page_title: Judah (son of Jacob)
section_title: Relationship between the Joseph and Judah narratives
hierarchical_section_title: Judah (son of Jacob) / Textual criticism / Relationship between the Joseph and Judah narratives
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Праотец Иуда. Праотеческий чин из главного иконостаса ц. Иоанна Златоуста в Коровниках в Ярославле
context_page_description: Judah was, according to the Book of Genesis, the fourth son of Jacob and Leah, the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Judah. By extension, he is indirectly eponymous of the Kingdom of Judah, the land of Judea and the word Jew.
  According to the narrative in Genesis, Judah with Tamar is the patrilinear ancestor of the Davidic line.
  The Tribe of Judah figures prominently in the 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 BC.
context_section_description: Literary critics have focused on the relationship between the Judah story in chapter 38, and the Joseph story in chapters 37 and 39. Victor Hamilton notes some "intentional literary parallels" between the chapters, such as the exhortation to "identify" (38:25-26 and 37:32-33). J. A. Emerton, Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge, regards the connections as evidence for including chapter 38 in the J corpus, and suggests that the J writer dovetailed the Joseph and Judah traditions. Derek Kidner points out that the insertion of chapter 38 "creates suspense for the reader ," but Robert Alter goes further and suggests it is a result of the "brilliant splicing of sources by a literary artist." He notes that the same verb "identify" will play "a crucial thematic role in the dénouement of the Joseph story when he confronts his brothers in Egypt, he recognizing them, they failing to recognize him." Similarly, J. P. Fokkelman notes that the "extra attention" for Judah in chapter 38, "sets him up for his major role as the brothers' spokesman in Genesis 44."
caption: Russian icon
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