Biography of Tamar

When Tamar was born and where she had lived was never mentioned in Genesis chapter 38.
Tamar was the wife to both the first son of Judah, Er, and the second son of Judah, Onan, but
both were seen as wicked in Gods eyes so they were put to death. The father of Tamars two
sons, Perez and Zerah is the father of her two previous husbands, Judah. Tamar struggled in life
because both of her husbands had passed and when the man she was supposed to marry when he
grew up, didnt marry her, she felt as if they thought she was the reason her first two husbands
had died so Judah would not let her marry the third son, so, she had to take matters into her own
hands and got her children by being cunning and smart. I feel that Tamars role in the bible is
pretty big, she is a person who will work for what she wants and that displays a lot of leadership
which is a really great trait to have. Such as how she risked everything to get pregnant.
Biblical Scholars ideas on Tamar are listed on the last page.
Tamar is a very go get it person. She knew what she wanted and she went to get it.
Although I do not agree with her ways of doing so, I believe that what she did was very
smart for her time period. It seems as if she had planned this in advance because she was
very thorough in doing what she did which I applaud. The events in her life were tragic,
losing two husbands, one of them not even wanting to be with her and being thought of as
the reason her two previous husbands had died. Id have to say the best part of by Judah
her life was having her children because she was then no longer thought of as a husband
killer to others.
Tamars relationship with God seemed like he cared and wanted her to live and
succeed and didn't want her to be with people who were not good and didn't want to be
with her so he killed them so she could be free from their wickedness. God let her figure

out a path to get what she wanted and to show everyone that it wasnt she who had
caused both Er and Onan to die, but it was their own wickedness that killed them.
Tamar is one of the stronger biblical women in my opinion because she was able to
figure out a way to succeed on her own and was strong through the bad times and made it
through to the good.

Work Cited
Bible version: The New Revised Standard Version Bible, New York: American Bible Society,
1989 Print

1. Some Biblical scholars, for example, have interpreted the story of Judah
and Tamar as a case of sacred prostitution. According to Genesis 38, the
unsuspecting Judah mistook his daughter-in-law Tamar for a veiled
prostitute (Hebrew zonah). For her services, Judah promised Tamar a
sheep and gave her his seal as assurance the debt would be honored. When
Judahs friend returned to redeem the pledge, he asked in a nearby village
where he could find the qedeshah (a Hebrew word most Bibles translate
as cult prostitute). As Lipiski argues, however, there is nothing in the
story of Judah and Tamar to suggest sacred prostitution was involved;
rather, it seems that zonah and qedeshah were synonyms and that the
latter has
simply been misinterpreted by translators.
Source: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancientisrael/sacred-prostitution-in-the-story-of-judah-and-tamar/
2. Although the narrator of Genesis 38 encourages the readers alignment of sympathies
with Tamar, and although there are indications that he approves of her initiative because it
results in the emergence of the royal linage described elsewhere in the biblical corpus, the
events in Genesis 38 are morally ambivalent.
Source: http://books.google.com/books?
id=aKpKvKudargC&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86&dq=tamar+analysis+biblical+scholars&sourc

e=bl&ots=7VdwLaJqOO&sig=DaJdhUYAeTAzBDNEbaDPxh8fGEE&hl=en&sa=X&ei
=mbdNVMS5DpDYiQLB-IHQCA&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=tamar
%20analysis%20biblical%20scholars&f=false