Tamar Triumphant: Rewritten Bibles

Introduction

For well over two thousand years, readers have sought to understand, explain, or sometimes reframe the intriguing and disturbing narrative located in Genesis 38, the account of Judah and Tamar. This article discusses how those events were handled by authors in the Late Second Temple period and a bit beyond. Specifically, it considers several different sources, generically called Rewritten Bibles. The term Rewritten Bible refers to “literature written in the Second Temple period [or beyond, c. 200 BCE-200 CE] that either expands biblical stories, retells biblical stories, or uses biblical stories as platforms to write new texts.”¹ The figures of Tamar (and that of Judah) are presented very differently in these texts. This article offers representative examples; it does not seek to be exhaustive.

This body of literature includes such works as Jubilees, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Josephus’ Judean Antiquities (Antiquities of the Jews), and Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities (Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum [L.A.B.]). As James L. Kugel explains, “Jubilees and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs stand out among all the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha by dint of their intense focusing on explaining and expanding the stories of Genesis … via retelling” (emphasis in original).²

The Genesis Account

The narrative of Tamar and Judah fills a whole chapter in Genesis. Chapter 38 initially focuses on Judah. It explains that at some point after the selling of Joseph into slavery to a group of Ishmaelite/Midianite caravanners who take him to Egypt (Gen. 37:26-28), Judah leaves his brothers and camps somewhere near the Shefelah, at Adullam, in the Canaanite lowlands to the west.³ He marries someone local, and sires three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah. In time Judah finds a wife for Er, Tamar. In the Bible Er does something unspecified to displease God, who takes Er’s life. Judah then tasks his second son, Onan, to act as a levirate, marrying the wife of his deceased brother in order to maintain the family line (cf. Deut. 25:5ff; Ruth 3f.).⁴ Onan weds Tamar, but not wishing to forfeit the role of chief inheritor (cf. Deut. 21:17), he chooses to ejaculate outside of her. This is displeasing to God, who then takes Onan’s life (vv. 8-10). Yet Judah really does not want Shelah to marry Tamar; he is fearful that in some way she is responsible for the death of his two older sons. He tells Tamar to go back to her father’s home until Shelah grows up (v. 11). In time Judah’s wife dies. Tamar subsequently learns that Judah is going to be in the vicinity of Timnah. She comprehends that Judah does not want Shelah to marry her. Tamar takes off her widow’s clothing and veils herself (vv. 13-14). She appears to be a prostitute for hire. Judah has sex with Tamar and impregnates her. He promises payment and, as surety, he leaves his seal, cord, and staff with her, promising to send a goat by way of payment. After he departs, Tamar again puts on her widow’s clothing and leaves the area. Judah sends a goat, but the woman is nowhere to be found. Three months pass by. Tamar apparently is starting to show that she is pregnant. Probably much relieved because it solves his problem, Judah orders Tamar to be executed as an adulteress; she was formally engaged to Shelah, even though Judah never intended that marriage to take place. Tamar sends the seal, cord, and staff to Judah and says, I am pregnant by this man. Judah admits: She is more in the right than I am. Tamar gives birth to twins, Peretz and Zerah (vv. 15-30).

Jubilees

Jubilees is composed about the mid-second century BCE, or perhaps even earlier.⁵ It claims to be an angelic revelation given to Moses while he is on Mount Sinai (Jub. 1:27). Jubilees reflects matters found in the book of Genesis and the first twenty-four chapters of Exodus.⁶ There are additional materials found in Jubilees, and the book also deletes or downplays certain elements such as family conflict. A high value for Jubilees is endogamy, family, or tribal marriages. This is immediately noticeable in the Tamar narrative in two ways.

First, since in Genesis nothing is mentioned about her origins — Judah got a wife for his first-born, her name was Tamar (v. 6) — the logical assumption is that she is a Canaanite. This would have been in violation of both Abraham’s and Isaac’s clear statements not to marry Canaanites (Gen. 24:3; 28:1). Jacob fails to admonish his sons to marry within the clan, and Judah marries a Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shua (Gen. 38:2). This was a matter of some embarrassment to the author of Jubilees,⁷ and even more so to the author of the Testament of Joseph.

In Jubilees, Tamar is specifically spoken of as a descendant of Aram, the son of Shem, which makes her a Mesopotamian, like Bethuel, Laban, Rebekah, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah, of Aram-Naharaim, the city of Nahor, or Paddan-Aram (Jub. 41.1). This places Tamar within the larger Abrahamic family. Her lineage is part of what Ezra terms the holy seed (Ezra 9:2), a matter of vital importance in the late Second Temple period and beyond with its concerns for endogamy (and opposition to exogamy).

