What do the two Tamars have in common? Is there a limit to what the name connection can tell us?
Why are Judah’s relations with a sex worker acceptable, but Tamar being a sex worker is an offense that, at first, deserves death?
Why does Tamar appear in Matthew’s genealogy for Jesus? What purpose do she and the three other women serve in that passage?
Application Questions:
Within her own context in Genesis, what were Tamar’s other options? Did she make the right choice?
Genesis 38 implies that God, being displeased with two young men, kills them both. In 2 Samuel 13, a brother rapes his sister. How should we, as modern readers, interpret passages like this?
After the deaths of Er and Onan, where do you see God in the story of Tamar in Genesis 38, if anywhere?