Leviticus 18 · a question people ask
Didn't Abraham, Jacob and Amram do what this chapter forbids?
Genesis records it. Abraham said of Sarah, "she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife" (Genesis 20:12); 18:9 forbids "your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother". Jacob married Leah and then Rachel (Genesis 29:23-28); 18:18 forbids taking "a wife in addition to her sister… while her sister is still alive". And "Amram took Jochebed his father’s sister to himself as wife" (Exodus 6:20), the parents of Moses; 18:12 forbids "your father’s sister". These laws were given later, at Sinai (Leviticus 26:46); Paul says the law "came four hundred thirty years after" the covenant with Abraham (Galatians 3:17). Leviticus 18 names none of them, and these verses don't say how the earlier marriages and the later law fit together. Genesis does tell of the trouble between the sisters: "Rachel envied her sister" (Genesis 30:1).
The verses
“Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.”
““‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or born abroad.”
“When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I will die.””
““‘You shall not take a wife in addition to her sister, to be a rival, to uncover her nakedness, while her sister is still alive.”