suggesting that these were consid-
ered important relationships. The appearance of terms for a stepson and
a stepdaug hter may be a response to t he occu r rence of rema r r iage i n rab-
bi n ic societ y ; t hese relat ionsh ips may a lso have had lega l sig n i fica nce, a s
suggested by texts that describe a man’s taking on financial responsibil-
ity for his wife’s daughter from a previous marriage.^40 The kinship termi-
nology of the rabbis argues for a construct of family that is layered and
that includes individuals connected through consanguity and affinity.
Incest
Every society prohibits sexual relations between members of the nuclear
family (parents and children, siblings) and some relatives outside that
unit.^41 There is great variation in the expansion of incest taboos beyond
t he nuclea r fa m i ly, a nd t here is not necessa r i ly a cor relat ion bet ween t he
degree of closeness between relatives and these regulations.^42 Although
anthropologists have proposed many theories for the emergence of in-
cest taboos in human society, there is no agreement as to their origin.^43
It is beyond the scope of this work to determine why the ancient Israel-
ites prohibited certain relationships while permitting others; rather, we
shall begin with the incest prohibitions recorded in the Hebrew Bible
and expanded on by the ancient rabbis, and consider the implications
for levirate marriage.
The incest taboos of the ancient Israelites are found in two places in the
book of Leviticus. The prohibitions are presented from a male perspec-
tive, indicating those female relatives with whom a man may not have
intercourse (see figure ). The first of these lists is found in Leviticus .
The general term for relatives in this chapter is sh’eir basar (relative,
close flesh). A man is forbidden to engage in sexual intercourse with his
mother, his stepmother, his sister, his granddaughter, his father’s sis-
ter, his mother’s sister, the wife of his father’s brother, his daughter-in-
law, his brother’s wife, and the mother, sister, daughter, or granddaugh-
ter of his wife.^44 Most of these prohibitions are reiterated in Leviticus
. Neither Leviticus nor Leviticus prohibits a sexual relationship
between a father and a daughter; this prohibition is understood by the
early rabbis to be derived from the prohibition in Leviticus : against
sexual relations with “a woman and her daughter”^45 or a for t ior i f rom t he
prohibition against intercourse with one’s granddaughter.^46