Ancient rabbinical literature has provided us a key piece of information regarding Tamar’s identity.
Tamar was the daughter of Shem, the son of Noah. Shem was a priest, and when Tamar was charged with fornication (Gen. R. lxxxv. 11) she was condemned to be burned to death in conformity with Lev. xxi. 9. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14222-tamar
So it seems like Tamar was NOT a Gentile after all.
She was a Shemite, or to use modern language, a “Semite”.
She was part of the sanctified line of good.
From God’s perspective, this makes sense.
You see, Judah had every intention of carrying on his family line through his Canaanite wife!
There is no way God was going to let that happen.
Recall, a Canaanite is a descendant of Ham, a line cursed by God.
Think about it.
Out of the three sons that Judah had by a Canaanite woman, two of them died.
And the third one, Shelah, who according to tradition should have impregnated Tamar, never got the chance to do so because Judah refused and he refused for all the wrong reasons.
It was obvious that Judah cared little about the line of covenant promise being polluted by Canaanite blood.
In his mind, his only “wrong” was shaming Tamar by not giving his son Shelah as a husband to her.
Well, irony of ironies, and here’s where God’s genius comes into full display, despite his indifference to keeping the covenant line pure, Judah’s actions ultimately resulted in him making Tamar pregnant.
Do you see the spiritual significance in this?
Through Tamar, a Semite woman, Judah produced Semite sons who would carry on the covenant line of promise.
A few chapters back, we already saw how the attempted marriage between Jacob’s daughter Dinah and the King of Shechem’s son was literally put to death when all the males of Shechem were killed by Simeon and Levi.
So since Judah fathered Tamar’s children, and since Tamar is a daughter of Shem, the children from this union would be acceptable to God.
Hence, in spite of Tamar’s less than applaudable act, the purity of the promised covenant line that started with Abraham, went on to Isaac, then Jacob and now to Judah was maintained.
We get confirmation of this in Yeshua’s genealogy.
Perez, the firstborn Tamar’s twin sons, is a direct ancestor of Yeshua.
Later on we will see Perez separated away from all the other children of Judah.
To me this story is inspiring because it is surefire evidence of the steady though not always visible guiding hand of God who never forgets His people and their destiny in spite of all our flaws and stupid things we sometimes do.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
This is the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah the son of David,
the son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
-Matthew 1:1-3
Pray to God so He will open your eyes to the truth, and only read out of the KJ because these othe bibles are being changed, bit by bit,I thought the NKJ was safe, but its not, if you rarely read the bible, or read them with the Christian glasses on most likely you want notice anything. What do I mean by Christian glasses, reading and seeing the bible in the way you have been subconsciously programmed.
Tumar was not a gentile I agree, she a caninite, Moses wife was a Cushite(Ethiopian) and Joseph wife was an Egytians just to name a few.
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God had nothing to do with the Curse Naoh put on his Grandson Canon ” And what ever the Curse was, it most of been over by the time King Davied Conquered Canon and and renamed it Israel. Because the Isealite, lived among Caninite, Hittite etc, and not as slaves but equal, as long as they lived by God was, it you dont believe me lets take a look at King Solomon’s mom Bathsheba mom an her geniolgy using the bible.
2 Samuel 11:3-4
.3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her
Samuel 23:8-24:25New King James Version (NKJV)
David’s Mighty 37
Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, 35 Hezrai[e] the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite, 36 Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite, 37 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite (armorbearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah), 38 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, 39 and Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in a
A.Ahithophel the Gilonity “one of Davof top counselor, This was Bathsheba’s Grandfathe37.King Solomon great Grandfather
.B..Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, one of David mighty 37. Bathshebas Father and King Solomon Grandfather
C.Uriah the Hittite: Part of Davids thirty-seven I, Batgsheb’s’ first Husband before David had him killied
2 Samuel 15:12 ►
12 While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. And so the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept on increasing..
