In a message dated 06/03/2003 7:03:48 PM, MAPLYMOU-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: << it is not correct that the marriage of a widow to her husband's brother was legal. Both cases were incestuous. >> Seems strange the early church would consider it incestuous, when the Bible instructed a man to take his brother's wife as his own when the first husband died. Deuteronomy 25:5 If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man's wife must not remarry to a stranger, outside the family. Instead, her late husband's brother must go to her, marry her,13 and perform the duty of a brother-in-law.14 25:6 Then15 the first son16 she bears will continue the name of the17 dead brother, thus preventing his name from being blotted out of Israel. 25:7 But if the man does not want to marry his brother's widow, then she18 must go to the elders at the gate and say, "My husband's brother refuses to preserve19 his brother's name in Israel; he is unwilling to perform the duty of a brother-in-law to me." 25:8 Then the elders of his city must summon him and speak to him. Carolyn Pray for our troops, and Remember, you have a friend in Oklahoma!