Er (biblical person)

Last updated
This article discusses close relatives of Judah. Er is also a name listed by the Gospel of Luke's version of the genealogy of Jesus .

In the biblical Book of Genesis, Er (Hebrew : עֵר‎, Modern: Er, Tiberian: ʻĒr "watcher"; [1] Greek : Ἤρ) was the eldest son of Judah and his Canaanite wife, the daughter of Shuah. He is described as marrying Tamar. [2] According to the text, "the LORD slew" Er because he was wicked, although it does not give any further details. [3] This Er had two brothers, Onan [4] and Shelah. [5]

The Book of Chronicles verse 4:21 lists another Er as being one of Shelah's sons. [6]

Some modern bible critics interpret the story of Er as an eponymous aetiological myth to explain fluctuations in the constituency of the tribe of Judah, with the abrupt death of Er reflecting the death of a clan; [7] [8] the presence of an Er as a descendant of Shelah, in the Book of Chronicles, suggests that Er was in reality the name of a clan that was originally equal in status to the Shelah clan, but was later subsumed by it. [7] [8] The brother - Onan - may represent an Edomite clan named Onam, [8] who are mentioned in an Edomite genealogy in Genesis. [9]

These critics have also argued that the Tamar narrative, of which the description of Er is a part, secondarily aims to either assert the institution of levirate marriage, or present an aetiological myth for its origin; [7] Er's role in the narrative would thus be as the background to the main plot, his death being the reason for levirate marriage to become an issue. John Emerton, Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge, regards the evidence for this as inconclusive, though classical rabbinical writers argued that this narrative does concern the origin of levirate marriage. [10]

Family Tree

Judah Aliyath
Er Tamar Onan Shelah
Perez and Zerah

Related Research Articles

The Book of Chronicles is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of the Jewish Tanakh, the Ketuvim ("Writings"). It contains a genealogy starting with Adam and a history of ancient Judah and Israel up to the Edict of Cyrus in 539 BC.

Zerah or Zérach refers to several different people in the Hebrew Bible.

Onan was a figure detailed in the Book of Genesis chapter 38, as the second son of Judah who married the daughter of Shuah the Canaanite. Onan had an older brother Er and a younger brother, Shelah as well. After being commanded by his father, Judah, to perform his duty as a husband's brother according to the custom of levirate marriage with the late Er's wife Tamar, Onan instead refused to perform his duty as a levirate and "spilled his seed on the ground whenever he went in" because "the offspring would not be his", and was thus put to death by Yahweh. This act is detailed as retribution for being "displeasing in the sight of Lord".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judah (son of Jacob)</span> Biblical figure and son of Jacob and Leah

Judah was, according to the Book of Genesis, the fourth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah and the founder of the Tribe of Judah of the Israelites. By extension, he is indirectly the eponym of the Kingdom of Judah, the land of Judea, and the word Jew.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamar (Genesis)</span> Biblical figure and daughter-in-law of Judah

In the Book of Genesis, Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah (twice), as well as the mother of two of his children: the twins Perez and Zerah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caleb</span> Biblical character

Caleb, sometimes transliterated as Kaleb, is a figure who appears in the Hebrew Bible as a representative of the Tribe of Judah during the Israelites' journey to the Promised Land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perez (son of Judah)</span> Biblical figure; son of Judah and twin brother of Zerah

Perez, also written as Pharez/Peretz, was the son of Tamar and Judah, and the twin of Zerah, according to the Book of Genesis. The twins were conceived after Tamar tricked her father-in-law Judah into having sexual intercourse with her by disguising herself as a prostitute. The name is transliterated to English as both "Perez" and "Pharez" (KJV). Perez, in Hebrew means "breach or burst forth" and is named after the narrative of his birth as recorded in Genesis 38:29. According to Ethiopian tradition, Perez became a king of Persia.

According to the Bible, Shelah/Shela was the youngest brother among Judah's first three sons, and was born at Chezib.

The Hebrew Bible is considered a holy text in most Abrahamic religions. It records a large number of events and laws that are endorsed or proscribed by the God of Israel. Judaism teaches that the Torah contains 613 commandments, many of which deal with crime and punishment, but only the Noahide Laws apply to humanity in general. Most Christian denominations have also adopted some of these directives, such as the Ten Commandments and Great Commandment, while a minority believes all Old Covenant laws have been abrogated.

Yibbum is the form of levirate marriage found in Judaism. As specified by Deuteronomy 25:5–10, the brother of a man who died without children is permitted and encouraged to marry the widow. However, if either of the parties refuses to go through with the marriage, both are required to go through a ceremony known as halizah, involving a symbolic act of renunciation of their right to perform this marriage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genealogy of Jesus</span> Ancestry of Jesus

The New Testament provides two accounts of the genealogy of Jesus, one in the Gospel of Matthew and another in the Gospel of Luke. Matthew starts with Abraham and works forwards, while Luke works back in time from Jesus to Adam. The lists of names are identical between Abraham and David, but differ radically from that point. Matthew has twenty-seven generations from David to Joseph, whereas Luke has forty-two, with almost no overlap between them or with other known genealogies.⁠ They also disagree on who Joseph's father was: Matthew says he was Jacob, while Luke says he was Heli.

