Moral Integrity
When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, for she had covered her face. Genesis 38:15 NASB
Harlot – Don’t read the Bible as if it were written with the cultural morals that you have! If you do, you will make a lot of mistakes trying to explain away the behavior of its characters. This particular story is a perfect example of misunderstanding the context.
When we read this story, we are shocked by the actions of both people. First, we find Judah’s sexual behavior unconscionable. How could he visit a prostitute on his way to the shearing floor? How could he be so caviler about the event? Why didn’t it bother him in the least? Secondly, we are dismayed at Tamar’s decisions. Would any of us dress like a disguised prostitute with the intention of having sex with the father of our deceased husband? What kind of woman is she that she schemes such a thing? Has her character sunk so low that she seduces one of her own close relatives? The problem with these questions is that none of them reflect the cultural conditions or expectations of the time. They are our questions, based on our moral understanding of the world. They are not questions asking for ancient answers.
The real story depends not on Judah or Tamar but on Hirah, Judah’s friend. According to Hirah, Tamar was not dressed as a whore. She was dressed as a qadeshah, i.e., a temple prostitute. In other words, Hirah, who accompanies Judah, does not see her in the same way that Judah does. As an Adullamite, he recognizes that she is a sacred prostitute. This changes everything. In his book, The Bible Among the Myths, John Oswalt makes the point that sexual actions within the context of ancient religions were attempts to enlist the power of the gods to bring control over life. Because pagan mythical religions believe that the actions of men are mimicked by the actions of divine beings, sex in worship was a way of insuring that the gods would enter into sexual congress and thereby guarantee the fertility of the earth (the result of the male god providing seed to the female god). Therefore, in a world where the demarcation between worship of the non-mythical God YHVH and the mythical Canaanite gods was blurred, Judah acts in a way that participates in the pagan fertility ritual and Tamar, knowing the Canaanite culture, provides the opportunity for his actions, not because she is worshipping a pagan god but because she knows that he is susceptible to the influence of pagan ideas. She accomplishes her goal because he thinks he is insuring fertility for himself. This is why his pronouncement at her judgment is concerned with righteousness, not sexual morality. She is more righteous than he because she did not succumb to the appeal of the pagan fertility cult but he did.[1] Next time you read a story in the Bible, remember Tamar. Ask yourself if you really know what the story is about, or if you are merely reading it as if it were written yesterday.
Topical Index: Tamar, Judah, prostitute, zonah, qadeshah, Genesis 38:15
[1] For a lengthy discussion of the role of prostitution in the ancient world, see http://www.fundotrasovejas.org.ar/ingles/Libros/Sexuality%20in%20the%20bible/Prostitutes.pdf
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Skip, do you believe, as is taught so much today, that religion evolved? That people slowly became aware of the ‘higher’ attributes of the ‘better’ religions, and discarded the more ‘primitive’ aspects? Or do you believe that the religions of the world are more or less polluted attempts to remember what would have been first? I ask because I think how you choose to believe about the origins of belief is going to affect the emphasis you put on your attempts to explain why the similarities, as well as the differences, are going to be there. And, really, you cannot have it both ways, because, clearly, either, historically, it is going to be one or the other.. Did Israel copy and refine the religions around them; did they ‘understand’ God through the lens of those religions, as modern higher criticism, as I understand it, teaches, or was it the other way around? Please let us know what you really think. Thanks!
On a similar note, I know we read that the Israelites spent 400 years in Egypt (prophetic years), but if you do the math and realize that Canaan, at the time that prophecy was made, was already a tributary of Egypt (which would have made Abraham “in Egypt”, too), you can see that most of the patriarchs’ lives are included in that prophecy, too. Added to that, most of the time in Egypt, the Israelites lived in their own separate culture, apart from Egypt proper, and the laws allowed them to. Goshen was out in the country, and they were able to sacrifice freely, and worship as their fathers did. What I am saying is that they could not possibly have forgotten (as in, not obeyed) YHVH and His worship in that short of a time, to the extent they would have had to to be so confused. The way I learned it is that they had “forgotten” Him because the laws had changed, forbidding them to sacrifice and to rest on Shabbat. This forgetting was not a mental problem. This would have had to do with the many semantics of slavery that made it impossible to do what their fathers had surely taught them to DO. I am bringing this up here because I am concerned that people would believe that Moses’ and Aaron’s great grandfather, (and perhaps even their grandfather as well) – who most likely was alive at the same time as Jacob – conveniently ‘forgot’ what he would have said, and so ‘forgot’ to tell his children. Y’all, they weren’t there as slaves (or otherwise, even) that long at all! Do the math! However, if you believe that religion evolved, it might affect the way you choose to read the text when it says that they ‘forgot’ YHVH. Would that have been a mental amnesia, or would that have more to do with slavery making it impossible to OBEY what they had been taught, and so “remembered”?
And, thanks for explaining Tamar. Women, sadly, have always found it necessary from time to time to get very creative, in their relatively powerless world, to override the faithlessness of the men that are making the decisions that constrain their lives. I have found myself doing spiritual gymnastics so many times so as to be able to continue to love in the places where the decisions of the men in power around me had tied my hands, so to speak. Tamar had been taught that the correct way to continue to love her husband was to continue his family line, ideally through his brothers. When they disobeyed, she had to make up a way to use the disobedience of Judah against him. Good job, Tamar! You are my heroine! Love wins!
John Oswald’s book, The Bible Among the Myths, addresses your question directly. His answer seems compelling. The Hebrew religion (but, of course, it wasn’t called a “religion” in those days) did not evolve. Nevertheless, as John Walton has clearly shown, it did borrow ideas from its surrounding cultures, and modified those ideas so that they spoke of YHVH’s point of view, rather than the perspective of, for example, ‘El, the god of Canaan. So, it is both, not either/or. Israel’s view of God did not “evolve” from more primitive beliefs, BUT Israel was influenced by other ideas.
