The innocent man - lateral quickie

[bonanova]

A man, who was born before his father, killed his mother and then married his sister. Yet he was guilty of no wrongdoing. How is this possible?

Edited May 21, 2014 by bonanova
Commas added

[bubbled]

A man who was born before his father killed his mother and then married his sister. Yet he was guilty of no wrongdoing. How is this possible?

It seems that you can interpret the sentence to read as follows: A boy (who is now a man) was born, and then after his birth, his father killed his mother and married his sister. It's not clear whether the father killed his own mother or the boy's mother, or the father married his own sister or the boy's sister, but either way, the son is not guilty of any wrongdoing.

[bonanova]

A man who was born before his father killed his mother and then married his sister. Yet he was guilty of no wrongdoing. How is this possible?

It seems that you can interpret the sentence to read as follows: A boy (who is now a man) was born, and then after his birth, his father killed his mother and married his sister. It's not clear whether the father killed his own mother or the boy's mother, or the father married his own sister or the boy's sister, but either way, the son is not guilty of any wrongdoing.

Good point.

I have edited the OP by adding commas to clarify it.

"A man" is the subject of all the verbs in the sentence.

[Rob_G]

If we take before to mean infront of, his father watched his birth, but his mother died giving birth. The man then grew up to be a priest/pastor/justice of the peace/etc and officiated his sister's wedding.