Incest: What Does the Bible Say?

Here is a list of the bible's rules on incest in Leviticus chapter 18.

Here's the rundown: the bible forbids sex between parents and their children, grandparents and grandchildren, neighbors, in-laws, humans and animals, members of the same sex. In this chapter, God provides a very thorough and exhaustive list of the relationships that forbid two people from having sex. Actually, the list is almost exhaustive. The relationship it neglects is sex between an uncle and a niece.

Therefore, the bible doesn't forbid incest between individuals and their syblings children. Does this mean it edorses it? The general message of this chapter is that sexual intercourse between family members is, "an abomination." The claim that the uncle/niece relationship was simply overlooked is hollow and unlikely in light of the expansive range of relationships enumerated in the 16 separate mandates in this passage. In this case, the bible implicitly condones sexual relations between uncles and nieces, as well as aunts and nephews. What about aunts and nieces, you ask? Well this passage actually denounces same sex coupling so... at least it offers some moral teaching, right?