Dear Dr. Laura Schlesinger....

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60. "29. Having sex with your half-sister (18:11)"

Abraham was married to his half-sister. In one narrative, he allowed some powerful ruler to take his wife/sister as a wife/concubine because he was afraid the ruler would kill him to possess her if he admitted that they were married.* So, he basically said, "Yeah, take my sister."

Granted, Abraham (supposedly) lived and died in a time before the laws of Leviticus were passed along, but he is considered the Numero Uno Patriarch of Israel.

In another book-- it might have been one of the Samuels-- King David's son, Amnon, has the hots for his half-sister, Tamar.** He arranges for them to be alone together so he can rape her, and she attempts to dissuade him by telling to ask their father to marry her instead.

This does not stop him.

As a young woman reading this particular narrative, I was singularly struck by the verse noting that, (And I am paraphrasing here.), afterwards, "the hatred that he felt for her then was greater than the love*** that he had had for her before." Or, as the Irish saying puts it, "You never hate anyone so much as someone to whom you've done the dirty to."****



* I could look up book, chapter and verse for you, but to quote a British online acquaintance, "I can't be arsed to do so."

** If you are woman who finds herself living in Bible Times, try not to be named Tamar.

*** "Love" is the word that the Biblical text uses; don't come for me over it.

****And this saying is as simplified an explanation for the continued racism in this country against Black people as you are ever going
to find.