Gerard Hoet (1648-1733), Judah Gives his Signet, Bracelets and Staff in Pledge to Tamar, illustration from Figures de la Bible, P. de Hondt, The Hague, 1728.
This article is Part 8 of the FAI Publishing series Seeds and Generations, a Biblical survey of the theology of “Seed” and “Generation” throughout redemptive history to the end of the age.
Tearing the robe of colors
Yakov the “Heel-Catcher” was transformed into Yisrael the “God-Striver” after his struggle with the Man at the ford of the Jabbok. The devious ambition of his youth had been molded by years of toil, hardship and Divine promise into a holy violence.[1] But unfortunately, for his children, the biological apple would not fall far from the patriarchal tree. Yakov would suffer a far more painful deception at the hands of his elder sons. But as before, the deception of man would be subjected by Divine Providence to the redemptive purposes of God. The next chapter in the story of the Divine Seed would not be written without scandal, grief, and glory.
Yakov’s youngest son was his favorite. Showering Yosef with gifts and affection made Yakov’s ten older sons bitter with unsanctified jealousy. The aging father gifted Yosef a robe of many colors, possibly signaling his intent to convey his birthright to his youngest heir.[2] Although he was the eleventh son of Yakov, Yosef was also the firstborn of Rachel, his father’s first love, and the woman he had intended to marry first. As with Abel, Yitzhak and Yakov, once again it appeared that the older would serve the younger. But this time, the ten older brothers would not await the death of their father as their uncle Essau had done. Like Cain hating Abel for the regard of his Heavenly Father, so the sons of Leah, Billah and Zilpah hated the son of Rachel for the love of his earthly father “and could not speak peaceably to him.”[3]
As Josef approached his brothers one day in the field, the spirit of Cain, the seed of the serpent, overcame them, and they conspired to kill their younger brother. However, two of the brothers were tempered by conscience and persuaded the others to avoid violence. One of them was Yehuda, who convinced his siblings to sell Yosef to Ishmaelite slave traders, rather than murder him outright or leave him for dead. And so, the heir of the birthright was stripped of his robe and sold to the gentiles, prefiguring the One who would later fulfill the promise of the Lord in Eden. The robe was dipped in blood[4] and torn, returned to Yakov in a charade of grief, and the old man mourned bitterly. But within this story of deceit and betrayal, the next generation of the Promised Seed was about to be revealed.
Taking off garments of grief
While Josef thrived in the household of Potipher in Egypt, his brother Yehuda struggled to produce an heir. He had “gone down” from his brothers, perhaps seeking to distance himself from the shame of their crime, when he “turned aside” to a man from Adullam.[5] In the act of “turning aside,” he turned from the way of his fathers and took a Canaanite woman as his wife, who bore him three sons. It would seem that Yehuda was following the path of his uncles Esau and Ishmael before him, except that the Lord had other plans.
When his eldest son Er had reached the age of maturity, according to Middle Eastern custom, Yehuda took a wife for him named Tamar. According to Jewish tradition, she was an Israelite,[6] although there is no mention of her lineage in the Biblical text. Yehuda intended for Tamar to bear a grandson for his half-Canaanite son Er, but the purposes of God did not agree. Er “was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death.”[7] To preserve his line, Yehuda then gave Tamar to his second-born son Onan in a leverite marriage.[8] But rather than relinquish his inheritance to a male offspring which would be considered his older brother’s heir, Onan enjoyed his conjugal rights with Tamar while “spilling his seed” to avoid his duty. For this, the Lord put him to death also.
Considering the cultural context of the ancient Near East, Yehuda assumed that the death of his sons was due to a curse on their wife Tamar, and not their own sins. Rather than give Tamar to his youngest son, Yehuda sent her back to her father’s house as a widow. As the years passed, Yehuda himself became a widower, and the stage was set for a scandalous, yet Providential encounter.
While on the road to Timnah for a routine sheep-shearing appointment, Judah encountered a veiled woman of intrigue. Timnah was at a cultural crossroads, later the border between Yehudah’s descendants and the Philistine peoples, where the bustle of trade attracted those of disreputable vocation. Assuming the woman to be a prostitute, in a moment of weakness, a lonely Yehuda propositioned her for her services. What he didn’t know at the time was that he was being targeted by his jilted daughter-in-law. Tamar was determined to bear Israelite sons, and when the youngest son of Yehuda failed to arrive to her father’s house to fulfill his brother’s duty, she took off her widow’s clothing, veiled herself provocatively, and set out to seduce the elder matchmaker himself.
taking up the staff of kings
In the scandalous exchange which followed, Tamar slyly inquired about Yehuda’s method of payment for her services. He promised her a kid from his flock, to which Tamar agreed on the condition that he leave a pledge with her until her payment was received. When Yehuda naively asked what he should leave in pledge, Tamar seized the opportunity:
Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.[9]
In a lustful fog, Yehuda agreed. The deed was done, Yehuda continued on blissfully unaware of the identity of his partner, and Tamar returned to her widowhood with something more than just the staff, signet and cord of Yehuda. She returned carrying his child, her desired offspring.
