Lesson 11 in the Old Testament manual employs several stories from Genesis 34-39 to develop the theme of sexual morality. Joseph’s actions embody the “Lord’s standards” for morality and are contrasted with the actions of Shechem, Reuben, and Judah. You may notice that the featured characters in the lesson are all male. What shall a woman do with a lesson like this? I think the idea is for women to identify with Joseph — to be virtuous when facing temptation. But Joseph is a man, his responses are male-oriented, and intentionally or not this approach will tend to render the women in your Sunday School classroom invisible. Consideration of the female archetypes found within these chapters may yield some surprising insights.
As feminists might point out, a patriarchal “virgin/whore” stereotype divides and traps women on one side or the other. Yet this is how our lesson is developed with regard to the female characters. Joseph’s encounter with the wife of Potiphar introduces us to “The Whore.” This nameless woman casts her eyes upon Joseph, and day after day entreats him to lie with her. In a final, dramatic scene, she grabs his clothing and tears it from his body as he pulls away from her and runs off. Then she lies and accuses him of trying to rape her.
In the next scriptural passage the lesson covers, we meet Dinah, “The Virgin.” As with most archetypal women figures, Dinah is shadowed and one-dimensional. She is described as a daughter and a sister to be protected and avenged by her father and brothers. She is “defiled” by Shechem, a young man of highborn status from a neighboring town. We are not told how she feels about this lover, whose “soul clave unto [her]” and who desired to marry her. The lesson material tells us that Shechem did not truly love Dinah, or else he would not have defiled her. However, Genesis 34 describes his offer to pay any amount for a dowry, and his willingness to join with her people, submit to circumcision, and convince all of the men in his town to do the same. In my eyes he is a tragic and romantic figure. I wish there was more information available about Dinah’s response to this man. But the lack of detail is necessary to preserve the asexual, archetypal element of the deflowered virgin in the story.
Perhaps it is an unconscious arrangement for the writers of this lesson to have placed these two bilateral female archetypes side by side in the lesson material, but if so, it is all the more significant. Archetypes are elementary ideas stemming from the unconscious. The danger in including only these two women in the lesson is that they are both powerless. Dinah the virgin is a victim of a powerful male, and Mrs. Potiphar the whore is also rendered powerless by the virtuous Joseph who rejects her advances. Males in the stories are shown as individuals with the ability and strength to choose and control their sexual and moral options.
One might feel constrained by the material on women available in the scriptures, however, there exists within these passages a third woman who might prove to be a foil to our figurative virgin and whore. Let us examine the lessons taught by the actions of Tamar in Genesis 38. Tamar is conspicuously left out of the lesson manual, though this chapter is included as part of the scripture block. Judah’s actions are briefly contrasted with the faithfulness of Joseph. Going back to the scripture passage, we read that Judah chose Tamar to be the wife of his eldest son, Er. When Er died, custom dictated that the next son, Onan would marry her and provide her with children. Onan’s refusal to properly execute his responsibility resulted in his death, and the next son, Shelah, was not old enough to marry. Judah told Tamar to go and live with her parents until Shelah was grown, and then promptly forgot or ignored the family’s responsibilities to the widow. Several years later, Tamar conceived a plan to remind Judah of these things.
Deuteronomy 25: 5-10 shows that the law was on her side, and Tamar could have reported Judah to the authorities, legally loosened Judah’s shoe, and spit in his face. But she was smarter than that. In contrast to the other women acknowledged in the lesson, Tamar deliberately used her sexuality to affect her destiny. Despite the fact that she lived in a culture where women had little power or choice over their own circumstances, she seized her opportunities and was rewarded for so doing. If we reduce this gospel lesson down to following or not following a strict standard of sexual morality, we miss the potent, powerful, and purposeful choice of Tamar to initiate sex with her father-in-law. This choice is presented in the scriptures as a faithful action. The nuance and meaning of the word “righteous” as Judah uses it to describe Tamar is very significant in understanding whether her actions were justified. The Hebrew word used is tsadaq, “to be just or righteous.” This word and its derivatives are used hundreds of times throughout the Old Testament. It is used to describe the righteousness of Noah (Gen. 7:1), the Law (Deu. 4:8), David (1 Sam. 24:17), and even Jehovah (2 Chr. 12:6). The meaning is thus: correct, right before God, or justified, in a very strong sense of the word righteous. Tamar was a woman of integrity who struck out in a creative though unorthodox way to fulfill her duty to herself and her family. Her exploit resulted in twin sons, one of whom would continue the chosen lineage and become the progenitor of the Messiah. Tamar is a complex human being and one of the few women in the scriptural record who is described in such a rich and nuanced manner.
What is more, the story of Tamar can be nicely dovetailed with a secondary message of Lesson 11, that class members “learn how to make all experiences and circumstances work together for their good.” Surely Tamar deserves a prominent place in Lesson 11, wherever female members form part of the class population! Don’t you agree?
Wheat & Tares 