An Exegetical Study of Genesis 38 -- By: Steven D. Mathewson
Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 146:584 (Oct 1989)
Article: An Exegetical Study of Genesis 38
Author: Steven D. Mathewson
BSac 146:584 (Oct 89) p. 373
An Exegetical Study of Genesis 38
Pastor
Mountain View Bible Church, Helena, Montana
Introduction
Although Benno Jacob has called the Judah-Tamar story “the crown of the book of Genesis and Tamar one of the most admirable women,”1 Genesis 38 has generated more frustration than enthusiasm among its interpreters. This frustration has ensued from the story’s position amidst the Joseph narrative. Many commentators describe the positioning of Genesis 38 by terms such as “unconnected, independent, interruption.”2 Von Rad asserts, “Every attentive reader can see that the story of Judah and Tamar has no connection at all with the strictly organized Joseph story at whose beginning it is now inserted.”3 Similarly Brueggemann alleges, “This peculiar chapter stands alone, without connection to its context. It is isolated in every way and is most enigmatic.”4 Bowie says that Genesis 38 “is like an alien element, suddenly and arbitrarily thrust into a record which it serves only to disturb. Certainly few people would choose this chapter as a basis for teaching or preaching.”5
BSac 146:584 (Oct 89) p. 374
This is not merely the sentiment of recent writers. As far back as the second century B.C., the writer of the pseudepigraphal Book of Jubilees repositioned the Judah-Tamar account later in the Joseph story after the events of Genesis 41:1–49.6 Moreover, Josephus, in the second book of his Antiquities of the Jews, gave considerable attention to the Joseph story and omitted Genesis 38 in the process. The concern of his second book was “the descent of the Israelites into Egypt and their eventual liberation therefrom.”7 Apparently Josephus did not consider Genesis 38 germane to this theme. Furthermore, as Goldin has observed, even the medieval Jewish commentator Rashi wondered why Genesis 38 was “placed here to interrupt the account about Joseph.”8 Indeed the location of the Judah-Tamar story has a long history of being considered problematic.9
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