why is tamar important in the bible

By juxtaposing Josephs actions and attitudes with those of Judah, Joseph shines all the brighter. Upon being recalled to Jerusalem following his exile, Absalom returned with his own family, which included three sons and one daughter, whose name was Tamar (2 Samuel 14:27), no doubt named in honor of his sister. Readers may also wonder why it is inserted, seemingly at random, between Joseph being sold into Egypt and his rise to prominence in Egypt. [35] The Hebrew term is uncertain. Tamar, having thus secured her place in the family as well as Judah's posterity, gave birth to twins, Perez and Zerah. Tamars insistence on her rights was rewarded by the birth of not one but two children! The next verse reports that, after a long period of time, Judahs wife died. 1 (2010): 6576. Why Do Love and Forgiveness Have to Go Hand-in-Hand? It may have been that Judah really meant to carry out his promise, but as time went by he became convinced Tamar was a jinx, bad luck, responsible for the deaths of his two eldest sons. Er, Judahs firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death. In Hobsons Choice an enterprising young woman makes the best of a bad situation, and ends up happy and in love. Joseph conceivably has something temporal to gain and everything to lose by not giving in to Potiphars wife, yet he does not. Judah and Tamar have puzzled many commentators over the years, but once the cultural setting and the literary connections are understood, the foreignness of the story is lessened, and it becomes an asset and moral inspiration for both personal devotional study and in deriving lessons from Genesis. Genesis records neither taint of illicitness in their offspring nor criticism of Tamar. Ben Spackman, "The Story of Judah and Tamar,"ReligiousEducator11, no. There are a total of three women named Tamar in the Bible. Advised by his shrewd and manipulative friend, Jonadab, Amnon pretended to be ill, asking for his sister to come and care for him. Upon recognizing these items as his security, Judah released Tamar from her sentence. [26] Perhaps a harlot is what Judah wanted or hoped to see, manifested by his abruptness in what Robert Alter terms a wonderfully businesslike exchange. In levirate marriage, the duty of the brother-in-law was to father a male heir with his brothers widow to carry his brothers name and ensure his inheritance (Deuteronomy 25:5). Judah was one of the twelve sons of Jacob. Men of the world may disregard women or see them only as objects of desire or as someone to be used for selfish purposes. Judah takes Tamar as a prostitute, thus reducing a child of God to a nameless object and a means of temporary gratification. Indeed, the Old Testament rarely, if ever, refers to the patriarchs as models to be emulated as Helaman did with his sons Lehi and Nephi in Helaman 5:6. Shame and guilt will launch an all-out attack on our confidence if we allow doubtful, worrisome, and anxious thoughts to spin into a destructive tornado. [6], Literary critics have focused on the relationship between the Judah story in chapter 38 and the Joseph story in chapters 37 and 39. Amnon went on to treat Tamar as a used and unwanted outcast, a reputation she likely carried for the rest of her life. His action displeased God and so, like his older brother, God killed him. Can We Pray for Illumination in Our Lives? Tamar's plan was to become pregnant by this ruse so that she might bear a child in Judah's line, since Judah had not given her to his son Shelah. See Kent P. Jackson, Joseph Smiths Commentary on the Bible (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2006). No respectable woman would sit there, or be there alone. Judah has nothing to gain but temporary fulfillment of his sexual appetite, and much to lose. All four had irregularities in their marriages/sexual relationships. Judah demonstrates what can happen when one consistently chooses less-than-ideal influences. Perez would be an ancestor of King David. Neal A. Maxwell, in Conference Report, April 1990, 34. Tamars actions were unorthodox by modern standards. [7] From the LDS Infobase Collectors Library, the file GENAUTH.NFO. [21] Sarna, Genesis, 267. [16], Both the Genesis Rabbah and Talmud state that Tamar was an Israelite,[17][18] and that Judah ended up marrying her and had further sexual liaisons with her as a result. Following the deaths of those two husbands, Judah ordered Tamar to return to her father's house until his third son, Shelah, was old enough to marry her. Childbirth in ancient times. Because of his wickedness, Er was killed by God. Ben Spackman(benspackman@gmail.com) has an MA in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago. Judah had three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. We