Righting and Rewriting Genesis 38: Tamar and Judah in the Pseudepigrapha

Jubilees

Jubilees, composed c. 150 bce or earlier, essentially replicates Genesis and the early chapters of Exodus (Jubilees, in Charlesworth: 44). Yet Jubilees contains significant additional materials, and deletes or downplays other details, such as family conflict. Jubilees stresses family/tribal endogamous marriages. Jubilees claims to be an angelic revelation given to Moses while he is on Mount Sinai. In terms of this particular episode, differences with the Genesis account begin with Tamar's ancestry. In Genesis she seems to be a local Canaanite (contra Abraham's explicit instructions not to marry Canaanites—Gen 24:3). In Jubilees Tamar is cast as a descendant of Aram son of Shem, which makes her of Mesopotamian origin (Jub 41:1). (Bethuel, Laban, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel live in the Mesopotamian community of Aram-Naharaim, the city of Nahor [Gen 24:10] also called Paddan-Aram [Gen 25:20]). This locates Tamar within the Abrahamic family. Her lineage therefore broadly is part of what Ezra terms the “holy seed” (Ezra 9:2), a matter that is vitally important in the late Second Temple period and beyond with concerns for endogamy (and opposition to exogamy). (Reiss & Zucker). Not only is she from the daughters of Aram, but Judah himself chose her for his son. Er wanted to marry a local Canaanite woman, but Judah would not permit this, even though he himself had married a Canaanite (Jub 41:1–2). In Jubilees it is Judah's wife who prevents the Tamar-Selah [Shelah] marriage (Jub 41:7).

Jubilees' fateful Judah/Tamar sections adhere closely to the Genesis text, although when Judah faces up to the truth, the text in Jubilees is shortened; it reads merely, “Tamar was more righteous than I” (Jub 41:19). The statement in the Genesis text, that she is more righteous than Judah himself continues with the words, “since I did not give her to my son Shelah” (Gen 38:26). The Jubilees chapter then provides additional information, which focuses on Judah, but also reflects on the intimate life experience of Tamar. Judah speaks of his remorse. He offers supplication to God. He repents and he is forgiven, this clemency conveyed to him in a dream. This information precedes a statement by the angel who explains (dictating the whole book of Jubilees to Moses atop Mount Sinai, making it comparable to the Scriptures) that this kind of incestuous sexual behavior is an abomination. The angel then paraphrases Leviticus 20:14; 18:15; and 20:12 (Jub 41:25–26). Of note is that the Jubilees author conflates what is written in Leviticus. Leviticus 18:15 and 20:12 mentions inappropriate behavior with one's daughter-in-law; Leviticus 20:14 mentions inappropriate behavior with one's mother-in-law; Jubilees 41:26 combines these categories (“everyone who lies with his daughter-in-law or with his mother-in-law causes defilement”). In Leviticus having sexual relations with one's daughter-in-law is punishable by death; having sexual relations with one's mother-in-law is punishable through death by burning. Jubilees suggests that death by fire is the punishment in either category, which is a kind of ironic nod to Judah's call for Tamar to be burned. That Judah was not subject to this punishment is due to his sincere repentance of his act and that he turned from his ignorance (Jub 41:25).

Judah clearly had done wrong; he was remorseful and repentant. In a very technical sense, however, perhaps Judah may not have been as sinful as he had thought. Taking the literal Genesis text at face value, the Jubilees author makes a compelling case about the state of Tamar's hymen: it was intact. The Jubilees text does not address this directly, but it does explain that neither Er nor Onan had consummated the marriage. In a sense then, Tamar was not really his daughter-in-law, because neither one of his sons had entered her. In short, the author of Jubilees suggests that Tamar was a virgin when she lay with Judah. The angel explains to “Judah that his two sons [Er and Onan] had not lain with her” (Jub 41:27). Consequently, he had not actually violated consanguinity laws and he was permitted to create the next generation. (Kugel suggests that verses 23–26 are the work of a later author whom he calls the Interpolator [see Kugel, “Jubilees”: 278–81]. Kugel explains that the original author of Jubilees cast Tamar as a virgin when she lay with Judah because it “was quite simply unthinkable to the original author that Judah's descendants—the Jews—could be the product of an illicit union” [Kugel, “Jubilees”: 430]).

