A'FFINITY (all fin is relationship by mar riage, as distinguished from consanguinity, whit is relationship by blood.
(1) Marriages Forbidden by Mosaic Law. Marriages between persons thus related. in various degrees, which previous usage, in different con ditions of society, bad allowed, were forbidden by the law of Moses. These degrees are enumerated in Lev. xviii :7 sq. The examples before the law are those of Cain and Abel, who, as the necessity of the case required, married their own sisters. Abraham married Sarah, the daughter of his father by another wife: and Jacob married the two sisters, Leah and Rachel. In the first instance, and even in the second, there was an obvious con sanguinity, and only the last offered a previous re lationship of affinity merely. So also, in the pro hibition of the law, a consanguinity can be traced in what are usually set down as degrees of affinity merely.
(2) Degrees of Affinity. The degrees of real affinity interdicted are, that a man shall not (nor a woman in the corresponding relations) marry—I. his father's widow (not his own mother) : 2. the daughter of his father's wife by another husband; 3. the widow of his paternal uncle; 4. nor his brother's widow if he has left children by her; but, if not, he was bound to marry her to raise up children to his deceased brother. (See LEVIRATE MAR R IAGE)t (3) Other Restrictions. The other restrictions are connected with the condition of polygamy, and they prohibit a man from having-1. a mother and her daughter for wives at the same time; 2. or two sisters for wives at the same time. These pro hibitions, although founded in Oriental notions, adapted to a particular condition of society, and connected with the peculiarities of the Levitical marriage law, have been imported wholesale into our canon law. The fitness of this is doubted by many: but as, apart from any moral questions, the prohibited marriages are such as few would, in the present condition of European society, desire to contract, and such as would be deemed repug nant to good taste and correct manners, there is little real matter of regret in this adoption of the Levitical law.
(4) Objections. Indeed, the objections to this adoption have rested chiefly upon one point ; and that happens to be a point in which the law itself happens to have been egregiously misunderstood. This is in the injunction which, under permitted polygamy, forbade a man to have two sisters at once; an injunction which has been construed, under the Christian law, which allows but one wife, to apply equally to the case of a man marrying the sister of a deceased wife. The
law itself, however, is so plain that it is difficult to conceive how its true object—concerning which nearly all commentators are agreed—could have been thus interpreted. It is rendered in our version, 'Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, be side the oilier in her lifetime.' Clear as this scents, it is still clearer if, with Gesenius and others, we take the Hebrew word, rendered to ta..r, to mean to rival, as in the Sept., Arabic, and Vulgate. The Targum of Jonathan, the Mishna, and the cele brated Jewish commentators jarchi and Ben Gerson, are satisfied that two sisters at once are intended : and there seems an obvious design to prevent the occurrence of such unseemly jealousies and•coment ions between sister-wives as embittered the life of Jacob—the father of the twelve tribes.
(5) Recondite Sense.. The more recondite sense has been extracted, with rather ungentle violence to the principles of Hebrew construction, by making 'vex her' the antecedent of 'in her life time,' instead of 'take her sister to her, in her lifetime.' Under this view it is explained that the married sister should not he 'vexed' in her life time by the prospect that her sister might suc ceed her. It may he safely said that such an idea would never have occurred in the East, where un married sisters arc far more rarely than in Europe brought into such acquaintance with the husband of the married sister as to give occasion for such 'vexation' or 'rivalry' as this. Yet, this view of the matter, which is completely exploded among sound biblical critics, has received the sanction of several Christian Councils (Coned. Illiber. can.
: Auras. can. 17; Auxer, can. 30) ; and is per haps not calculated to do much harm, except under peculiar circumstances, and except as it may prove a snare to some sincere hut weak consciences. It may be remarked that in those codes of law which most resemble that of Moses on the general sub ject, no prohibition of the marriage of two sisters in succession can be found.
In i Kings iii :1, 'Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh ;' 2 Citron. xviii 'Jehoshaphat * * * joined affinity with Ahab:' and Ezra ix:14 'Should we * * * join in affinity with the people of these abominations?' affinity has the special sense of relationship by marriage, being distinguished from consanguinity or relationship by blood (Hastings).