The ancient rabbis understood the significance of Yehuda’s trade. A signet was an object engraved with the name of its bearer, often a ring or a cylinder. It was often used by kings, nobles and the wealthy in the ancient world to authenticate documents. In ancient Israel, it was a marker of royalty.[10] Yehuda’s cord was probably used to hang the signet around his neck, although the rabbis understood a deeper, midrashic meaning, associating the object with the Mosaic requirement to wear a cord of blue with tassels as a visible reminder to observe the commandments of God “not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after.”[11] An ironic interpretation, considering that Yehuda exchanged his cord for the lust of his own eyes towards a woman he was inclined to literally whore after.
But the third item which Yehuda traded to Tamar carried the most significance in the eyes of the ancient Jewish sages. While Yehuda must have considered his walking staff to be a common item, the act of handing it to Tamar had massive prophetic implications. The rabbis declared this act to be one of Messianic foreshadowing, based upon the later text of Psalm 110:
The Lord sends forth from Zion
your mighty scepter (i.e. staff).
Rule in the midst of your enemies![12]
Therefore, Yehuda, was not leaving common objects in pledge to Tamar. He was leaving his name, his authority, and his Divinely ordained birthright to the woman who would bear his offspring (i.e. seed).
When Yehuda sent the kid goat to Tamar for the return of his pledge, the apparent prostitute was nowhere to be found. Fearful of drawing attention to his indiscretion, Yehuda relinquished his possessions. “Let her keep the things as her own.”[13] But the signet, cord and staff were not just the prizes of his daughter-in-law. More importantly, they were the heirlooms of his own sons in her womb, a portend of the lineage of the Promised Seed.
Tying on the scarlet thread
Months later, Yehuda received word of Tamar’s pregnancy, and was advised that she had been immoral. Such an act was a death sentence for a woman in the ancient Near East, and in a moment of rage, Yehuda demanded her life. Unbeknownst to him, Tamar was about to reveal her master stroke.
As [Tamar] was being brought out [to be burned], she sent word to her father-in-law, ‘By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.’ And she said, ‘Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.’ Then Judah identified them and said, ‘She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.’ And he did not know her again.[14]
In a shocking turn, Yehuda discovered that his daughter-in-law was not the sinner worthy of death, but himself. He had withheld her rightful spouse, and in turn, she had used her feminine devices to fulfil her deepest desire — to bear the offspring of Yisrael. It was egregious. It was sordid. It was unmentionable. And it was the means by which the Lord fulfilled his sovereign purpose by honoring the desire of a woman to continue the line of the Woman’s Seed.
When Tamar’s labor arrived, twins were discovered in her womb. Like his grandfather Yitzak, Yehuda would watch his twin sons struggle for primacy in the birth canal.
…one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore his name was called Perez (i.e. a breach). Afterward his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.[15]
Once again, in a “breach” of socio-cultural norms, the second born son struggled with holy violence to inherit the place of the firstborn. Perez would come out first, and then Zerah, with the scarlet cord tied around his wrist.
Later, on his deathbed, Yisrael would prophesy regarding the Messianic significance of Yehuda’s staff.
Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father's sons shall bow down before you…
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.[16]
Indeed, Yisrael’s royal lineage would continue through Yehuda to his son Perez, who is mentioned 1700 years later in the genealogy of the One who would fulfill the promise of the Woman’s Seed. However, Perez is not the only one mentioned by the Apostle in his generation:
And Judas begat Perez and Zerah from Tamar.[17]
In a subtle departure from the rest of the passage, under Divine inspiration, Matthew mentions both brothers, Perez and Zerah. Why is this? Could it be that, although the older brother would carry on the Messianic line, the younger brother would reveal the Messianic calling?
…his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.
The son named Zerah, meaning “glowing” or “brilliance,” foreshadowed the glorious brilliance of God’s eternal purpose in the Woman’s Seed by wearing the scarlet thread. He would be the first among many, followed by priests who wore scarlet threads in their vestments[18] and who cleansed lepers with scarlet-covered wood,[19] continuing to the One who would wear a scarlet robe of mocking royalty and whose scarlet blood would drip down the wood of a Crossbeam.[20]
Gabe Caligiuri is a regular contributor to THE WIRE publication and podcast, as well as an occasional contributor to other FAI digital content on the subjects of history and geopolitics as they relate to the Great Commission. Gabe and his family live in California.
[1] Matthew 11:12
[2] William Wilson, Old Testament Word Studies [1978], “colour,” p. 82
[3] Genesis 37:4
[4] Revelation 19:3
[5] Genesis 38:1. Adullam would figure greatly into the lives of Judah’s progeny. The city was in the territory granted to the Tribe of Judah during the conquest of Joshua and Caleb, a Judahite, and later a young Judahite named David would flee from King Saul to the caves of Adullam, where he attracted a multi-ethnic group of Mighty Men around him for success in his later exploits as king of Israel and progenitor of the Promised Seed.
[6] Genesis Rabbah 85:9
[7] Genesis 38:7
[8] Leverite marriage (from the Latin “levir” for husband’s brother), encouraged a man to marry his brother’s widow in the event that his brother died without an heir, so that his brother’s line might continue. This was a common Near Eastern ancient practice and encouraged by Moses in Deuteronomy 25:5-10.
[9] Genesis 38:18
[10] Jeremiah 22:24
[11] Numbers 15:37-40
[12] Psalm 110:2, Genesis Rabbah 85:9
[13] Genesis 38:23
[14] Genesis 38:25-26
[15] Genesis 38:28-30
[16] Genesis 49:8,10
[17] Matthew 1:3
[18] Exodus 39:1-8
[19] Leviticus 14:4-7
[20] Matthew 27:27-31