Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George F. Somsel" <gfsomsel AT juno.com>]

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 20:36:16 -0500 "Harold R. Holmyard III"
<hholmyard AT ont.com> writes:
> 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
> _______________________________________________

Harold,

You seem to rely to a considerable degree on supposition.  It seems
better to me to simply go with what is indicated in the text.

george
gfsomsel