know this is an important story because Tamar is the first woman listed in Jesus' genealogy in Matthew 1:3, which says, "and Judah the father of Perez by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron.". She saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him in marriage. When Tamar learned that Judah was traveling to Timnah to have his sheep sheared, she intercepted him on the way. From this gift, she knew that she would be the ancestress of royal line of David and mighty prophets. [15] Judah moves, marries, and engenders three sons, two of them growing to marriageable age, all in the space of six terse verses. Due to space limitations, I offer a summary with brief commentary instead of a full translation. Centuries later, King David had a beautiful virgin daughter, also named Tamar. Gods promise to continue the Jewish people through many generations. Tamar, in a very dramatic move, as she is being taken out to be executed, sends Judah back his seal, cord and staff. All rights reserved. This Bible study can be used as a tool to engage churches and communities with the issue of sexual violence, breaking the silence that often surrounds this subject. Perez means he who pushes through,breaks through a wall; Zerah means scarlet As Judah passes by, he takes Tamar for a prostitute and promptly propositions her. [3] From Rabbinic times, the odd placement of Gen 38 has caused problems for biblical exegetes and commentators. Joseph, by contrast, defends himself repeatedly over many days from the propositions of his superior. [14] Adullam was apparently a city located between Bethlehem and Gath. "Tamar". I don't want to focus on how Tamar became pregnant by Judah, but I . Genesis 38:11-15. We must avoid seeking temptation and sin when it is not pressed upon us as well as be able to resist temptation under circumstances we do not choose. Furious, he had her brought out to have her burned for sexual immorality, but when she produced the signet, cord, and staff, Judah realized he was the father. on 02/01/2019. While she was in labor, one baby put out a hand; and the midwife took and bound on his hand a crimson thread, saying This one came out first. 3. [37] When Tamar is brought out to be burned, she presents the tokens of Judahs identity (his staff, seal, and cord), ironically using the phrase from Judahs plan against him: hakk?r-na, please recognize to whom these belong. Following Josephs final rebuff in Genesis 39, Potiphars wife deceives her husband by means of Josephs torn garment, resulting in his incarceration. God punished Er people at the time saw withdrawal as a crime against Nature and God. Any child born to Tamar would carry Ers name, not Onans, and would inherit Ers portion of the estate. Compiled by The BibleStudyTools Staff All rights reserved. [23] Coats, Widows Rights: A Crux in the Structure of Genesis 38, 462. When their oldest son Er came of age, Judah and Shua found him a wife named Tamar. Judah pronounced that Tamar should be burnt to death, a particularly cruel way to die. It had the lineage of the leader carved into it, the names of his forebears. If a man died, and his wife had not yet had a child by him, she could go to his brother and demand that he marry her and give her a child who would inherit the property of the dead husband. [4] I am not certain that Latter-day Saint commentators would have anything unique to say. (Genesis 38:1223), Three months later, Tamar was accused of prostitution on account of her pregnancy. Some Bible scholars trace the tragedy back to David's sin with Bathsheba. She is also the mother of twins. Emerton also suggests (p. 360) that in J, this story never stood anywhere but between the accounts of the selling of Joseph into slavery and the doings of Joseph in Egypt., "Sperm stealing: a moral crime by three of David's ancestresses", Volume II: Judah Warns against Greed and Unchastity, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tamar_(Genesis)&oldid=1160831919, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia introduction cleanup from October 2021, Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify from October 2021, All articles covered by WikiProject Wikify, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from Easton's Bible Dictionary, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, This page was last edited on 19 June 2023, at 02:13. 