POTIPHAR’S WIFE AND TAMAR provide two models of the feminine and help to forge the contrasting characterizations of Joseph and Judah.
Potiphar’s wife is overtly sensual and verbally aggressive. Like the negative archetype of the feminine in one passage of the book of Proverbs (7:1–23), she tempts the young man into sexual impropriety. Potiphar’s wife serves as a test in the initiation of Joseph, the young wisdom hero who refuses to allow a woman to make him unfaithful to his master.
Tamar, a young childless widow, becomes a trickster, a marginal figure who succeeds in indirect ways, by deceiving those in power. The trickster’s marginality may be rooted in gender, age, economic or social status. Biblical tricksters include Abraham (Genesis 12:1–10), Jacob (Genesis 27), Rebekah (Genesis 27), and Tamar. Tales of tricksters appeal to the underdog side of each of us, but they may have special appeal among groups who feel themselves out of power—for example, women in a world dominated by men.
In Genesis 38, the qualities of the feminine that limited Tamar become her source of strength. When Judah sends her back to her father with empty promises of giving her his third son in good time, Tamar, like other marginal females in ancient Israelite social structure, is caught betwixt and between social categories available to women—as virgins or as child-producing, faithful wives. Eventually, Tamar takes matters into her own hands. Dressing as a prostitute and standing at the crossroads in a double symbolization of her marginality, she becomes pregnant by Judah. Wisely she has demanded and then kept his pledges, symbols of his identity and status. Judah—who is no more appealing in this tale than in the selling of Joseph—orders that Tamar be burned alive when he hears she is pregnant, dismissing her with two words. But she—clever girl—produces the tokens that identify Judah as the father, and even he must admit he has been bested. Judah, coconspirator in the exile of Joseph, is one of the many biblical males, including Samson, Sisera, and Isaac, who are tricked by women’s wiles. It is Tamar’s right to bear children in Judah’s line, and the twins indicate abundant fertility. She will be the ancestress of kings. Tamar’s power is indirect, circumscribed by the realm of procreation and supported by tricksterism. It is a power, nevertheless, that is celebrated in the biblical tale.
—Susan Niditch