Judah (son of Jacob)
Judah | |
---|---|
יְהוּדָה | |
Born | c. 1600 BCE |
Died | |
Resting place | 32°01′51″N 34°53′15″E / 32.030797°N 34.887616°E |
Spouse | Aliyath |
Children | |
Parents | |
Relatives | See list
|
Judah (Hebrew: יְהוּדָה, Modern: Yəhūda, Tiberian: Yŭhūḏā)[1] 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.
According to the narrative in Genesis, Judah alongside Tamar is a patrilineal ancestor of the Davidic line. The Tribe of Judah features prominently in Deuteronomistic history, which most scholars agree was reduced to written form, although subject to exilic and post-exilic alterations and emendations, during the reign of the Judahist reformer Josiah from 641 to 609 BCE.[2]
Etymology
The Hebrew name for Judah, Yehuda (יהודה), literally "thanksgiving" or "praise," is the noun form of the root Y-D-H (ידה), "to thank" or "to praise."
Biblical references
Judah is the fourth son of the
Following his birth, Judah's next appearance is in Gen 37, when he and his brothers cast
Judah marries Aliyath, the daughter of
Meanwhile, Joseph rises to a position of power in Egypt. Twenty years after being betrayed, he meets his brothers again without them recognizing him. The youngest brother, Benjamin, had remained in
Textual criticism
Relationship between the Joseph and Judah narratives
Literary critics have focused on the relationship between the Judah story in chapter 38, and the
Foreshadowing the hegemony of Judah
Other than Joseph (and perhaps Benjamin), Judah receives the most favorable treatment in Genesis among Jacob's sons, which according to biblical historians is a reflection on the historical primacy that the tribe of Judah possessed throughout much of Israel's history, including as the source of the Davidic line.[16] Although Judah is only the fourth son of Leah, he is expressly depicted in Genesis as assuming a leadership role among the 10 eldest brothers, including speaking up against killing Joseph, negotiating with his father regarding Joseph's demand that Benjamin be brought down to Egypt, and pleading with Joseph after the latter secrets the silver cup into Benjamin's bag.[17]
Judah's position is further enhanced through the downfall of his older brothers: Reuben, the eldest, cedes his birthright through sexual misconduct with Jacob's concubine
Hebraist Gary Rendsburg argues that the original Biblical audience would have noticed the parallels between Judah and Tamar on the one hand and David and Bathsheba on the other.[20] In particular, Rendsburg notes the similarity between Bathsheba (בַּת-שֱבַע, bat-šɛbaʿ, ‘Bathsheba) and Judah's wife the daughter of Shua', whose name is not given (בַּת-שוּעַ, bat…šua, the daughter of … Shua).[20]
Archaeologist and scholar Israel Finkelstein argues that these and other pro-Judah narrative strands likely originated after the demise of the Kingdom of Israel in the eighth century BCE: "[I]t was only after the fall of Israel that Judah grew into a fully developed state with the necessary complement of professional priests and trained scribes able to undertake such a task. When Judah suddenly faced the non-Israelite world on its own, it needed a defining and motivating text. That text was the historical core of the Bible, composed in Jerusalem in the course of the seventh century BCE. And because Judah was the birthplace of ancient Israel's central scripture, it is hardly surprising that the biblical text repeatedly stresses Judah's special status from the very beginnings of Israel's history.... [In Genesis], it was Judah, among all of Jacob's sons, whose destiny was to rule over all the other tribes in Israel."[21]
The story of Judah and Tamar in the historical context
Emerton notes that it is "widely agreed" that the story of Judah and Tamar "reflects a period after the settlement of the Israelites in Canaan".[22] He also suggests the possibility that it contains "aetiological motifs concerned with the eponymous ancestors of the clans of Judah".[23] Emerton notes that Dillman and Noth considered the account of the deaths of Er and Onan to "reflect the dying out of two clans of Judah bearing their names, or at least of their failure to maintain a separate existence". However, this view was "trenchantly criticized" by Thomas L. Thompson.[23]
Along with the account of
Jewish tradition
Rabbinic commentaries
The text of the
Classical rabbinical sources also allude to a war between the
According to some classical sources, Jacob suspected that Judah had killed Joseph,[35] especially, according to the Midrash Tanhuma, when Judah was the one who had brought the blood stained coat to Jacob.[26]
Since rabbinical sources held Judah to have been the leader of his brothers, these sources also hold that the other nine brothers blamed him to be responsible for this deception, even if it was not Judah himself who brought the coat to Jacob.[26] Even if Judah had been trying to save Joseph, the classical rabbinical sources still regard him negatively for it; these sources argue that, as the leader of the brothers, Judah should have made more effort and carried Joseph home to Jacob on his (Judah's) own shoulders.[36] These sources argue that Judah's brothers, after witnessing Jacob's grief at the loss of Joseph, deposed and excommunicated Judah, as the brothers held Judah entirely responsible, since they would have brought Joseph home if Judah had asked them to do so.[37] Divine punishment, according to such classical sources, was also inflicted on Judah in punishment; the death of Er and Onan, and of his wife, are portrayed in by such classical rabbis as being acts of divine retribution.[38]
When Benjamin was held in bondage following the accusation of stealing Joseph's cup, Judah offered himself among his brethren as a bondman in replace of him, but Joseph was strict that the punishment is only applied to the one who was guilty, not to the innocent ones.[39]
