Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38) in Ancient Jewish Exegesis: Studies in Literary Form and Hermeneutics

This study argues that the religious significance of biblical narrative emerges through a dialectic interaction between ancient text and members of later, historically-situated, communities of faith. It consists largely of a case study of this type of hermeneutic interaction, involving close analysis of the story of Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38) and three distinctive interpretations of the biblical narrative in ancient Jewish literature ( The Testament of Judah , Targum neofiti , and Genesis Rabbah ). The first part of the text concentrates on Genesis 38 itself, while the second part turns to the post-biblical reception of Genesis 38 as a scripture in two major cultural spheres - the Hellenistic and the Palestinian.