Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear George,

> Personally, it makes no difference to me whether the report is
> historically accurate or not.  I think there is too little to support a
> claim that it was, but that is beside the point.  So long as one is
> solely interested in attempting to explain why they consider it to be
> historical or whether the words are accurately reported, one is not
> concentrating on the purpose for which it was written.  Why are these
> stories written as they are?  Was there some importance to the story of
> Judah and Tamar?  If so, what?  These are what should be sought.
> Otherwise we are majoring in minors.

HH: One thing the story in Genesis 38 shows is the tendency of Judah 
to mix with the Canaanites and adopt Canaanite practices. This may 
have been one reason why God led the Israelites into Egypt. The 
Canaanites were to mature in their wickedness during the Israelite 
years in Egypt (v. 16 below):

Gen. 15:13 Then the LORD said to him,  "Know for certain that your 
descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they 
will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
Gen. 15:14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and 
afterward they will come out with great possessions.
Gen. 15:15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be 
buried at a good old age.
Gen. 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back 
here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full 
measure."

When Israel came out of Egypt, the Canaanite evil would have matured 
to the point of divine judgment. The story of Judah suggests that 
Israel might have been sucked into that evil had they stayed in the 
land. Judah's friend Hirah was an Adullamite. Adullam was a Canaanite 
royal city, so Hirah was evidently a Canaanite. Then Judah married a 
Canaanite woman (Gen 38:2), something Abraham and Isaac would have 
blanched at. Judah next sought Tamar, thinking she was a prostitute. 
She was sitting at the entrance to Enaim, so he probably thought she 
was a Canaanite prostitute.

By the way, I liked the idea that someone presented about the veil 
being used in unusual situations. The person compared it to Rebekah 
putting on a veil when she approached Isaac. It seems plausible that 
a veil might mark out a woman as a prostitute, if women did not 
ordinarily wear them and it was not a marital situation. Anyway, 
Judah met her on his way to see Hirah, who lived in Timnah. Enaim was 
on the road to Timnah, so Judah met her before he saw Hirah.

Therefore, when he sent Hirah to get his pledge back from the woman, 
he must have identified her to Hirah as a shrine prostitute (QD&H), 
because that is the information Hirah used to seek for her. Remember, 
he had to depend on the information given by Judah, since Hirah was 
not there when the incident occurred. So we see Judah getting sucked 
into the depravity of Canaan.

                                        Yours,
                                        Harold Holmyard
> From hholmyard AT ont.com  Thu Jul 15 21:56:01 2004
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Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 20:51:43 -0500
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ark of the Covenant (Iron Age Exemplar Found ?)
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Dear Tony,

> Walter, you make the assertion in your article of "Pharaoh being reckoned as
> a god". Was the Pharaoh seen as a god? Most current Egyptologists dispute
> this concept. What is your source for this? Thank you.

HH: This following information is taken from a non-profit history website:

World History From Ancient Mesopotamia To The Present
A Collection Of History Related Essays, Documents, Maps and Music 
From World History
http://ragz-international.com/pharaoh.htm

The Egyptians believed their pharaoh to be a god, identifying him 
with the sky god Horus and with the sun gods Re, Amon, and Aton. Even 
after death the pharaoh remained divine, becoming transformed into 
Osiris, the father of Horus and god of the dead, and passing on his 
sacred powers and position to the new pharaoh, his son. The pharaoh's 
divine status was believed to endow him with magical powers: his 
uraeus (the snake on his crown) spat flames at his enemies, he was 
able to trample thousands of the enemy on the battlefield, and he was 
all-powerful, knowing everything and controlling nature and fertility.

As a divine ruler, the pharaoh was the preserver of the god-given 
order, called ma'at. He owned a large portion of Egypt's land and 
directed its use, was responsible for his people's economic and 
spiritual welfare, and dispensed justice to his subjects. His will 
was supreme, and he governed by royal decree. To govern fairly, 
though, the pharaoh had to delegate responsibility; his chief 
assistant was the vizier, who, among other duties, was chief justice, 
head of the treasury, and overseer of all records. Below this central 
authority, the royal will of the pharaoh was administered through the 
nomes, or provinces, into which Upper and Lower Egypt were divided.

Since he was considered a god, the pharaoh lived apart from other 
men, and his subjects subscribed to rituals that exalted him as a 
divine king. All those approaching him, for example, had to prostrate 
themselves on the ground. When the pharaoh died, Egyptian funerary 
rituals were performed that were thought to guarantee that he survive 
in the afterlife as a god, apart from other men.

Evidence suggests, however, that the Egyptians knew that their divine 
ruler was only a human being, if a supreme one; they judged him 
according to his deeds, criticizing pharaohs, plotting against them, 
and deposing or murdering ineffectual ones. Each succeeding pharaoh, 
however, ascended the throne under the aegis of the rituals and 
traditions that recognized him as divine ruler.

                                        Yours,
                                        Harold Holmyard