Tertullian, On Monogamy 7

Having worked through the ancient examples of the original figures, let us now turn to the ancient instruments of the legal Scriptures, so that we may reconsider our entire preparation in proper order. Some people sometimes claim they have nothing to do with the law—which Christ did not dissolve but fulfilled—yet at other times they grab whatever parts of the law suit them. We too say plainly that the law has passed away: its burdens, which even the Fathers refused to bear according to the judgment of the Apostles, have been conceded; but what pertains to justice not only remains reserved but has actually been expanded, so that our justice may surpass that of the Scribes and Pharisees. If justice is expanded, then chastity is as well. If, therefore, the law commands a man to take his brother’s childless widow into marriage to raise up seed for his brother—and this could happen repeatedly to one man, as the Sadducees’ cunning question shows—they conclude that frequent remarriage is permitted. They ought first to understand the reason behind that command; then they will see that the reason has ceased along with the things that have been evacuated from the law. It was necessary for the brother to marry his deceased brother’s widow. First, because the old blessing still had to run its course: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). Next, because the sins of the fathers were exacted from the children. Third, because eunuchs and the sterile were held in ignominy. So, lest men who died not by nature’s debt but by death’s prevention be judged accursed, a vicarious, as it were posthumous, offspring was provided for them from their own kin. But when both “Be fruitful and multiply” and the extremity of the times have been evacuated—the Apostle introducing: “It remains that those who have wives should be as if they had none, because the time is shortened” (1 Corinthians 7:29); and “The sour grape which the fathers ate will set the children’s teeth on edge”: “For each one will die in his own sin” (Ezekiel 18:2)—and eunuchs not only escaped ignominy but merited grace, invited into the kingdoms of heaven, the law of marrying a brother’s widow having been buried, its contrary—not marrying a brother’s widow—prevailed. And so, as we said before, what has ceased to be valid, its reason having ceased, cannot support another argument. Therefore the wife of a deceased husband will not marry—certainly not the brother, if she marries at all. For we are all brothers: and marriage “in the Lord” means marrying not a Gentile but a brother; because even the old law forbade marriage with foreigners. But when Leviticus also warns: “Whoever takes his brother’s wife—it is impurity, shame; he will die childless” (Leviticus 18:16)—there is no doubt that while he is prohibited from marrying again, she is prohibited too, having no one to marry except a brother. How, then, will the Apostle agree with the Law, which he does not attack in its entirety? When we come to his letter it will be shown. Meanwhile, the arguments that belong to the Law suit us better. Finally, the same Law prohibits priests from marrying again. It also commands the daughter of a priest, if she is a widow or cast out and has no children, to return to her father’s house and eat of his bread. Therefore, if she has no children, she will not marry again—not as she would if she had them; but so that, if she has children, she may be supported by her son rather than her father, that the son may also fulfill God’s command: “Honor your father and mother.’ But we, Jesus the high priest and great Father, clothing us with his own, made us priests to God his Father according to John. For he also recalls that young man hurrying to his father’s funeral, to show that we are called priests by him whom the law forbade to attend the burial of parents: “Over every dead soul the priest shall not enter, and over his father and over his mother he shall not be defiled” (Leviticus 21:1-4). Therefore should we also observe this interdict? Certainly not. For our one Father, God, lives, and our Mother, the Church; and we are not dead, who live to God; nor do we bury the dead, because they also live in Christ. Certainly we are priests called by Christ, debtors of monogamy from the ancient law of God, which then prophesied us in its priests.