These Threes men were not of the Hebrew origin or descended from Shem, which who the Hebrews decendes from. So does that mean, Jesus was also part of Ham Geniolgy the entire Hebrew make up was part Ham and Shem.
God never referred to Ham decendents as gentiles, God Makes things really simple, the first time God introduces a new word for the first time in the bible He also gives us the meaning, if you dont believe test it out on your own, but I will us Gentile for example!
Gensis 10:5
From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.
Gentile isn’t a bad name, its just a name giving to Japth decendents the “Euopeans”. Paul was a deciple to the gentiles, who did Paul preach to, the Greeks, Macedonia’s, Romans etc, these countries are located In Eoupe.
Its not rocket siences Until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled, what does that mean. Well lets look at it, when Greece and Rome hit the scene in the new testament the word Gentile is used alto, Paul was a deciple to the gentles, Luke 21, Jeruslam will be trotted down until the time on the gentiles is fulfilled, Euopeans have controlled Israel since 70AD down to the Turkish Empire, Great Britain, and now a bunch of Polish ans Russians, “Gentiles
There is no where in the bible that speaks of a Hebrews or Jews becoming Jews on their mother side, do you know how insane that sounds. If that true then, good by to Joseph boys, Moses boys, King Solomon, Judas twins, Ruth, she’s a Morabite, just to name a few.
Lets Look at Jacob!
Genesis 46
26 All the persons who went with Jacob to Egypt, who came from his body, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, were sixty-six persons in all. 27 And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two persons. All the persons of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy. Lets look up to Abraham geniolgy up till now, break it down into detail!
A.Abraham/Sarah
1.Ishmel
2.Isaac
B.Abrham/Kutara
6. Sons bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.
C.Ishmel =12sons
D.isac 2sons, 1.Esau, 2. jacob
E.Esau=12sons
F.Jacob 12sons,
1.Leah= Reuben, Simon,Levi, Juda,Issachar,Zebulun
2.BiBilhah (Rachel, maidservant), Dan, Naphtali
3.Zilpah (Leah,,maidservant) Gad, Asher
4.Rachel=Josph, Benjamin
1.Girl,Her name was Diʹnah.
Judah=5 boys, 3 boys= 1/2 canonites, Tamer, 2 boys 1/2 canonites
Josph =2boys 1/2Egytion
2-poinuts I would like to make clear, When Josph and his family went into Egypt it was 66 people, with 4 of the 70 Already their, Joseph, Wife=egytion and two sons/ 1/2 egytion.
Looking at the Hebrew men up until the 12 sons, 99.5 of the hebrews have been men, what’s the chances out of those 66, going in were mostly men. Lets do the math, Jacob, Leah, 2 maidservants, 11 sons, lets say 10 main wives, and Tamar, Juda wife died, JACOB 1 daughter=Diʹnah 26 -total -66=so you have 46 that
Could be grand kids, with the percentage of boys 8n the early Hebrew family, lets say, 40 are boys and 3 are girls, if all 46 are grandkids, because name 11 could be concubines leaving leaving 36 grandkids 34 boys and two girls.
The point Im making using common since, 95% of the total 66 people were men. So who did the grandsons have kids with once they became of age
Their Uncle and Brother was the second most powerful man in the world, spending only 150 as slaves
From the full 430. They lived in the best land and the Hebrew people were still developing as a people, common since point at, after 430 when the Hebrews left Egypt, it was more egytions blood flooring though their vein than anyothe!
WAKE UP!
Thank you for your educating comment.
Eliam the son of Ahithophel, sorry my friend, but these two are Hebrews look up the meaning and their names, both Israelites.
Uriah was Canaanite, but one out of three hardly makes your case.
In the entire lineage of our Savior Jesus most are Hebrews with a couple Gentile converts mixed in. What does this mean? The Lord was upholding His Covenant with Abraham given while uncircumcised, but signed by the circumcision. Meaning it included both Jew and Gentile, circumcised and uncircumcised just as Paul tells us in Romans 4:11.