As for the timing, forgetting is, as you say, more than just a mental problem. But notice that in the 10 commandments, YHVH spends more time explaining the Shabbat than any other one of the commandments. Why? Because when you don’t practice, you forget. The people had to be taught all over again. Even if they mentally had some recollection, after MANY generations (of about 40-45 years each, not like ours), things change. People really do forget, especially when all that is left is stories from a long time ago.
Does this answer your question?
Personal story about memory; I was sitting in the outdoor seating area of a local restaurant where the outdoor area was part of the entrance. My wife and I were enjoying a glass of wine in the late afternoon and the area was empty except for us. At one point in time, a woman walked down the sidewalk towards the restaurant and entering through the area we were seated in, nearly brushed against me as she entered the restaurant. After several minutes I turned to my wife and told her; “I think that was my ex-wife who just walked by us”. After a few more minutes, the woman exited the restaurant and confirmed my suspicions that she was my ex-wife as we watched her walk back down the sidewalk from the direction she had arrived.
I had been with this ex-wife for 12 years of our lives together and although I would have recognized her form from a mile away during those years, in the 10 that had passed I failed to recognize her as I leaned my body over the table to avoid her running into me as she walked by.
It brought to mind the failure of Joseph’s brothers to recognize him after some years apart. He had been absorbed into the Egyptian culture to such a degree that his own brothers didn’t remember him. I tend to lean on this story when considering the changes that occurred to the Israelites during their time in Egypt.
In the 10 years removed from that ex-wife she had only a marginal change in her appearance, yet my memory in that encounter was not in a state of mind to include her in that momentary encounter.
Thank you Skip. That did help a lot, and Richard’s story struck a note with me. I have a precious person in my life that has rejected all they once held as the truth. Do they still remember it in their head? Yes, but now they ‘see’ it in a different interpretation. In real life practice, though, they have “forgotten” it. It has no power in their life. (Sorry for the incorrect use of the neuter “their”, but we have no formal way in our language to hide the gender.)
When I was little, my mama would tell me that if I “forgot” she would help me “remember” with a switch picked off the mockorange bush behind the house. Both of us understood each other quite well.
Laurita,
This is off the immediate topic but being you mentioned the period of slavery you may be interested to know that it is not necessary that this period of time be reckoned as if it referred only to that period of the actual enslavement of Israel in Egypt. Paul states in Galatians that it was four hundred and thirty years from the original Genesis 12 promise to Abraham to the time of the giving of the Law. (Galatians 3:17).
(KJV) And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
Moses was only the third generation from Levi (1 Chronicles 6:1-3), and Moses was eighty years old when the Exodus began (Exodus 7:7), and all of the leaders of the Israelites as they are reckoned from the twelve sons of Jacob to the time of the Exodus, compared with the genealogies in the Book of Numbers and in Chronicles, are only as many as six or seven generations removed from the twelve sons of Jacob. If so, then it is clear that the time of the actual enslavement of Israel was only about 150 to 180 years, but the time from Yahweh’s statement to Abraham in Genesis 15:3 unto the Exodus was indeed about four hundred years.
Abraham was seventy-five when he departed from Haran (Genesis 12:4), the beginning of Paul’s 430 years. He was one hundred years old when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5). Isaac was sixty years old when Jacob was born (Genesis 25:26). Jacob was 130 years old when he went down to Egypt with his sons (Genesis 47:9). Therefore we can add 25 and 60 and 130 and that leaves 215 years from Jacob’s going to Egypt unto the giving of the law at Sinai.
Thank you all for an interesting twist in how we should read ancient records. More behind the text than provided in the written word…
Temple prostitute. Would this be why Paul spoke out against the whoremongers… What that exactly would imply I am still trying to figure out…
Using prostitutes or seeking them out above a committed relationship…
Or would it be introducing these temple prostitutes as part of the belief rituals as they have records of this being part of the oral tradition being passed down over the generations.
Temple prostitutes were not considered immoral by those who practiced fertility cult religions. In fact, they were necessary in order to get the gods to provide fertility to the earth, thereby insuring my survival. Of course, the whole idea is rejected by Scripture. God alone is the provider and He does not need human agents to enact rites to cause Him to respond. The idea in the cults is that sex is the ultimate act of fertility, so if I perform sexual acts as a sign of worship, the gods will also fructify the earth. You can see this even in Israel with the “celebration” of the Golden Calf, all of which is a repetition of Egyptian fertility rites, including sexual performance.
Thank you for the further explanation, Skip.
Is there a similarity between this practice and whoremongers as referred to in Eph 5:5, 1 Tim 1:10, Heb 13:4, Rev 21:8 and Rev 22:15?
The same practices are part of the fertility cults of the first century. Notice what is required of the Gentiles in Acts 15. A statement that has direct bearing on the worship of pagan fertility gods and goddesses.
Thank you Skip.
To abstain from participating in these rituals…
Wow I have been studying the Old Testament and this passage had always intrigued me. Now this explanation helps put the missing pieces of the puzzle together. Tamar I believe was listening to God. Judah had been messing sround with Canaanite women. Now Jesus Christ the Lion of Judah would come from the linage of Judah. Now it is even clearer why he would go to temple prostitute. He went there as an idolater and she went there just because she knew he would be there. His words she was more righteous makes more sense now. Tamar would carry on the name of Judah and have twins and from Phares would come the Messiah. Awesome information.
Skip do you have any information on Gen. 30:35 to 43? Thanks.