6 Valuable Lessons from the Life of Samuel, 10 Verses from James to Deepen Your Faith. Answers to these questions reveal much about humanity's sinful nature as well as about a God who can take something bad and turn it into something good. What Is Baptism? Filled with guilt, Judah recognized his sin and acknowledged his failure to provide for his daughter-in-law, confessing, she is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah (Genesis 38:26). Its Meaning and Importance in Christianity, How to Move from Being a Hearer to a Doer of the Word. In the story, Judah, the fourth-born son of Jacob (Israel), had left his father and brothers and married a Canaanite woman named Shua. 14:14) where it means to regret. If so, the phrase vayinahem Yehudah in this chapter, very pertinently, also means that Judah regretted making a promise to Tamar to marry her off to Shelah. When Tamar arrived, Amnon proceeded to rape her (2 Samuel 13). Moreover, Judah is characterized in this chapter as evasive and hot-headed, whereas Tamar is shown to be clever, levelheaded, and resolute. Fairchild, Mary. Movies often tell a story like Tamars, where the heroine has to adapt to an unwelcome situation. . Judah likely assumed she was a harlot because she was at a crossroads or city entrance, where harlots traditionally stationed themselves. Genesis 38 is filled with internal and external contrast, irony, and wordplay, but translation obscures much of it. But through this one act of sexual intercourse with Judah she became pregnant, a fact that was soon evident to the people around her. 1 (Spring 1981): 2027. Second, I will outline some of the skillfully interwoven threads demonstrating a literary unity between Genesis 37 and 39 (and the more extended Joseph story). She wisely asks him for collateral, knowing this would allow her later to expose him. After this, she follows the law of the land and marries her husband's brother Onan, who is supposed to provide for her (I know this sounds weird to us, but this law was God's protection. No biblical data exists on whether similar strictures obtained in Israel, but the assumption is not an unreasonable one. Judah decided on the fee, Tamar on the pledge. Salem Media Group. Now Absalom, David's son, had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar. The seal, cord and staff were symbols of a mans identity, items of great personal worth, and it is astonishing that Judah gave them up. Some time later, rumor reaches Judah that Tamar is pregnant by harlotry. In Hebrew, Ers name r is the consonantal inverse of wicked, ra. The locals inform him that there has never been a prostitute there. Judah will see and know (have intercourse with) Tamar, but he will not see and know (recognize) her. But just then he drew back his hand, and out came his brother; and she said What a breach you have made for yourself! Therefore he was named Perez.. Genesis 38 is the story of Judah sleeping with his daughter-in-law Tamar. Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning. Professor Hauptman is currently working on a project on legal anecdotes in the Talmuds, demonstrating how non-rabbis, especially women, may have made significant changes to the law. The text attempts to minimize his sexual guilt through the inclusion of several details. Under no pressure but personal appetite, Judah is immoral. Deuteronomy 22:22, the Hebrew law code, recommends death for both the man and the woman. At the beginning of the stories about Joseph, just when the plot begins to thicken, this chapter on Judah and his adventures seems a disturbing interruption of the narrative flow (Johanna W. H. Bos, Out of the ShadowsGenesis 38; Judges 4:1722; Ruth 3, Semeia 42 [1988]: 40). [18] Though today clearly demarcated nation/states with clear laws and a functional legal/justice system are taken for granted, such was not the case at this time, with the result that cultural norms, for all practical purposes, had the force of law. Joseph chooses to focus on the potential sin, and does not rationalize his circumstances. Judah acknowledges all this in verse 26 once her identity becomes known to him (King James Version she hath been more righteous than I, or my translation, she has acted more rightly than I have). [6] See http://scriptures.byu.edu. However, according to Scripture, Er was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord took his life,making Tamar a widow (Genesis 38:7). . The significance of this is often lost on modern readers. [6] A bibliographic search through various databases of Latter-day Saint literature turns up very little. All rights reserved. Absalom soon became a favorite with the people because he listened to their complaints. It was a good match and things should have gone well, but Er practised some form of birth control, probably by withdrawing before ejaculation, and so Tamar was childless. Consequently, Judah is depicted as seeing Tamar as cursed and therefore reluctant to give her his only remaining and youngest son Shelah. Our regular commentaries and videos are a great way to stay intellectually and spiritually engaged with Jewish thought and wisdom. But in a way she redeemed Judah. Now