Texts in Conversation
In Leviticus, a man cannot marry his wife’s sister while his wife lives. Samaritan interpreters read “sister” in the Samaritan Pentateuch as any woman of the same faith, permitting a second wife only if the first cannot have children and consents.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Leviticus 18:18
Hebrew Bible
16 You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness. 17 You must not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter; you must not take as wife either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to have sexual relations with them. They are closely related to her—it is lewdness. 18 You must not take a woman in marriage and then marry her sister as a rival wife while she is still alive, to have sexual relations with her. 19 “‘You must not approach a woman in her menstrual impurity to have sexual relations with her. 20 You must not have sexual relations with the wife of your fellow citizen to become unclean with her.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Samaritan Leviticus 18:18
Samaritan Penteteuch
Samaritan
16 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. 17 You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter; you shall not marry her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are relatives; it is wickedness. 18 And you shall not marry a wife in addition to her sister, to be a rival to her, to uncover her nakedness while she is still alive. 19 And you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is impure by her uncleanness. 20 And you shall not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife, to defile yourself with her.
Date: 130–120 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Leviticus 18:18: “Over her sister” — The Israelite Samaritan sages understood “sister” as a sister of the same faith, and not meaning only the same family. However, according to the development of the practice of this commandment, the sages permitted marrying a second woman on two conditions: 1. that the first woman is barren, 2. with the permission of the first wife ..."
Benyamim Tsedaka and Sharon Sullivan, eds., The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah: First English Translation Compared with the Masoretic Version, trans. Benyamim Tsedaka (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 272.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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