In Jubilees, Judah's near-violation of the consanguinity laws had been preceded by Reuben's actual sexual violation of Bilhah, his father's concubine. In Jubilees 33 the angel had gone on at length about Reuben's crime, citing similar verses from Leviticus. That Reuben and Bilhah were not condemned to death, is because the Levitical legislation had not yet been revealed. This is very different from the case of Judah/Tamar, where it is Judah's sincere repentance that allows for his not being punished. Jubilees takes the position “that there was a progressive revelation of law and that individuals were responsible for obeying only the laws in force at their time” (VanderKam: 73). Jubilees claims to come from the time of Moses. Consequently, this incest legislation was not yet revealed during the period of Reuben/Bilhah. Therefore, they were not subject to its enforcement. The angel explains to Moses that henceforth since these commandments are now being set down in writing, people will be held responsible for their violation.

This wording in Jubilees 33 is similar to what one finds in chapter 41, that Moses is to command the Israelites that from now on they are to punish such illicit behavior, but as mentioned, Judah's exoneration is due to repentance, not to his lack of knowledge of this legislation.

The Testament of Judah

Jubilees, in effect, proclaims Tamar's innocence, and comes close to exonerating Judah of wrongdoing. The Testament of Judah, which is a part of the Testaments of the Patriarchs, takes a very different approach. The Testaments of the Patriarchs were composed in the second century bce, probably somewhat later than Jubilees. They reflect a misogynistic outlook that is evident in many of the observations made about Tamar.

The Testament of Reuben, like the other testaments, follows a format of parent-child talks, a style of writing also found in Proverbs 1–9, which likewise is characterized by sexist elements. (Parent to child: “Hear, my child, your father's instruction, do not reject your mother's teaching” [Prov 1:8]; “My child, do not forget my teaching” [Prov 3:1]. Sexist elements: “A woman comes toward him, decked out like a prostitute…. Come, let us take our fill of love…. For my husband is not at home” [Prov 7:10, 18–19]. “The foolish woman is loud; she is ignorant and knows nothing … her guests are in the depths of Sheol” [Prov 9:13, 18]).

In the Testament of Judah, Judah recounts his own history. It takes the form of a confession and warning to his children: do not do what I did. In chapter 13 he admits that he was boastful of his virtue, and that he frequently was inebriated, which then came back to haunt him. He ends up marrying the daughter of a Canaanite. (In the post-biblical world, that Judah, Jacob's son would marry a Canaanite was so outrageous to Targum Pseudo Jonathan and Targum Onqelos that the authors interpreted the Hebrew word Canaanite as merchant, a term current in the Second Temple period but not in the days of the author of Genesis 38.) God “paid me back what my heart's disposition deserved, since I never had any pleasure in her children” (TestJud 13.8). In this same chapter he admits to having lain with “Tamar, who had been married to my own sons” (v 3). The actual narrative dealing with Tamar is found a bit earlier in his Testament. Chapter 10 explains that Judah's son Er brought Tamar the daughter of Aram, from Mesopotamia (v 1), and that she was not a Canaanite (v 6). Following the advice of his Canaanite mother, Er decided to forego sexual relations with Tamar because she was not of local stock. On the third night of his marriage he died, a divine punishment for his behavior. Judah's second son Onan, at Judah's urging, then marries Tamar and lives with her for a year. Once again, at the direction of his Canaanite mother, Onan likewise refuses to engage in sexual relations with Tamar. “He likewise died because of his wickedness” (TestJud 10.5).

Chapter 12 of this Testament relates a pared down version of the account in Genesis 38. Yet, it offers additional intriguing details, not the least of which is that Tamar is specifically labeled as a whore. Two years have passed. Tamar learns that Judah will be in the vicinity, shearing sheep. She disguises herself, but is aided in her mission to become pregnant because Judah is again (!) drunk. The Testament contains a bizarre, seemingly irrelevant statement that widowed Amorite women are required publicly to comport themselves as prostitutes. Biblical Amor/Emor was centered in Syria, but at its northern flank it bordered on Mesopotamia. The Testament of Judah clearly regards Tamar as a Mesopotamian Amorite. The relevant verses read as follows:

This description parallels another of Judah's observations, found later in his work. Women “will forever hold sway over king and beggar alike. They take away a king's glory, and the warrior's power, and from the beggar even that little bit which is the support of his poverty” (TestJud 15.5–6).

