Though many reasons may be imagined for the prohibition of
incest, the text prohibits these unions because the two parties are already “one
flesh,” whereas marriage ought to make “one flesh” from two: “Therefore a man
shall leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall become
one flesh” (Gen. 2:24 AT). There are two acts: leaving and cleaving.
“Father and mother” can stand for the family: one departs from one’s family to establish
a new one. Incest does not “leave” the father and mother—it “cleaves” to the
father and mother, frustrating the second act: becoming one flesh. One
cannot become one flesh when the partners already are one flesh.
There is no transformation, no new-family formation; rather, there is family
deformation. Genesis 2:24 enumerates four persons: the man (i.e., the self),
the father, the mother, and the wife. The prohibited partners in Leviticus 18:6-18
are all persons who are already one flesh with any of these four, within two
steps of marriage or descent: father (vv. 7-9, 11-12, 14), mother (vv. 9 13),
self (vv. 10, 15, 16), and wife (vv. 17-18). (John S. Bergsma, The Bible and
Marriage: The Two Shall Become One Flesh [A Catholic Biblical Theology of
the Sacraments; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2024], 81)
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