Friday, May 1, 2020

Genesis 38:26 and the meaning of "righteousness"



And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous (צדק; δικαιοω) than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more. (Gen 38:26)

Commenting on this passage and how its usage of “righteous” (צדק; δικαιοω), even when used in such non-soteriological texts does not support some formulation of legal fiction, James Prothro wrote:

This opposition of Tamar and Judah, built into the statement’s structure, locates Tamar’s right-ness in their dealings with one another: this is not to be conceived as a “verdict” spoken by an external, dissociated judge declaring Tamar as “guilty” or “innocent.” By summoning Judah (and those present) to know the child’ origin by the evidence, Tamar challenges him, which he interpreters as a counter-accusation for his negligence in wedding her to Shelah. Judah’s response is similar to Job 35.2 LXX (cf. 4.17 MT) and 1 Samuel 24.18, both of which are admissions of guilt in bilateral contentions (Job vs. God; David vs. Saul). Here—as in 1 Samuel 24.18 (cf. Jer. 12.1)—the accuser openly admits the accused’s counter-claims, thus submitting and ending the contention (hence early interpretations that Judah hereby confesses his sin, b. Soṭah 7b, 10b). Judah is admitting guilt and submitting to Tamar: “she is in the right rather than I” or “over against me” in this matter. The perfect passive δεδικαιωται should be read as stative, indicating that “she is in the right.” We are to think of her as being “in the right” over against Judah with respect to his reneging on paternal duty and, given that the accuser and paterfamilias has dropped his charges, as consequently freed from punishment. (James B. Prothro, Both Judge and Justifier: Biblical Legal Language and the Act of Justifying in Paul [Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament 461; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018], 52)



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