When Tamar's pregnancy becomes evident Judah calls for her to be executed. Tamar then reveals to Judah who impregnated her. Tamar “sent me the pledged items [of his staff, ring, and royal crown which he had given to her as surety] secretly and [did not] put me to shame” (TestJud 12.5). Although Tamar did not seek publicly to embarrass Judah, he wallows in his disgrace, making it sound as if she were guilty of some crime for his feeling shame for what he had done. (Rather than owning up to his feelings of shame, Judah blames Tamar, suggesting that she is at fault. Aggressively blaming someone else is a common response to feeling shame—Brown: 77–78). He also persists in the self-delusional possibility that he is not really the father of her offspring. “But [still,] I said ‘Maybe this is a trick of hers, and she got the pledged items from some other woman’” (TestJud 12.7).

Judah's misogynistic remarks about Tamar, saying that she decked herself in bridal array, that she tricked herself out and appeared licentiously as well as the accusation that perhaps she falsified her claim that he lay with her, all suggest that she is nothing but a liar and a prostitute. In TestJud Judah omits the line that “she [Tamar] is more righteous than I,” the line which is found in Genesis and Jubilees. As noted in the section of Jubilees, there he leaves out the biblical line, “since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” These aspersions about Tamar are consistent with the misogynist view of women in the Testaments. Another Testament states, “For women are evil … they resort to guile to draw [men] to themselves by [their physical] charms” (TestReub 5:1).

Pseudo-Philo

Reference to Tamar appears in one other work in the Pseudepigrapha. Here she is held up as an example of virtue. The document known as Pseudo-Philo or the Biblical Antiquities is dated to the first century ce. (Jacobson) As in other Pseudepigraphic works like Jubilees and The Testaments, the author of Pseudo-Philo is rewriting biblical history and is stressing matters which are important to that writer. As noted earlier, this is a “willful attempt to promote a new interpretation of ancient texts” (Kugel, “Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha”: 8). One theme that is interwoven into Pseudo-Philo is its concern for endogamy and aversion to exogamy. This is reflected in the short comment on Tamar.

In the material that is set in Egypt at the time of Moses' birth, reference is made to Amram, Moses' father. Amram holds up Tamar as a role model to follow due to her trust in God. Amram praises Tamar, saying “when our wives conceive, they will not be recognized as pregnant until three months have passed, as also our mother Tamar did” (Pseudo-Philo 9.5, emphasis added). Amram's statement is not found in Exodus, although in both Exodus and Genesis, it is at about three months that it is reported that Tamar is pregnant, and that Yoheved, Moses' mother, places him in the basket by the banks of the Nile (Gen 38:24; Exod 2:2–3). This point is then expanded with an explanation that Tamar did what she did, in large measure because she wanted to avoid marrying someone who was not of the right group. Terming Tamar as “Our Mother” is very similar to the rabbinic phrase referring to Sarah or Rebekah as Sarah imeinu, Rivqa imeinu, Sarah our mother, Rebekah our mother. The author ignores most of Genesis 38. No mention is made of Judah's sons, nor of Judah's leaving Tamar in a state of “living widowhood” (see Sarna: 244). Instead the events are told from Tamar's perspective. Tamar has only positive motives for her courageous actions. She refuses to have intimate relations with non-circumcised men. Tamar hints, although she does not say, that she prefers death to exogamy. Pseudo-Philo's Tamar explains, “It is better for me to have intercourse with my father-in-law and die than to have intercourse with Gentiles” (Pseudo-Philo 9.5). The subtext is that the Jewish community should separate itself from “others” and that even extreme measures may be necessary to achieve this goal. While Pseudo-Philo is unique in this defense of Tamar's actions, the sentiment that it is wrong to marry outside of the faith is mentioned in other parts of that work (18.13–14; 21.1; 30.1, etc.) (Pseudo-Philo, ed. Charlesworth: 315). Pseudo-Philo subsequently uses other examples from the biblical past to justify action in the present (e.g., Amram's pointing to Tamar as a precedent). Pseudo-Philo's specific reference to Tamar and her decision to do what she does contrasts with a later rabbinic reference to women at the time of the Exodus. The midrashic literature, again a theological reinterpretation of the biblical texts to bring a relevant message to their day, explains that because of the chastity of those women in Egypt, Israel merited to be redeemed from slavery (Numbers Rabbah 3.6; Pesikta de Rab Kahana 11.6).