Affinity

Affinity (designated in Heb. by some form of the verb חָת - ן, chathan', to give in marriage) is relationship by marriage, as distinguished from consanguinity, which is relationship by blood.

1. Marriages between persons thus related, in various degrees, which previous usage, in different conditions of society, had allowed, were forbidden by the law of Moses. These degrees are enumerated in Le 18:7 sq. The examples before the law are those of Cain and Abel, who, as the necessity of the case required, married their own sisters.

Abraham married Sarah, the daughter of his father by another wife; and Jacob married the two sisters Leah and Rachel. In the first instance, and even in the second, there was an obvious consanguinity, and only the last offered a previous relationship of affinity merely. So also, in the prohibition of the law, a consanguinity can be traced in what are usually set down as degrees of affinity merely. The degrees of real affinity interdicted are. that a man shall not (nor a woman in the corresponding relations) marry,