Second, Bedsuel, the daughter of Shua, Judah’s Canaanite wife (Jub. 34.20) and the mother of his three sons, is portrayed in a negative fashion, and is the catalyst for all the troubles to follow. The Jubilees account emphasizes that Tamar was an Aramean: “And in the forty-fifth jubilee in the second week, in the second year, Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn son, from the daughters of Aram, and her name was Tamar” (Jub. 41.1). Jubilees then adds that Er is unhappy with this choice of wife; Er hated Tamar “and would not lie with her because his mother was from the daughters of Canaan” (Jub. 41.2). Er wanted to marry a local Canaanite woman from his mother’s people, but Judah opposed this, even though he himself had married a Canaanite. As in the Bible, Er is regarded as evil and God kills him. Judah instructs Onan to serve as a levirate with the same results as in Genesis; he “poured out his seed on the ground” and so God kills Onan. Judah here, as in Genesis, says to Tamar, go to your father’s house until Selah [Shelah] grows up; then Judah will give Tamar to Selah as a wife. After the death of Onan, it is Bedsuel, Judah’s Canaanite wife, who “did not let Selah, her son, marry” (Jub. 41.7). In that same verse it explains that Bedsuel dies. There is no direct suggestion that her death is related to her opposition to the Selah-Tamar marriage, although one could infer this. Once again, Bedsuel is to blame for Tamar’s plight, this time more directly.

The encounter with Judah and Tamar as faux prostitute is much the same in Genesis and Jubilees, though Jubilees refers to a ring, necklace, and staff, and Genesis to a seal, cord, and staff. A major difference is that when it is clear that Tamar is pregnant, Judah goes to Tamar’s family and demands that she be executed: “Judah went to her father’s house and said to her father and her brothers: ‘Bring her out, and let them burn her, for she has caused a defilement in Israel’” (Jub. 41.17). This latter phrase, “a defilement in Israel,” suggests that there is some kind of community or people sharing common beliefs and practices. In fact, it actually highlights the fact that Jubilees is written at a much later point; at the time of Judah and Tamar there is no Israel in that sense.

The rest of the narrative is very similar in Genesis and Jubilees until after the announcement of the birth of Peretz and Zerah. Then, startlingly, Jubilees inserts a line relating to the Joseph narrative: “And after this the seven years of full harvest which Joseph told Pharaoh (about) were completed” (v. 22). This insertion tries to reconcile the Judah-Tamar episode with what is happening in the wider narrative which focuses on Joseph.

Next come some verses that feature material not found in Genesis. Jubilees 41.23-28 returns to Judah and what he does. Judah deeply regrets his actions and makes supplication to God on account of his sin. The narrator of Jubilees — the angels who dictate this book to Moses — explains that God forgives Judah because he promised not to sin in this way again (vv. 23-24). The Jubilees text then addresses forbidden consanguinity relationships like what is found in Leviticus 18. Judah also is told that his sons never consummated their marriages with Tamar, so he did not really sin (v. 27). James L. Kugel suggests that it “was quite simply unthinkable to the original author [of Jubilees] that Judah’s descendants — the Jews — could be the product of an illicit union.”⁸

The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs

The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs was composed in the late second, or early first, century BCE, likely a bit after the time of Jubilees. It utilizes Jacob’s twelve sons to address certain ethical and moral values. Each son speaks about his life, focusing on his virtues or, more often, the lack thereof, and urges his listeners/readers, presumably a male audience, to seek a moral path. “The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs espouse some of the most sweepingly misogynous rhetoric in ancient Jewish literature. The testaments of Reuben, Judah, and Joseph especially contain vitriolic warnings against the evil sexual threat that women represent and provide advice as to how to avoid succumbing to their dangerous power.”⁹

Whereas Jubilees affirms Tamar’s innocence and comes close to exonerating Judah of wrongdoing, the Testament of Judah section of the Testaments of the Patriarchs takes a very different approach. In the Testament of Judah (hereafter TestJud), by way of a confession, Judah relates the events of his personal life. In his testimony he warns his children to avoid doing what he did. In chapter 13 he admits that he was boastful of his virtue. In chapter 14 he warns of the dangers of drinking too much wine. He ends up marrying the daughter of a Canaanite (TestJud 14.6; 17.1). Judah regrets his choice. He comments that 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 sex 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, where, as in Jubilees, the fact that Judah married a Canaanite woman is the root of the problems that ensue. Chapter 10 explains that Judah’s son Er married Tamar, identified as an Aramean as in Jubilees (TestJud 10.1), noting that she was not a Canaanite (TestJud 10.6). Following the advice of his Canaanite mother, Er decides to forgo sexual relations with Tamar because she is not from that community. On the third night of his marriage Er dies, which is understood as a divine punishment for his behavior. At Judah’s suggestion, his second son Onan marries Tamar and he lives with her for a year, but never consummates the marriage. At Judah’s urging he does have sex with Tamar, but at the direction of his Canaanite mother, Onan destroys his seed on the ground. “He likewise died because of his wickedness” (TestJud 10.4-5).