although Judah argued that he wanted to wait until Shelah was older, its clear that he had no intention of marrying off another son to Tamar, an inexcusable neglect of his fatherly duties and injustice to Tamar. She dressed in the special clothing of a prostitute which included a veil across her face that disguised her identity, waited for Judah at the city gates (see below), and persuaded him to have sexual intercourse with her. Would it have prevented the rebellion and Absalom's death? It then continues with the words, vayinahem Yehudah. For Absalom hated Amnon because he had violated his sister Tamar (2 Samuel 13:22). Tamar and Judah later bore twin boys named Perez and Zerah. Onan takes advantage of this by engaging repeatedly in sexual relations with Tamar but acting in such a way that she cannot conceive, thus displeasing God, who kills him. Perhaps, from another perspective, some Latter-day Saint teachers could be encouraged to explore non-Latter-day Saint publications for help in understanding the Bible. In Genesis 38, he promises a calf to Tamar in payment but leaves tokens of his identity as a pledge of that payment. When King David learned of Tamar's rape, he was outraged. Since he knew that a child with Tamar would not be his, he decided not to sire a child. [40] Neal A. Maxwell, That My Family Should Partake (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1974), 34. There are three people with the same name in the Old Testament. . Add an RSC shortcut to this device's Homescreen, In the menu, scroll past any icons and tap. [15] For a discussion of the timing, see Nahum Sarna, Genesis, JPS Torah Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1989):264-65. Judah joins his old friend Hirah the Adulamite, at Timnah, for a sheep shearing. In the first episode, Judah did not live up to the law of levirate marriage, which required a man's unmarried brother to marry his widow, with their firstborn son the legal heir of the dead brother, to carry on his line. It is even more astonishing that Judah gave up his staff. [33] Dallin H. Oaks, in Conference Report, April 1996, 72; emphasis added. Ellis Rasmussens Latter-day Saint Commentary on the Old Testament (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1993) has a brief reference on page 70. The tribal leaders staff was an emblem of authority, something like a royal sceptre. The Mosaic version of the levirate law is found in Deuteronomy 25:510.[19]. He marries off his first son, Er, to Tamar. So Judah sent Tamar back to her family, promising to send for her when Shelah was old enough. However, Scripture says Er was "wicked in the sight of the Lord," so God put him to death. [24] The Hebrew literally reads when he was comforted, but we do not know how much time has actually passed. However, this view was "trenchantly criticized" by Thomas L. [25] At opening of the eyes, Judahs eyes are closed to Tamars identity. In this story, Amnon, Tamars half-brother, was consumed by lust for his sister. This is testament to Gods prevailing mercy. (Ruth 4:1822) The Genesis narrative also makes a note that Judah did not have further sexual relations with Tamar. When Onan did not fulfill his legal duty, God also struck him dead. Then Judah said to Onan Go into your brothers wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law; raise up offspring for your brother. At this point, Judah is portrayed as viewing Tamar to be cursed and therefore as being reluctant to give her his remaining and youngest son Shelah. This is significant because we learn from the genealogy in the book of Ruth that Amminadab was also the . Deuteronomy specifies that this duty belongs to a brother-in-law who may refuse (in contrast to Genesis 38, where no right-of-refusal appears to exist). She sat by the roadside with her face covered. Copyright 2023, Christianity.com. Upon hearing this news, Judah ordered that she be burned to death. If the husband of the woman wishes to spare his wife, then the king in turn may spare his subject. See John Barton, Reading the Old Testament-Method in Biblical Study (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1984), 829; Marc Zvi Brettler, How to Read the Bible (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2005), 1317. Confronted with the truth, and confronted with his sin, he chose to repent. Bad things happen to good people, but good can come from evil, even when we cannot see Gods plan or understand it. Tamar is an important figure in the Bible because she played a key role in the genealogy of Jesus. Judahs second son, Onan, marries Ers widow Tamar, according to the rules of levirate marriage, which require a family member, usually a brother, to produce an heir for the deceased.

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