Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism

Levirate Marriage and the Family

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Er is hardly portrayed by Genesis  as “normative.” Most important,
Genesis  is focused on Judah; it is his actions that are central to the
greater narrative context, for he will emerge later in the narrative as the
spokesma n for h is fat her a nd brot hers. T h is considerat ion cou ld ex pla i n
his central role in the levirate unions discussed in Genesis .^22
Like Deuteronomy , Genesis  of fers mu lt iple perspect ives on lev i-
rate marriage. Tamar and, to a lesser extent, Judah see levirate marriage
as the proper response to Er’s death. On the other hand, Onan’s actions
and Judah’s refusal to allow Tamar to marry Shelah indicate that men
are not always willing to promote levirate marriage. The end result of
Tamar’s actions — the birth of Perez and Zerah — indicates that levirate
marriage can ensure family continuity, although it is not Er’s or Onan’s
line that is preserved, but Judah’s. At the same time, the circumstances
around Tamar and Judah’s union underscore the potential problems in-
herent in levirate marriage. The focus on Tamar’s manipulation of Judah
and the assignment of her sons to Judah rather than to Er might lead the
reader to conclude t hat t he pr i ma r y a i m of lev i rate ma r r iage is prov id i ng
offspring for a childless widow rather than for her deceased husband.^23

The Problem of Incest: Leviticus 18 and 20

Two pa ssages i n L ev it icus deta i l forbidden sex ua l relat ionsh ips. Ma ny of
the forbidden relationships involve two individuals related by blood or
by marriage. Included among those relationships are unions between a
man and his sister-in-law:

Do not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is the

nakedness of your brother.^24

If a man marries the wife of his brother, it is indecency. It is the

nakedness of his brother that he has uncovered; they shall remain

childless.^25

Commentators are aware of the apparent contradiction between the in-
cest laws in Leviticus and the injunction to perform levirate marriage
in Deuteronomy . One solution is to assign these laws to different cir-
cumstances: the laws of levirate would apply when a man died child-
less, whereas the prohibition against a union between a man and his
brother’s wife would apply in cases of divorce or when the brother died