Chapter 12 of this Testament addresses the Tamar-Judah encounter. Two years have passed. Tamar learns that Judah will be in the vicinity, shearing sheep. She dresses in appropriate clothing and sits at the gate of Enaim. Judah, once again drunk, is taken with her beauty. He gives her various items by way of surety, a staff, belt, and kingly crown, and then he impregnates her (TestJud 12.3-4). When Tamar’s pregnant state becomes obvious, Judah demands her execution. As in Genesis 38, seeking to preserve Judah’s dignity, Tamar does not name him as the father, but rather she sends Judah the items he had given her (TestJud 12.5). Quite unlike the narrative in Genesis, in TestJud, Judah is quite underhanded and devious. Rather than owning up to his being responsible, Judah seeks to place the blame on Tamar, saying that she decked herself in bridal array and that she appeared licentiously. Judah 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 then explains that he is only convinced when Tamar is brought to trial and “I also heard the secret words [that I had spoken to her in my drunkenness when I lay with her]” (TestJud 12.6). Judah then says that he “did not approach her again for the rest of my life, because I had done this abomination in the land of Israel” (TestJud 12.8).

TestJud omits the line that “she [Tamar] is more righteous than I,” the line which is found in Genesis 38:26. The aspersions about Tamar are consistent with the misogynist view of women in the Testaments. They parallel 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).

Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities

Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities (sometimes referred to as Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, L.A.B.) “was almost certainly written between 70 CE and 150 CE.” This work “reviews the biblical narrative from Adam to David, adding, subtracting, embellishing, and revising.”¹⁰ Although this source is attributed to Philo of Alexandria, that connection cannot be sustained, as “The manner of dealing with the biblical text is very different from Philo’s allegorizing … [and] there are several points at which Pseudo-Philo explicitly contradicts the views of Philo.”¹¹ In complete contrast to the Testament of Judah, in Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities the figure of Tamar is a heroine, an example of great virtue. Rather than devoting a section to the story of Judah and Tamar in a Genesis-like setting, Biblical Antiquities’ Tamar is referred to when the Israelites are enslaved in Egypt. She is featured as a model of proper behavior. Amram, Moses’ father, points to Tamar as someone who puts 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” (Biblical Antiquities 9.5), a statement not found in Exodus. Amram refers to her as “Our Mother,” nomenclature which parallels the rabbinic phrase that refers to the Genesis Matriarchs Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel as imeinu, our mother.

Biblical Antiquities explains that Tamar’s motivation was in large measure because she wants to avoid marrying someone who was not of the right group. This retelling makes no mention of Judah’s sons nor of Judah’s abandoning of Tamar. Instead it emphasizes Tamar’s perspective. Tamar refuses to have intimate relations with uncircumcised men. Tamar insinuates, although she does not say outright, that she prefers death to exogamy: “It is better for me to have intercourse with my father-in-law and die than to have intercourse with Gentiles” (Biblical Antiquities 9.5). A subtext of this work is that the Jewish community should separate itself from “others.” Even extreme measures may be necessary to achieve this goal. Biblical Antiquities is unique in this defense of Tamar’s actions. The notion that Jews should embrace endogamy and reject exogamy is featured often in Biblical Antiquities (18.13–14; 21.1; 30.1; 44.7; 45.3).¹²

Conclusion

When we compare these Rewritten Bibles to the Genesis narrative we see that Jubilees adds Judah’s Canaanite wife as a negative figure, causing the problems that appear later on both indirectly and directly. The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, and more specifically The Testament of Judah, is from a similar time, and focuses almost entirely on Judah and his viewpoint, to the point of having him mistrust and blame Tamar. Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities is very different, as it presents Tamar as even more heroic than in the Genesis account. She is lauded by Amram, Moses’ father, as an example of righteous living, refusing to have intimate relations with uncircumcised men and preferring death to exogamy.

With the exception of the Testament of Judah, which we have noted is known for its misogynistic tendencies, these examples of Rewritten Bibles present Tamar in an expanded role, one which sees her very sympathetically. Her modesty and her willingness to die rather than cause Judah public embarrassment earn her acclaim. Biblical Tamar is resourceful and strong-minded. Rewritten Bibles’ Tamar (again with the exception of the Testament of Judah) is imaginative, resolute, discrete, deferential, and courageous. She is Tamar triumphant.