Vayeishev (Part 4) - Genesis 37:1-40:22

Intermission: The Story of Judah and Tamar

As I have written in other blog posts, the Torah is an anthology, a collection of short stories written by a number of anonymous authors, stitched together with large seams left exposed. Many of these stories are completely unrelated, and the ones that are, they have elements within them that result in creating contradictions or problems with many of the others.

Let's take the interlude of Chapter 38 - The Story of Judah and Tamar.

It's an odd story with an odd placement. It begins with "And it happened at that time, that Judah went down from his brothers...". Because of the final placement of the story, after Joseph is kidnapped and sold into slavery by his brothers, it is assumed that this takes place right after that.

The problem with that view (or any view, as we will see later), is that Judah was with his brothers when they did this (37:26), and his contribution to that event was telling them that there's no profit in killing Joseph, so Judah recommended that they sell him.

In a later story, Judah meets Joseph (43:3), and his father is told of Joseph's good fortune and goes to meet him with all of his children and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

The Years Problem

The total number of years between when Judah and his brothers sell Joseph, and when Jacob and his descendants go to be with Joseph, is 22 years. (13 years in prison/slavery, 7 prosperous years, and 2 lean years).

Within those 22 years, Judah needs to:

1. Arrive into a different town and establish himself.
2. Fall in love and get married.
3. Have 2 sons, a gap, and then another.
4. One of the sons gets married, and later dies.
5. The other son marries his brother's widow, and he dies.
6. The 3rd son isn't old enough to marry.
7. As time passes, Judah's wife dies.
8. After a time, Judah goes on a business trip.
9. His 3rd son is finally old enough to marry, but Judah won't give Tamar to him.
10. Judah is tricked and impregnates Tamar.
11. She gives birth to twins.

Oh, and according to verse 46:12, when Jacob and his descendants were together in reuniting with Joseph and his sons, it tells us the names of the sons of the twins of Judah and Tamar.

Yes, sometimes between the selling of Joseph and their reunion after 22 years of separation, Judah gets married, has 3 children, and 2 grandchildren.

Is it possible that young children got married and they had children of their own all within 22 years?

Only if you need the intermission story to fit with the rest of the other narratives!

The Non-Contiguous Storyline

At no point outside of Chapter 38 (the intermission) is Judah ever mentioned as having left, or married a Canaanite woman. In fact, in chapter 46, it singles out Simon who married a Canaanite woman (perhaps one of the women he took possession from when he and Levi sacked Shechem). It seems unaware that Judah did the same thing, but only mentions that the two sons of Judah died in the land of Canaan.

Nowhere in Chapter 38 does it mention Judah's father or brothers. It is as if it is unconnected with any specific part of a different narrative.

Perhaps Judah went back and forth between his new home and his father's place, but the narrative doesn't tell us that either. In fact, according to the narrative, chapter 38 stands alone. 

It's a completely different and unrelated story.

A Possible Reason for its Insertion

Later (49:9), Jacob will declare that Judah will be the tribe from which all leadership will come (he didn't foresee King Saul as the first king, chosen by God, who was from the tribe of Benjamin).

So we need to justify Judah's leadership role.

Reuven loses the position of the first born by having sex with his step mother. Simon and Levy, after their hot headedness with Shechem lost their positions. So that leaves Judah as the next in line, with a focus on his staff, which he temporarily gives away, but then it is returned to him.

There is a lot of great metaphorical imagery in the story if one focuses on such things.

So perhaps this story was a way to work around the later stories of the kings, as a metaphor for the return of the staff of Judah, and of such a kingship.

Of course, that would mean that this is a much later story, inserted to explain such things.

And that's not a problem, is it?