Last night by a man came to the building after services. His wife passed away 4 years ago, and he has been seeing his deceased wife’s niece who is about his age. He has a son who is a member of the church who has told him that this is unscriptural. The only thing I could base this thought on would be Leviticus 18, and that would not cover his situation. Of course, this is the Old Testament, which has been done away anyway. I cannot see any passage of Scripture or principle he would be violating. Your thoughts would be appreciated.<\/p>\n\t
You are correct. Leviticus 18, a part of the laws given to the Jews and not to Christians, is the nearest you can find on this particular topic.\u00a0Leviticus 18:6-17\u00a0forbade the following sexual relationships:<\/p>\n
Notice that nieces and nephews, who are not blood-related, and first cousins are not forbidden. Nor does\u00a0Leviticus 18:6\u00a0apply: “None of you shall approach any blood relative of his to uncover nakedness; I am the LORD.<\/i>” The relationship to his niece is not one by blood. So even if we were Jews under the Old Law, this relationship would not have been forbidden.<\/p>\n
Most children of a widowed parent are uncomfortable with their living parent marrying again. Intellectually they know it is allowed, but emotionally they see a new marriage was lessening the importance of the first marriage. For this reason, it is important to emphasize what Paul taught, “For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man<\/i>” (Romans 7:2-3). A man who marries again after his wife has died is not dishonoring the memory of his wife. It may be hard to admit at first, but life needs to go on. Marriage does not extend into the live hereafter. “The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. “Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.” Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven<\/i>” (Matthew 22:23-30).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Last night by a man came to the building after services. His wife passed away 4 years ago, and he has been seeing his deceased wife’s niece who is about his age. He has a son who is a member of the church who has told him that this is unscriptural. The only thing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-2074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4692,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-uncover-the-nakedness-mean\/","url_meta":{"origin":2074,"position":0},"title":"What does “uncover the nakedness” mean?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Leviticus 18:6-19, the phrase \"uncover the nakedness\" is used repeatedly. What is meant by this phrase? Answer: There are three sets of words in the Hebrew that are translated as naked or nakedness. The Hebrew adjective 'arom\u00a0refers to being without clothing. It can mean without any clothes or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69235,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-explain-leviticus-1920-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":2074,"position":1},"title":"Can you explain Leviticus 19:20 more?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does Leviticus 19:20 imply that if the slave woman was not betrothed, it was not a sin to sleep with her? What punishment would it have been? Is the primary sin harm of the owner's property or sexual sin in itself? Why is no monetary compensation paid, unlike Deuteronomy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18408,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-marry-the-brother-of-a-man-with-whom-i-had-committed-adultery-15-years-ago\/","url_meta":{"origin":2074,"position":2},"title":"Can I marry the brother of a man with whom I had committed adultery 15 years ago?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I entered into a long-distance relationship with a man who happens to be the brother of someone with whom I had sexual relationships with more than 15 years ago. I was never married to the man, although we lived together for a couple of months. We lived in adultery\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51863,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-masturbating-a-lack-of-self-control\/","url_meta":{"origin":2074,"position":3},"title":"Is masturbating a lack of self-control?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I found some of your insights on the subject of masturbation quite amazing. As an evangelical, we are taught to develop spiritual disciplines of which self-control is one. In fact, in Galatians 5:22 the apostle Paul highlights it as one of the fruits of the Spirit. To this effect,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27442,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wouldnt-it-have-been-a-sin-for-tamar-and-amnon-to-marry\/","url_meta":{"origin":2074,"position":4},"title":"Wouldn’t it have been a sin for Tamar and Amnon to marry?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was it not a sin for Tamar and Amnon to get married because they were from the same father, even though they had sex? Answer: A difficulty arises when multiple laws are violated at the same time and penalties for these different laws vary. Amnon lusted after an unmarried\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21183,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-you-explain-why-leviticus-2729-says-a-person-set-apart-had-to-be-put-to-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":2074,"position":5},"title":"Could you explain why Leviticus 27:29 says a person set apart had to be put to death?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am doing a Bible study about Jephthah, and I really liked\u00a0your article.\u00a0 I did have one question about the verses in Leviticus which spoke about redeeming or ransoming something devoted to destruction.\u00a0 In Leviticus 27:29, it says, \"No one who may have been set apart among men shall\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}