It seems likely that Josephs wife was daughter of Dinah and not an Egyptian. https://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/lds/meridian/2000/puzzle_ans.html
No other wife was mentioned in the Genesis 40 migration census, except Joseph’s wife, who being his niece was the reason for her mention. The book “Joseph and Aseneth” has several clues to Aseneth adoption to Potiphar.
Lev. 21:9. is pretty strong clue that Tamar is of Priestly descent (Shem/Abraham, etc), since nothing else clearly states Tamar is Canaanite.
Moses wife was NOT Cushite(Ethiopian). The Book of Jasher mentions this non-consummated dynastical relationship. Moses siblings were hassling him over this prior “union” to embarrass him before Zipporah the daughter of a Priest of Midianite (Descendant of Seth/Abraham)
Jasher 72:30. So Moses took the city by his wisdom, and the children of Cush placed him on the
throne instead of Kikianus king of Cush.
31. And they placed the royal crown upon his head, and they gave him for a wife Adoniah
the Cushite queen, wife of Kikianus.
32. And Moses feared the Lord God of his fathers, so that he came not to her, nor did he
turn his eyes to her.
33. For Moses remembered how Abraham had made his servant Eliezer swear, saying unto
him, Thou shalt not take a woman from the daughters of Canaan for my son Isaac.
34. Also what Isaac did when Jacob had fled from his brother, when he commanded him,
saying, Thou shalt not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan, nor make alliance with
any of the children of Ham.
35. For the Lord our God gave Ham the son of Noah, and his children and all his seed, as
slaves to the children of Shem and to the children of Japheth, and unto their seed after
them for slaves, forever.
36. Therefore Moses turned not his heart nor his eyes to the wife of Kikianus all the days
that he reigned over Cush.
There are a lot of places that secular scholars try to sway us into believing that the “royal” line was contaminated and thus invalided.
The assignment of Tamar as Canaanite is wrong.
The assignment of Moses wife Ethiopian is wrong.
The assignment of Josephs wife Egyptian is wrong.
There are others, given time, we should be able to figure them out too!
You need a spell checker!
Thanks.
The fact that people can write and debate fiction from the dawn of time til today, with no living or even contemporaneous witnesses; no smart phones, no digital storage – not even a way of quickly writing things down? – well, it will forever blow my mind that they try – in fact, that they put things forth as authoritative. (Job: my Edomite friend – what think ye of being authoritative regarding God?). And the “New Testament” starts out with one story, repeated twice, once by Matthew and once by Luke. And Jesus never wrote a single word – not one word! In spite of the fact that like all good ‘hebrews’ (they’re all Syrians, Abram being from Sanli Urfa, in modern day Turkey) – but like all good ‘hebrews’, Jesus’s mom took him down to the court of the Pharaoh, where I can guarantee you he learned to read and write! So, anything about Jesus is unverified hearsay. And, if you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you can spot the minute that Jesus was dead, long before the times in the official stories, the time when these entrepreneurial lunatics start to build a ‘church’.And Paul (Saint Saul), the highly-paid executioner of the Pharisees, stoning ‘Jewish Christians’ (they were all Jews) to death, and then running off to Damascus when people started getting really, really pissed off at him. And he ran, and ran, until he found one place where people didn’t want to kill him (they weren’t ‘invested’ in him, nor knew him, and he anointed himself the Apostle to the Gentiles, who were “abominations” in the eyes of Jesus:).
Matthew 10:5
5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
Matthew 15:24 King James Version (KJV)
24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
But, oh, let’s see: most of ‘Christianity’ is just an endless brain-bloat of weirdness from the brain of the rude, passive-aggressive, philandering, nasty, egomaniacalcal narcissist, who loved to preach celibacy, but you will note if you actually read Paul’s Epistles (and not have John Hagee – who said “homosexuality is disproven”, because God said to the Man and the Woman, “go forth and multiply”, calling them Adam and Eve – the latter of which was yet to have a name. Anyway, Paul had a wife and a couple of kids, at least. In fact, he knocked up some woman when he was in a Roman jail.
