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A: No. Genesis 38 tells how Tamar, after Judah had refused to marry her off to his youngest son -- because he supposed that Tamar was just bad luck, since her first and second husbands (Judahs firstborn and second-born sons) had died -- disguised herself as a harlot and offered herself to Judah, who accepted the offer, not knowing who the woman was. But Matthew is not endorsing immorality by the simple statement that Judah had two sons (Pharez and Zerah) by Tamar. The point of the story in Genesis (like several stories in Genesis) is that God accomplishes His plans despite human failures. (In the story in Genesis, Judah ends up acknowledging that Tamar is more righteous than he is.) Matthews mention of Judah and Tamar is a reminder that we, like Judah, are salvageable, and that God is not averse to using flawed individuals to carry out His plans.
That's too logical and biblical, and not ranty enough. Be sure to mention the theory held by the twelve members of an obscure sect in the Applications, which states that the text is actually referring to the Earth-2 versions of Judah and Tamar, who were married in that alternate version of Earth, but migrated to Earth in a vibratory space capsule made of hyper-cheese.
Of course, the Bible doesn't mention any of this, because Earth-2 was wiped from history during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Often a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other parts of the world, about the motions and orbits of the stars and even their sizes and distances, . . . and this knowledge he holds with certainty from reason and experience. It is thus offensive and disgraceful for an unbeliever to hear a Christian talk nonsense about such things, claiming that what he is saying is based in Scripture. We should do all that we can to avoid such an embarrassing situation, lest the unbeliever see only ignorance in the Christian and laugh to scorn."
- St. Augustine, "De Genesi ad litteram libri duodecim"
quote, criticize
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What kind of malevolent disease are you?
-One of Dickweed Zero's Alternate Personalities
