Family Affair - Tamar

Genesis 38; Ruth 4:12; Matthew 1:3

When people start reading the New Testament, they generally skip over the first seventeen verses. That’s because Matthew starts with Jesus’ family tree—“Abraham begat Isaac” and so on. The Christmas story doesn’t really start until verse 18. Or does it?

Matthew considered the genealogical data crucial to an understanding of who Jesus was: a descendant of Abraham, of David, of all the kings of Judah. But it gets very interesting when we look at the four women included in the list.

Tamar’s appearance is especially surprising. Today she might be labeled a “black widow,” a woman who outlives more than one husband. Tamar was a Canaanite who married Judah’s oldest son, Er, who soon died. As custom dictated, Tamar then married Er’s brother, Onan. It may seem odd today, but if Tamar had a son by Onan, he would be considered Er’s heir. (Say that three times fast.) Onan wasn’t too happy about that, and so he refused to impregnate Tamar. She was widowed again when Onan died. Her father-in-law, Judah, had one last son, and he promised that the boy would wed Tamar at the proper time, but he reneged.

Widowed and childless, Tamar was now a disgraced woman with few good options. Long story short, she disguised herself as a prostitute and Judah hired her services for his own pleasure. Tamar took his staff, seal, and cord as collateral, and when Judah tried to come back to pay, Tamar had disappeared with his very personal possessions.

When she turned up pregnant, Judah was outraged and said, “Let’s burn her.” But then she produced Judah’s possessions, proving he was the father, and so Judah had to scale back the outrage. Tamar gave birth to twins, Perez and Zerah. Perez is in the genealogical line of Jesus.

This is not your normal Sunday school story. And it raises a question: What’s Tamar doing in Jesus’ ancestry? Why would our Lord want anything to do with such a disgraced woman?

The Gospels go on to tell us about Jesus’ interactions with the Samaritan woman, the demon-possessed Mary Magdalene, a woman caught in adultery, and a few prostitutes—all “disgraced” in some way, until they received the grace of Jesus.

Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (whose mother was Tamar).

Matthew 1:3