Today I’m going to tell you the real meaning of Deuteronomy 23:1 since most Bible teachers and preachers will usually just make this verse read what they think it means as opposed to what it really means.
First, let’s take a look at a couple of translations of this verse.
The Complete Jewish Bible says…
“A man is not to take his father’s wife,
thus violating his father’s rights.”
The King James version renders it as…
“A man shall not take his father’s wife,
nor discover his father’s skirt.”
The NIV translates it as…
“A man is not to marry his father’s wife;
he must not dishonor his father’s bed.”
As you can see, depending on the translation, we encounter a variety of different expressions that can be quite baffling.
For example, what in the heck does “discovering his father’s skirt” mean?
Alright, let’s start with the fundamentals.
First, understand that Biblically speaking, the phrase “to take a woman” ALWAYS means “to take a woman in marriage”.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, in the Lord’s Kingdom, the very act of sexual intercourse equals marriage.
Now before I tell you what this verse really means, let me tell what it does NOT mean.
First, this verse is NOT talking about a son marrying and/or having sex with his mother.
That would be full-blown incest and there is another Torah law forbidding such a heinous act.
Second, this verse is NOT talking about a son having sex with his father’s current wife who is not his mother (meaning his stepmother).
Again, there are Torah laws prohibiting such an act was and it would have been considered an abomination in practically every Middle Eastern culture.
Alright, so now that I’ve told you what Deuteronomy 23:1 does NOT mean, let me tell you what it does mean.
This verse is commanding that a son NOT have sex with his FORMER stepmother (a stepmother who is NOT married to his father).
In addition, this verse is also saying a son is to stay away from sexual relations with his father’s concubines even after his father has passed away.
In other words, a son is to have no right to his father’s sexual property, period.
This verse in particular illustrates why it’s so important to understand the ancient Middle Eastern culture in which the Bible was written.
Here’s the thing.
This law is actually addressing the laws of inheritance that were commonplace among the world’s known cultures at the time.
In those days, it was common for a son to inherit his father’s wives and concubines after the father passed away.
That’s right.
I know such a tradition is unthinkable in our modern day western culture but it was the norm in the ancient Middle East.
Hence, a woman who used to be a man’s stepmother would literally overnight become his wife after his father died.
And his father’s concubines would then become his concubines with all of the sexual rights included in such relationships.
That’s the way things were in the world at the time.
However, with His with Chosen People, the Lord was putting His foot down and making it clear that while the gentile world may engage in such practices, such a thing would NOT be allowed in Israel.
The next time we meet, we’ll take a look at fascinating part of Scripture from the Book of Genesis where a son did uncover his father’s skirt and what the consequences were for doing such a thing.
See you all next time.
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