Judah and Tamar

IF THE Bible had truly been edited to make the apostles, prophets, and patriarchs look better, chapter 38 of Genesis would have disappeared centuries ago.This week, we discuss the unseemly episode of Judah’s relationship with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, by whom he fathered Perez, an ancestor of Jesus.We also discuss the history of the period to explain the timeline between Abraham and the Exodus, which is variously described as “four hundred years” (Gen. 15:13, Acts 7:6), “the fourth generation” (Gen. 15:16), and “four hundred and thirty years” (Ex. 12:40-41, Gal. 3:16-17).How do we reconcile the 400/430 year discrepancy, and how do we square that with four generations (Jacob > Levi > Kohath > Amram > Moses), since Levi was an adult before Jacob and his family followed Joseph to Egypt?Here’s one answer, courtesy of Answers in Genesis (https://bit.ly/3cYPWRu): In Abraham’s day, Egypt included the Levant, modern Israel, Lebanon, and western Jordan and Syria. So, the 430 years began with Abraham was called from Harran because he was in “Egypt” almost as soon as he crossed the Euphrates. The 400 years began when Ishmael, his son by Hagar the Egyptian, mocked and persecuted Isaac.The “fourth generation,” of course, refers to Moses, counting his great-grandfather Levi as the first generation after Jacob.Here is our timeline, based on this logic:Amorite kingdom of Babylon founded — 1894 BCAbraham born — 1951 BCAbraham arrives in Canaan — 1876 BCIsaac born — 1851 BCIsaac marries Rebekah — 1811 BCHammurabi becomes king of Babylon — 1792 BCJacob and Esau born — 1791 BCAbraham dies — 1776 BCHyksos take over Lower Egypt — c. 1750 BCIsaac dies — 1671 BCJacob arrives in Egypt — 1661 BCJacob dies — 1644 BCJoseph dies — 1590 BCAhmose drives Hyksos out of Egypt — c. 1550 BCMoses leads the Exodus — 1446 BCJoshua leads the Conquest — 1406 BC