Incest in the Bible

Incest is really a bad thing...when it amounts to child molesting. But how bad is it between consenting adults?

Did you know that Abraham and his wife Sarah were half brother and sister? Yep, same father different mothers. That bit of incestuous relationship didn't seem to bother God one bit. After all, He started a whole nation of people from Abraham and Sarah.

Then, what about Lot, Abraham's brother. When Lot and his family got the hell out of Sodom and Gomorrah, because God was destroying it with fire and brimstone (I guess because they weren't very nice people) Lot's wife looked back, which she had been told not to, and was turned into a pillar of salt. A bit harsh for just one wistful look, don't you think. Lot and his two daughter's ended up living in a cave and, because there were no other people around, Lot's daughters cooked up a plan to get dad drunk then have sex with him...to save his "seed." So, they did, he did--ostensible being so drunk he didn't know what he was doing--and his daughters got pregnant and later had baby boys; the founders of the Moabites and Ammonites. (The Bible, King James version, Genesis:19:30-38.)

Okay, besides the incest thing, for which God did nothing (yet He had just destroyed two cities for doing pretty much the same stuff, with a dog and pony show thrown in, and He had killed Lot's wife for just a peek over her shoulder) what really gets me is that we are supposed to believe that Lot's daughters got him drunk on wine then had sex with him without him knowing what he was doing! Who else was there? They were living alone in a cave. If he wasn't passed out then he had to know that the sweet snuggley woman in bed with him was one of his daughters. And, if he was passed out, he couldn't perform. I used to drink a lot, way too much. I have reformed my ways, but when I was too drunk to perform sexually, I was still aware enough to know with whom I was in bed. Then there's the two night's in a row drunk out of your mind on wine. Ooofff! What a hangover. Don't know if they could have got pop's drunk the second night. He might have been puking his guts out all day and begged off. There is another explanation, of course. Lot was a randy old goat, his daughters were horny young women, and there was no one around to object to a little family fun.

In any case, the ban on incest came later in the Bible. It is apparent, if we are to believe the Bible as "the truth", that God has incest among consenting adults low down on the list of no-no's. For instance, besides Abraham and his half-sister wife, and Lot and his daughters, with whom did Adam and Eve and their children have sex with to produce the human race; or Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives after the flood? Hmmmmmmm? Very interesting, no?