But, Hell: it’s exhausting spelling things out for numbskulls, because they can’t defend their side of things – it being based on nothing logical or reasoned – so all they can do is get mad.
Someday they will know that the ‘burning bush’ is (was) an active volcano called H’allat al-Badr, viewed through a little stand of trees. In the day, it looked liked just a black cloud. At night, it glowed red. (Think, the volcano Mauna Loa. It mostly oozes, not explodes).
Or maybe someday, DNA scientists will insist that the folks at Chabad stop fudging DNA data and presenting it as true. Or, people will all know that there were (are) two Moses and two Exoduses, and that Moses’s mother was Jochebed, but his father was Pharaoh Khaneferre Sobekhotep IV, and that he was a Nubian warrior/king whose (other) wife was Adoniah (can’t make that up). And then maybe I’ll tell you how the eruption of Santorini/Thera, in 1628 parted the skinny little Gulf of Aqaba with a tsunami (Red Sea), and maybe show you how the Eastern wall of Jericho is still to be found on the MASSIVE TRANS-JORDAN fault, and collapsed during one of the hundreds of earthquakes occurring there.
Oh – and the Jewish/Christian God Jehovah? Is a Midianite god. Moses’ father-in-law Jethro was the high priest of Midian.
And, oh yeah: Q. what was on the ‘two tablets’? A. The only language extant that Moses might have known would have been hieroglyphics. No wonder it took forty days just to chisel a tablet!
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That should have read 1628 BCE. That was people fleeing from the all of the ‘plagues’ that the eruption of Santorini wrought. The death of the firstborns was an epidemic that followed thereafter. The second Exodus was the actual expulsion of the Hebrews by a conquering tribe called the Hyksos.probably occurred around 1450 BCE. K58
1628BC is to early. The Israelites fled Egypt in 1446BC. An east wind is what you’d get if a hurricane found it’s way up the Red Sea and subsequent depression caused the water level to drop enough to reveal the coral reefs in the straights of Tiran 27.984763° 34.474434° enabling the Israelites to cross.
Tamar, Rachab, Ruth, Bathsheba all these women in the line of Yeshua were ALL ethnic ISRAELITES and had to have been so for the promise to be fulfilled. Yeshua was in effect 100% descendant from Abraham, Yitzhak and Yacob ans specifically from the line of Y’hudah. No forbidden nation seed was mingled into his blodd through Mariam His mother.
22 So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
GOD say what He means and means what He says!
It is through the male linage, look at genetics today, through the “Y” chromosome we can track our linage all the way back to one of Noah’s son’s. It is the male DNA that doesn’t get watered down through the generations therefore it is very reliable.
Shoshana posted “Tamar, Rachab, Ruth, Bathsheba all these women in the line of Yeshua were ALL ethnic ISRAELITES and had to have been so for the promise to be fulfilled. ”
I fully support the above statement!
If we currently misunderstand any of these to be otherwise, we need to take a new look at it!
How the heck are you establishing that Ruth was an ethnic Israelite?
Are you kidding me?
The Scriptures plainly call her out as a Moabite.
Well, Exodus 2:19 calls Moses an Egyptian! 😉
What version of scripture are you using? She isn’t a Moabite, she is a Moabitess!
check out: https://www.purecambridgetext.com/post/does-gender-matter
From the above link, while I still suspect she may have been an Israelite of multi-generational residence of Moab, an alternate consideration is Deuteronomy 21:10-13 😉
Is calling her a Moabitess indicative of her DNA or residence?
Also consider Naomi’s two male children, did they break the covenant and marry into prohibited clans?
With greater scrutiny, we now know Joseph’s wife was not an Egyptian. And Moses wife not an Ethiopian.
There are cases where scripture makes a big deal out of certain Abraham descendants marrying into Canaanite tribes. Is the prohibition removed by Ruth’s time? Or are there other considerations to think about? Is the context simply not as easy to decipher than Moses being called an Egyptian?
