Is incest allowed in Christianity ??

Question

I read the bible and saw that there's many stories of incest in there, like Lot and his 2 daughters (Genesis 19:32-35), Judah and Tamar, his daughter in law (GENESIS 38: 15-18), Reuben and his step-mother (GENESIS 35:22), brother and sister (2 Samuel 13:5-14 ), Absalom with his mother (2 SAMUELS 16:22 ) and many others.

My question is these stories are mentioned in the bible with detail. Even Prophets commited incest according to the bible. So why should incest not be allowed according to the bible? What is the moral of these stories in the bible? Like what is the moral of Judah having sex with Tamar (his daughter in law) for the price of a young goat, and then Tamar getting pregnant with twins (Phares and Zarah) who became destined to become the great grand father of Jesus (Matthew 1:3)? Bastards as Jesus's great grandfather?

Can true Christians plz explain.

Answer 1

Who cares what the bible says - incest is normal and healthy. It's the ridiculous and vicious taboo against it that spoils the fun and twists so many poor feeble minds.

Answer 2

The individuals in the Old Testament were not Christians...as that concept, of course, didn't exist yet. Therefore, the question is should the prohibition against incest in the Old Testament continue today. The answer is yes, the prohibition should remain. We now know that there are serious genetic consequences for having children in an incestuous relationship. Also, we as Christians are called to obey the laws of the land, so long as they don't interfere with our ability to honor God. Clearly obeying the prohibition against incest would not cause any problems.

Answer 3

We Moses was given the Law more specific details were given regarding incest. It included: parent-child relationships, sibling relationships, Uncle/aunt-neice/nephew and even stepparents. It is pretty specific. Most of the cases of incest you mentioned were not tolerated, the were concidered immoral at the time. Some brother-sister relationships were tolerated before Torah because the population was smaller.

I am glad that you noticed that those "bastards" were included in the lineage of Jesus. Jesus line included worse then that: a prostitute, Rahab, a single mother, Mary, Aduterers (David and Bathsheba. God used sinners, not saints to bring about his son. Something to think about.

Answer 4

These stories are in the Bible because they are what really happened. Along with these stories there are punishments for what the people did. Just because something is wrong doesn't mean it didn't happen. There are lots of stories of lots of different types of sin in the Bible. The important thing is that we are commanded to refrain from sexual immorality, and incest is definitely a part of that.

Incest is definitely NOT allowed in Christianity, just as murder is not, and idolatry is not, and those things are done in the Bible as well. They are there to illustrate a consequence or to provide contextual history.

Answer 5

That was long ago when people were a lot closer to perfection & keeping a family name going was very important. The example of Absalom in second Samuel states that he had relations with concubines, not his mother. No, christians do not approve of incest today.

Answer 6

As long as you don't pony a relative of the same sex the Bible says it's A-OK. The Catholic Church so far as I've heard has never said one thing or another. I believe the Church of England forbids it. But by scripture most Christians men are permittted to commit horrific attrocities on their daughters so long as it's not done out of lust or wrath.
Keep in mind that Church Law is older and more steeped in precident than any civil law. This could be the most sensible of rules amoung Christians given what you understand of the two. The Catholic Church holds the same punishment for Murder as they do for sassing your mom, there's good reason why no government puts the Church in charge of crime and punishment anymore.

Answer 7

These things are written because they happened, not because they are our pattern today.

Lot was raped (essentially) by his two daughters, because of their desire to have children and their hopelessness at seeing their hometown destroyed. This explains where they Ammonites and Moabites came from.

Judah had two sons who were as wicked as he was (we don't know about Shelah); his daughter-in-law had to trick him to have the children she deserved, according to the law. And this wasn't any more "incestuous" than the original marriage to Er.

Reuben slept with his step-mother (whose age was not revealed); this wasn't incest, but it lost him his birthright.

Absalom slept with David's concubines, not his mother. This was to claim his position as the new king, by taking the women of the old king. This was not incest, but it was also not condoned. He was executed before long. When Adonijah tried the same tactic, he was put to death (1 Kings 2:22).

If these were simply 'moral stories,' then we'd look for a moral. This is recorded history, "warts and all."

Answer 8

Genesis (Greek: Γένεσις, having the meanings of "birth", "creation", "cause", "beginning", "source" and "origin") is the first book of the Torah, the first book of the Tanakh and also the first book of the Christian Old Testament.

A Christian is a follower of Jesus, whom they regard as the Christ. Christians believe Jesus to be the Son of God, who lived a life befitting that of the creator of the universe, free of sin, and at the end of his earthly life was crucified, and then on the third day after his death, rose from the dead, to give a message to his followers.

Answer 9

the thing you must remember is that back then it was perfectly normal and not taboo. just as the ancient Egyptians married within the family to keep the royal blood flowing and clean. it was not an uncommon practice. I am not saying that it is right, just a part of history. My recommendation is for you to research ancient history and read more about it so that you can understand it more.

Answer 10

You're talking about Old Testament time, laws changed once Jesus died and saved us from our sin. As for present time, which goes by New Testament time, as far as today and what happens now incest is not right, matter of fact it is sick!

Answer 11

There are lots of human actions mentioned in the Bible -- but that doesn't mean the Bible is approving of them. It just means that the Bible is reporting that they happened.

The Bible also tells us, in many places, that This Person killed That Person. But, obviously, that doesn't mean murder is OK, just because there are murders described in the Bible.