Old Testament Family Tree
A History of Incest in the Old Testament
People having children with family members, began in the Old Testament at the very beginning. Seeing as Adam and Eve were the first humans on the Earth, their relatives had to procreate one with another in order for the human population to increase. They had no other options.
We saw this happen once again after the flood when Noah and his family were the only remaining humans on the Earth. This continued for many years. The family of Terah inbreeded with each other as shown in this diagram. It was a commandment for God's people to not inbreed with the Canaanites and so there were limited options once again for them to marry.
Over time, as the population grew, God slowly commandmed people to inbreed less and less. Though God still had His people marry one with another, in the law of Moses, sexual relations between close relatives was condemmed and we see several instances of incest being looked down upon as years pass.
Today, we learn from the Church Handbook that incest is condemmed. This is their statement on the matter:
The Church condemns any form of incest. As used here, incest is sexual relations between:
- A parent and a child.
- A grandparent and a grandchild.
- Siblings.
- An uncle or aunt and a niece or nephew.