Posted by Ginny Tosken [GinnyT] on April 07, 1999 at 20:27:24 {HTWDI6pmYgZVkmusePk.Fbqv3I7Em.}:
In Reply to: In-law Marriages posted by Mary on April 07, 1999 at 18:10:46:
So what I don't understand, is why marrying your brothers wife was customary and indeed required of someone, according to Hebrews laws 4,000 years ago, and yet it was something so disgusting at the time of John the Baptist, that he openly condemned two persons, (who weren't even Jews) for doing the same thing!
Does anyone have an explanation for this?
The circumstances were different.
Herodias was originally married to Philip, a half brother to Herod
Antipas. She divorced Philip to marry Antipas. This had incensed the Jews, because their laws forbade a man marrying his brother's wife while he lived. Such a marriage was also illegal if the woman had borne a child
of the first
brother, and Herodias had -- Salome.
Herod himself was also married when he proposed to Herodias, and his legal wife ran off to daddy.
I found this information at the web site below. If it's accurate, this situation was not exactly kosher.
Ginny