According to classical rabbinical literature, because Judah had proposed that he should take any blame forever, this ultimately led to his bones being rolled around his coffin without cease, while it was being carried during
Genesis Rabbah, and particularly the midrashic book of Jasher, expand on this by describing Judah's plea[clarification needed] as much more extensive than given in the Torah, and more vehement.[41][42]
The classical rabbinical literature argues that Judah reacted violently to the threat against Benjamin, shouting so loudly that
Testament of Judah
Before his death, Judah told his children about his bravery and heroism in the wars against the kings of Canaan and the family of Esau, also confessed his shortcomings caused by wine that led him astray in his relationship with Bathshua and Tamar.[44] Judah admonished his sons not to love gold, and not to look upon the beauty of women, for through these things, the sons of Judah will fall into misery. In his last words, he reminded them to observe the whole law of the Lord.[44]
Dating the lifetime of Judah
According to
The marriage of Judah and births of his children are described in a passage widely regarded as an abrupt change to the surrounding narrative.[47] The passage is often regarded as presenting a significant chronological issue, as the surrounding context appears to constrain the events of the passage to happening within 22 years,[48] and the context together with the passage itself requires the birth of the grandson of Judah and of his son's wife,[49] and the birth of that son[50] to have happened within this time (to be consistent, this requires an average of less than 8 years gap per generation). According to textual scholars, the reason for the abrupt interruption this passage causes to the surrounding narrative, and the chronological anomaly it seems to present, is that it derives from the Jahwist source, while the immediately surrounding narrative is from the Elohist.[26][51][52]
Tomb
Local Muslim and Samaritan traditions placed the tomb of Judah (Nabi Huda ibn Sayyidna Ya'qub, "the prophet Judah, son of our lord Jacob") at al-Yahudiya, present-day Yehud.[53][54] Today, it is a destination of Jewish pilgrimage.[54]
Another local tradition, held by Druze and Muslims, places the tomb of Judah in "Nabi Yehuda", a maqam located near Horvat Omrit in the Hula Valley.[55][56][57]
See also
References
- ISBN 978-1783746767.
- ISBN 9780684869131.
- ^ Exell, Joseph Samuel (1892). Homiletical Commentary on the Book of Genesis. USA: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 583.
- ^ Lipiński, Edward, "L'étymologie de Juda," Vetus Testamentum 23.3 (July 1973): p. 380-381
- ^ "Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 38 - New International Version".
- Pharez in turn was an ancestor of David. (Genesis 38:1–30)
- ^ Genesis 42:24, 42:34
- ^ Genesis 44:1–17
- ^ Genesis 44:18–34
- ^ Genesis 49:8–10
- ^ Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 18-50 (NICOT; Eerdmans, 1995), 431-432.
- ^ J. A. Emerton, "Some problems," 349. Emerton also suggests (p. 360) that in J, this story "never stood anywhere but between the accounts of the selling of Joseph into slavery and the doings of Joseph in Egypt."
- ^ Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary (IVP, 2008 ), 187.
- ^ Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative (Basic Books, 1981), 10.
- J. P. Fokkelman, Reading Biblical Narrative (Leiderdorp: Deo, 1999), 81.
- ^ ISBN 9780804200851.
- ^ ISBN 9780567539465.
- ISBN 9780802841599.
- ISBN 9780802827050.
- ^ ISBN 9781683071976.
- ISBN 9780743223386.
- ^ J. A. Emerton, "Some problems in Genesis xxxviii", Vetus Testamentum 25 (1975), 345.
- ^ a b J. A. Emerton, "Judah and Tamar," Vetus Testamentum 29 [1979], 405.
- ^ Yaron, Shlomith. "Sperm stealing: a moral crime by three of David's ancestresses". Bible Review 17:1, February 2001
- ^ Sotah 10b
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Jewish Encyclopedia
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 84:16
- Testament of Judah1
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 93:6–7
- ^ in great detail in the midrashic Book of Jasher, Vayishlah
- Pseudo-Jonathan (on Genesis 48:22)
- ^ Midrash Vayissa'u
- ^ Book of Jubilees 34:1-9
- Testament of Judah3-7
- Midrash Genesis Rabbah95:1; Midrash Tanhuma
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 85:4
- ^ Exodus Rabbah 42:2; Tanhumah, Vayeshev, 12
- Tanhuma, Vayiggash 10
- ^ Ginzberg, Louis (1909). The Legends of the Jews Volume II: Judah Pleads and Threatens (Translated by Henrietta Szold) Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.
- ISBN 978-1-58023-352-1.
- ^ Sefer haYashar (midrashic), Vayiggash
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 93:7
- ^ Sefer haYashar
- ^ a b The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, R. H. Charles
- ^ Jubilees 28:15
- ^ Sefer haYashar (midrashic), Shemot
- ^ Genesis 38
- ^ compare Genesis 37:2 (... young man of 17 ...) – with Genesis 41:46 (... was 30 years old ...), 41:53 (... 7 years ...), and 45:6 (... for 2 years ...)
- ^ Genesis 46:12 ( ... sons of Pharez ... )
- ^ Genesis 38:3 (... gave birth to Er ...)
- Encyclopedia Biblica
- ^ Richard Elliott Friedman, Who wrote the Bible?
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 219
- ^ a b Benvenisti, 2001, p. 276
- ^ "אתר הסקר הארכיאולוגי של ישראל". survey.antiquities.org.il. Retrieved 2022-06-06.
- ^ עולם התנ"ך, ספר יהושע, מאת גרשון גליל ויאיר זקוביץ. "דברי הימים" הוצאה לאור בע"מ, 1999, עמ' 187
- ^ 79‒80; Thomson 1859: 389
Bibliography
- Winckler, Hugo; Geschichte Israels (Berlin, 1895)
- Meyer, Eduard; Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstämme (Halle, 1906)
- Haupt, Paul; Studien ... Welthausen gewidmet (Giessen, 1914)
- Rendsburg, Gary; How the Bible is Written (Peabody, 2019)
External links
- Media related to Judah son of Jacob at Wikimedia Commons