My mind is always open and searching for things we may miss….
Spare me the snarky attitude bro.
I just wanted the answer.
Thanks.
You said,
“Well, Exodus 2:19 calls Moses an Egyptian!…..My mind is always open and searching for things we may miss.”
No, the women referred to Moses as an Egyptian (v.16-19). Moses is a Hebrew (v.6).
This from Bibleref, “… It’s worth noting that the daughters of Reuel refer to Moses as “an Egyptian.” Moses, in fact, is a Hebrew (Ex.2:1-10). This perception makes sense, however, since Moses would have dressed and probably spoken like an Egyptian from the perspective of these seven women….”
You may want to research before you decide to quickly “correct” others.
Ruth and Rahab are both Gentiles.
Mark posted: “It is through the male linage, look at genetics today, through the “Y” chromosome we can track our linage all the way back to one of Noah’s son’s.”
How is this “Y” DNA established? Is there an unbroken male line from present day all the way back to Noah, of which the DNA can be overlain?
Is there some website about this?
“So since Judah fathered Tamar’s children, and since Tamar is a daughter of Shem, the children from this union would be acceptable to God.”
There are Biblical problems with your argument . Even if Tamar wasn’t a Canaanite, Rahab was:
Rahab, a Canaanite, was the mother of Boaz, the great-great grandmother of King David,and is in the line of Yeshua!
Scripture tells us that Judah’s son, Er, was wicked. That’s why the Lord put him to death (Genesis 38:6, 7).
God didn’t put Judah’s son, Onan, to death to keep him from impregnating Tamar. Absolutely to the contrary, it was his REFUSAL to impregnate her that God considered wicked (Genesis 38:9, 10).
Throughout the Old Testament God was clear about not allowing His people to intermarry with pagans, but the issue had nothing to do with adulterating the race. It had everything to do with spiritual adultery, aka idolatry. When Aaron and Miriam criticize the color/race of Moses’ wife as they attack his leadership, God has a poignant way of getting His point across to Miriam, making her whiter than snow with leprosy for awhile…
“Rahab, a Canaanite, was the mother of Boaz”
Maybe, maybe not.
Have you ever studied the customs of the Canaanites? They did things that were outlawed by the Israelites. When the Canaanites raided and plundered others, they captured the women and children to force them into prostitution and indoctrinated them into believing they were Canaanites.
How do you know Rachab wasn’t one of the children the Canaanites captured when they defeated the Israelites which disobeyed Moshe in Numbers 14 and forced her into prostitution?
It doesn’t matter, see my comment above about the linage. It is through the male DNA and GOD’s fingerprint is still on that male DNA, it has hardly changed for thousands of years.
I don’t doubt your overall concept. It’s just interesting to delve into the fullness of God’s Word.
We believe it is via the male lineage, but we also learn from those in the Jewish faith that those who do not have a break in their mother’s lineage do not have to go through the conversion process, but it is required even if there isn’t a break in their father’s lineage. You would have to ask those in the Jewish faith for the reason. I heard what it was, but I forgot.
Anyway, regardless of this we have both the patrimonial and matrimonial lineage of Jesus in the Gospels. One is in Matthew and the other in Luke.
It might not be important enough for us to look into it in depth, but God thought it was important enough to include it in the Bible. Sometimes we just need to show a little desire for God in order for Him to unfold more of Himself to us. This is the story of redemption. It has been the key since the fall in the Garden.
When God brought the world wide flood, it was because Cain’s lineage mixed with Seth’s lineage resulting in violence on the face of the earth. Why would He condone the same mixing after the flood? As you can see Noah prophetically cursed the product of that forbidden union after the flood when he cursed Canaan before he was even born. He did not curse Ham — only the offspring of that forbidden union.
I know some might not like to look into the areas of the Word that makes them uncomfortable, but it sure is nice to explore and know our inheritance.
It might not always be obvious, but the truth of the matter is still hidden in the Word.