Disrupting Patriarchal Narratives: A Hermeneutics of Suspicion Reading of Genesis 38:15-24 through the Voice of Tamar

Abstract

Tamar’s narrative in Genesis 38:15-24 is often read within a traditional moral framework that emphasizes piety or sexual transgression. Traditional moral frameworks emphasize piety or sexual transgression, but such approaches often mask the power imbalances that shape the story. This article applies the hermeneutics of suspicion, a critical approach that suspects ideological structures in texts, to reread the story of Tamar in a subversive and liberating way. By interrogating constructions of gender, power, and the body in the text, the article reveals how the narrative reinforces patriarchal structures while concealing women’s agency. Tamar’s act of disguising herself as a prostitute is understood not as a form of immorality but as a political strategy to demand genealogical justice and her rights as a woman in a patriarchal society. Combining feminist theory, sexuality critique, and postcolonial approaches, this article reads Tamar’s body as a political and theological space that challenges the boundaries set by male authorities, especially the figure of Judah. It also explores how the text creates a visual duality between Judah’s perception and Tamar’s performative identity, exposing mechanisms of both oppression and resistance. This article offers a new contribution to feminist biblical studies by placing women’s marginalized voices and bodies at the center of interpretation and locus of theology. Finally, this article invites faith and academic communities to revisit biblical narratives that have been considered normative and replace them with interpretations that favor gender justice and humanity.