Sexual Relations: This second section of the Holiness Code concerns sexual relations and matters of kinship. The narrative setting in Leviticus is still the Israelite community at Sinai. They have been delivered from slavery in Egypt and look forward to entering the promised land of Canaan. Past and future illuminate this context. In its exhortation to keep Yahweh’s laws and in its first-person address from Yahweh, this chapter is characteristic of the concerns of the Holiness Code editors. The chapter concerns obedience to Yahweh but also reflects a patriarchal social structure and is written from the male perspective. The family, in which women were subordinate, was the basis of social and economic structure in ancient Israel. The Holiness Code seeks to strengthen family and clan as a me…