Sex is considered repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible. Some references provide unambiguous ethical regulations, such as the laws given in Leviticus or Deuteronomy. Others are more ambivalent, most famously the potentially homosexual actions of Ham with his father, Noah. Its depictions of homosexuality, rape, prostitution and incest have spurred considerable academic and theological attention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vayeshev</span> Ninth portion in the annual Jewish cycle of weekly Torah reading

Vayeshev, Vayeishev, or Vayesheb is the ninth weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. The parashah constitutes Genesis 37:1–40:23. The parashah tells the stories of how Jacob's other sons sold Joseph into captivity in Egypt, how Judah wronged his daughter-in-law Tamar who then tricked him into fulfilling his oath, and how Joseph served Potiphar and was imprisoned when falsely accused of assaulting Potiphar's wife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simeon (son of Jacob)</span> Biblical figure and son of Jacob and Leah

Simeon was the second of the six sons of Jacob and Leah, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Simeon, according to the Book of Genesis. However, some Biblical scholars view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an etiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. With Leah as a matriarch, Biblical scholars regard the tribe as having been believed by the text's authors to have been part of the original Israelite confederation. However, the tribe is absent from the parts of the Bible which textual scholars regard as the oldest. Some scholars think that Simeon was not originally regarded as a distinct tribe.

Shuah is the name of one of four minor Biblical figures. It is sometimes used as the name of a fifth. Their names are different in Hebrew, but they were all transliterated as "Shuah" in the King James Version.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edom</span> Iron age nation in the southern Levant

Edom was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and east. Most of its former territory is now divided between present-day southern Israel and Jordan. Edom appears in written sources relating to the late Bronze Age and to the Iron Age in the Levant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1 Chronicles 3</span> First Book of Chronicles, chapter 3

1 Chronicles 3 is the third chapter of the Books of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is compiled from older sources by an unknown person or group, designated by modern scholars as "the Chronicler", and had the final shape established in late fifth or 4th century BCE. This chapter contains the genealogy of unbroken Davidic line from the time of David to the post-exilic period, providing a possibility of the reinstatement of the Davidic monarchy in Jerusalem with its rightful heir, should circumstances allow. It is divided into three parts: (1) the sons of David ; (2) the kings in Jerusalem ; (3) the descendants during and after the exile period, verses 17–24. Together with chapters 2 and 4, it focuses on the descendants of Judah: chapter 2 deals with the tribes of Judah in general, chapter 3 lists the sons of David in particular and chapter 4 concerns the remaining families in the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Simeon. These chapters belong to the section focusing on the list of genealogies from Adam to the lists of the people returning from exile in Babylon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1 Chronicles 2</span> First Book of Chronicles, chapter 2

1 Chronicles 2 is the second chapter of the Books of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is compiled from older sources by an unknown person or group, designated by modern scholars as "the Chronicler", and had the final shape established in late fifth or fourth century BCE. This chapter and two subsequent ones focus on the descendants of Judah, where chapter 2 deals with the tribe of Judah in general, chapter 3 lists the sons of David in particular and chapter 4 concerns the remaining families in the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Simeon. These chapters belong to the section focusing on the list of genealogies from Adam to the lists of the people returning from exile in Babylon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1 Chronicles 4</span> First Book of Chronicles, chapter 4

1 Chronicles 4 is the fourth chapter of the Books of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is compiled from older sources by an unknown person or group, designated by modern scholars as "the Chronicler", and had the final shape established in late fifth or fourth century BCE. Together with chapters 2 and 3, this chapter focuses on the descendants of Judah: chapter 2 deals with the tribes of Judah in general, chapter 3 lists the sons of David in particular and chapter 4 concerns the remaining families in the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Simeon, geographically the southernmost west-Jordanian tribe. These chapters belong to the section focusing on the list of genealogies from Adam to the lists of the people returning from exile in Babylon.

References

  1. ↑ International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), "Er."
  2. ↑ Genesis 38:6
  3. ↑ Genesis 38:7
  4. ↑ Genesis 38:8
  5. ↑ Genesis 38:11
  6. ↑ 1 Chronicles 4:21
  7. 1 2 3 Emerton, J. A. Judah and Tamar.
  8. 1 2 3 Cheyne, Thomas Kelly; Black, J. Sutherland, eds. (1899). Encyclopaedia Biblica .
  9. ↑ Genesis 36:23
  10. ↑ Genesis Rabbah 85:6
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.