Bible Study Moment – Tamar
Moving ahead to Genesis 38, the story of Tamar, one of five women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1.
I believe Jesus thought of this story when the Sadducees came to him with a question of the one bride for seven brothers, concerned about whose wife she’ll be in the resurrection (something they don’t believe in) recorded in Matthew 22, Mark 12 and Luke 20. You can read Genesis 38, then one of the gospel passages and see if you agree with me. I’m not going into the details of her story other than that in verse 24 Judah, her father-in-law is calling for her to be burned to death, but by verse 26 he is stating that “She is more righteous than I am.”
Finally, a couple of questions: why isn’t this before what’s in chapter 37 since that begins the long Joseph story, making Tamar’s story seem like an interruption, and more basically, how is it that this story is even in the Bible? Discuss among yourselves.
Mark Phillips