Is Leviticus Out of Date?

This year, after 385 years of thinking it over, the Church of England decided to do something about the Table. Every Anglican prayerbook contains the Table of Kindred and Affinity* -"Wherein whosoever are related are forbidden in Scripture and our laws to marry together." These mari, tal prohibitions (drawn up in 1560 by Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker) were based mainly on the famed sexual rules & regulations of Leviticus XVIII. Specifically, the Table banned marriage with brothers-and sisters-in-law, nephews and nieces-in-law.

Since Archbishop Parker's day, many a good churchman has complained that the Table was outmoded. Year by year it began to look more oldfashioned. Some of the prohibited relationships now seem far from "incestuous and unlawful." But innovations take time. "He shall prick that annual blister, marriage with deceased wife's sister," was the musical complaint of the Fairy Queen of satirist W. S. Gilbert's lolanthe in 1882.

P:In 1847 a Royal Commission investigated the specific question of marrying one's deceased wife's sister. The unanimous conclusion: such marriages "take place when a concurrence of circumstances gives rise to mutual attachment," therefore would not become more frequent if permitted by law. Nevertheless, the Table remained unchanged.

P:In 1937 the Archbishop of Canterbury appointed a "Commission on Prohibited Degrees" which consulted such famed lay experts as Biochemist J. B. S. Haldane, Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, Psychoanalyst Ernest Jones, finally recommended extensive relaxation of the Table. But nothing happened.

Last May, at a Church of England convocation, the assembled bishops deliberated for half a day, eventually decided to approve ten new categories of in-law marriages. With Church of England blessing, a Briton may now marry his deceased wife's sister, his brother's widow, his father's brother's widow, his brother's son's widow, his wife's brother's daughter, his wife's father's sister.

But Canon C. E. M. Fry of Oxford, an official proponent of amendments at last May's convocation, is still not sure. On second thought, Canon Fry felt it "very wrong to withdraw the prohibition about a deceased wife's sister." Said he: "A great many of us know of cases where the wife grows old rather faster than her husband. She becomes rather faded. Her husband is not a bad sort of man, but he is amorous. His wife has a younger, attractive sister. He likes to go for long walks with her and his wife becomes uneasy about the friendship. Is it worthwhile to bring discord into the family?"

Affinity: family relationship by virtue of marriage only, not consanguinity.

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