Definition
Degrees of kinship within which marriage is prohibited by law. The term refers to the specific relationships enumerated in the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible, which identifies classes of near relatives who may not marry one another. In legal usage, "Levitical degrees" names the scriptural framework that historically grounded statutory and ecclesiastical prohibitions on consanguineous and affinal marriage — that is, marriage between blood relatives or relatives by prior marriage.
The term operates as a collective reference to a fixed list rather than a principle: it identifies the enumerated relationships (parent-child, sibling, uncle-niece, etc.) rather than articulating a general rule about how close is too close. Jurisdictions departing from that list — whether expanding or contracting prohibited relationships — are departing from the Levitical framework, and legal sources will sometimes note that departure explicitly.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Plural of "Levitical degree." No independent common definition; the phrase exists almost exclusively in religious and legal contexts.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not entered as a standalone phrase. "Levitical" in Webster's is defined as relating to the Levites or to the book of Leviticus, the priestly law of ancient Israel.
The gap here is modest but worth noting. A reader encountering "Levitical degrees" in a general religious context might understand it as a theological concept about priestly purity or ceremonial law. In legal sources — particularly English ecclesiastical law and early American marriage statutes — it is a precise technical reference: a specific, enumerated list of prohibited relationships that served as the operative legal standard for void or voidable marriages. The theological origin is real, but the legal usage is definitional, not devotional.
Common Confusion
Levitical degrees should not be confused with degrees of consanguinity in the civil or canon law computational sense. "Degrees of consanguinity" is a measurement system — counting generational steps between relatives — used to determine inheritance rights, disqualification of witnesses, and other legal consequences. Levitical degrees are not computed; they are listed. A relationship is either on the Levitical list or it is not. The two concepts can overlap in application (both bear on marriage prohibition), but they use different logic: one counts, the other catalogs.
Also distinct: "prohibited degrees" is the broader, jurisdiction-neutral term for marriage prohibitions. Levitical degrees is one historical source for that prohibition; canon law, civil law, and modern statutory law may define prohibited degrees differently.
Why It Matters in Research
Pattern: Historical evolution with deep ecclesiastical-to-civil legal transition.
Researchers will encounter "Levitical degrees" almost exclusively in older sources — English ecclesiastical court records, colonial and early American marriage statutes, and treatises on domestic relations from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The term largely disappears from American legal sources after the late nineteenth century as states enacted their own marriage prohibition statutes and the direct scriptural citation became legally unnecessary.
Three research traps:
First, jurisdictional displacement. American states never uniformly adopted the Levitical list as their positive law. Some adopted it by reference; others enacted different lists. When a pre-twentieth-century source says a marriage was void because it fell within "the Levitical degrees," the researcher must identify whether that jurisdiction actually used the Levitical list as its legal standard or whether the author is using the phrase loosely to mean "prohibited by law."
Second, affinal relationships. Leviticus 18 prohibits not only blood relationships but also certain relationships created by marriage — marrying a stepmother, a daughter-in-law, a sister-in-law. These are affinal, not consanguineous. English ecclesiastical law and many early American statutes included affinal prohibitions under the Levitical degrees label. Modern statutes often treat affinal and consanguineous prohibitions differently or have abolished affinal prohibitions entirely. A researcher reading historical sources must not assume the modern affinal framework applies.
Third, the Bishop citation in Bouvier. Bouvier cites Joel Prentiss Bishop's treatise on marriage and divorce (1 Bish. Mar. Div. & Sep. 737). Bishop's treatise was a primary authority in American domestic relations law through the nineteenth century and is an important secondary source for tracing how American courts interpreted and applied the Levitical framework. Researchers working in this area should treat the Bishop citation as a navigational pointer into the broader treatise literature, not merely a bibliographic footnote.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in complete agreement on the core definition: degrees of kindred within which marriage is prohibited, derived from Leviticus 18. There is no divergence on meaning.
The entries vary only in depth. Bouvier is the most legally operational, citing Bishop and using the phrase "set forth in the eighteenth chapter" — grounding the definition in a specific textual source. Black's (both editions) and Burrill are essentially identical in their brevity.
None of the historical dictionaries address the problem of jurisdictional variation — whether American states actually adopted the Levitical list — nor do they distinguish consanguineous from affinal prohibitions within the framework. This is a significant gap. A researcher relying solely on these dictionary entries would have an accurate but incomplete picture. The dictionaries treat the Levitical list as self-evident content (assuming the reader knows Leviticus 18) rather than spelling out which relationships are covered. For practical research, the reader must consult the primary text or a treatise.
Jurisdictional Note
English ecclesiastical courts treated the Levitical degrees as binding legal authority for marriage validity. American jurisdictions inherited this framework but modified it through state-by-state statutory enactment. By the twentieth century, most American states had replaced scriptural reference with explicit statutory lists, and the phrase "Levitical degrees" effectively exited American positive law. Researchers working in English legal history or early American colonial records will encounter the term as operative law; researchers in modern American domestic relations law will not.