Leviticus 18:8

“The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover, etc.] That is, who is indeed a man’s father’s wife, but not his own mother, but a stepmother or mother-in-law; or otherwise this law would coincide with the former; a man lying with such an one is accursed by the law, (<052723>Deuteronomy 27:23); such an incestuous copulation was that of Reuben with Bilhah, and Absalom with his father’s concubines or secondary wives, and such an incestuous marriage was that of the Corinthians, (<460501>1 Corinthians 5:1); and of Antiochus Soter, king of Syria, with Stratonice his mother-in-law f625: and even it was criminal to do this after a father’s death, as Jarchi interprets it; and though she…”

“Compare the case of Reuben, Genesis 49:3-4. See 1 Corinthians 5:1. return to 'Top of Page'”

“Lev 20:11; Gen 35:22, Gen 49:4; Deu 22:30, Deu 27:20; Sa2 16:21, Sa2 16:22; Eze 22:10; Amo 2:7; Co1 5:1 Leviticus 18:9”

“Intercourse with a father's wife, i.e., with a step-mother, is forbidden as uncovering the father's nakedness; since a father's wife stood in blood-relationship only to the son whose mother she was. But for the father's sake her nakedness was to be inaccessible to the son, and uncovering it was to be punished with death as incest ( Lev 20:11; Deu 27:20). By the "father's wife" we are probably to understand not merely his full lawful wife, but his concubine also, since the father's bed was defiled in the latter case no less than in the former ( Gen 49:4), and an accursed crime was committed, the punishment of which was death. At all events, it cannot be inferred from Lev 19:20-22 and Exo…”