Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net>]

Dear Harold,

I would agree with you. I would further state that even Judah confessed
regarding Tamar, "...she hath been more righteous than I; because that I
gave her not to Shelah my son...." Judah did not conform to the cultural
levirate marriage in existence at the time (was proscribed later in the
Mosaic legislation), but Tamar did conform the norm at the time. True, it is
not in the same manner as what God later proscribed. I might add that many
of the "sins of the fathers" in Genesis were later proscribed in the Mosaic
legislation of Exodus 21-Deuteronomy.

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold Holmyard" <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2007 2:46 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Dinah raped?


> Dear Yigal,
> > Very good points, James. But all this seems like very typical male
behavior,
> > in traditional patriarchal societies - "boys will be boys, as long as
they
> > don't do it with our sister". It was convenient for them to believe that
> > Dinah was raped, because then they did not have to deal with the
possibly
> > that SHE had acted immorally. The text, as it would seem, is ambiguous,
> > maybe because the author, the descendants of Dinah's brothers, prefer
not to
> > accuse their own ancestors of wanton genocide of a whole city. Their
act,
> > however, is criticized by Jacob, both in v. 30 and later in his blessing
in
> > 49:5-7.
> >
>
>
> HH: This seems like gratuitous suspicion of the text, which reads like a
> rape. Jacob criticizes their acts because they was unfairly
> disproportionate. You do not kill a whole town of males for the sin of
> one man. You punish the man. The rest of the town was not complicit in
> the sin, which was the sudden act of an individual as far as we know.
> >
> >
> > We find the same kind of behavior in chapter 38 - Judah has no problem
with
> > going to a prostitute, but when he "finds out" that his daughter-in-law
> > Tamar had been a prostitute, he commands her burned. The text is
critical of
> > his hypocrisy, but not of either one of his acts in themselves.
> >
>
>
> HH: Yes, Judah was hypocritical. The Bible does not criticize everything
> that is wrong when it reports it. But if God hates prostitution, and
> considers it associated with wickedness, as Scripture says he does, then
> he doubtless is not pleased with people who engage in it:
>
> Deut. 23:18 You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of
> a male prostitute into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any
> vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the LORD your God.
>
> Lev. 19:29  “‘Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute,
> or the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness.
>
> And the Bible does criticize those who resort to prostitutes:
>
> Hos. 4:14     I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,
>         nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery;
>     for the men themselves go aside with whores,
>         and sacrifice with temple prostitutes;
>     thus a people without understanding comes to ruin.
>
>
> > We must be very careful of assuming that the authors of the Bible shared
the
> > same views on "morality" that modern-day Jews and Christians do. This is
> > especially true for matters of sexual behavior.
> >
>
>
> HH: We also must be careful not to be conformed to the immoral thinking
> of this world, to which God's morals stand in contrast. The fact that
> Judah's morals were twisted does not mean that God's are.
>
> Yours,
> Harold Holmyard
>
>
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>


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