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Onan[a] was a figure detailed in the Book of Genesis chapter 38,[1] as the second son of Judah who married the daughter of Shuah the Canaanite. Onan had an older brother Er and a younger brother, Shelah as well.
After being commanded by his father, Judah, to perform his duty as a husband's brother according to the custom of levirate marriage with the late Er's wife Tamar, Onan instead refused to perform his duty as a levirate and "spilled his seed on the ground whenever he went in" because "the offspring would not be his", and was thus put to death by Yahweh.[2] This act is detailed as retribution for being "displeasing in the sight of Lord".[3][4] Onan's crime is often misinterpreted to be masturbation but it is universally agreed among biblical scholars that Onan's death is attributed to his refusal to fulfill his obligation of levirate marriage with Tamar by committing coitus interruptus.[5][6]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ Chapter 38
- ^ Alter, Robert (1997). Genesis: Translation and Commentary (First ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. p. 218. ISBN 978-0393316704.
And Er his firstborn was evil in the eyes of the LORD. The nature of his moral failing remains unspecified, but given the insistent pattern of reversal of primogeniture in all these stories, it seems almost sufficient merely to be firstborn in order to incur God's displeasure: though the firstborn is not necessarily evil, he usually turns out to be obtuse, rash, wild, or otherwise disqualified from carrying on the heritage. It is noteworthy that Judah, who invented the lie that triggered his own father's mourning for a dead son, is bereaved of two sons in rapid sequence. In contrast to Jacob's extravagant grief, nothing is said about Judah's emotional response to the losses
- ^ David Noel Freedman (2008). The Anchor Yale Bible dictionary. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-14081-1. OCLC 237189110.
The second son of Judah and Shua, a Canaanite woman (Gen 38:2–4). He was the brother of Er and Shelah. In the genealogical list of Judah's descendants, Onan is mentioned as the daughter of Bath-shua (1 Chr 2:3). Judah had arranged a marriage between his firstborn, Er, and a woman named Tamar. Er, however, died an early death, which was attributed to an act of Yahweh because of Er's unmentioned wickedness (Gen 36:7).
- ^ "ONAN - JewishEncyclopedia.com". jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2022-06-20.
A son of Judah; he refused to enter into a levirate marriage with his sister-in-law after the death of his elder brother Er, and it was for this reason that the Lord "slew him also" (Gen. xxxviii. 7-10).
- ^ Patton, Michael S. (1986). "Twentieth-Century Attitudes Toward Masturbation". Journal of Religion and Health. 25 (4): 291–302. doi:10.1007/BF01534067. ISSN 0022-4197. JSTOR 27505893. PMID 24301692. S2CID 2994906.
The story of Onan in Genesis 38:7-10 has been the basis of the condemnation of masturbation by Jewish and Christian theologians. Biblical scholars universally agree that the Onan story is a gross misconception of masturbation, since Onan's sexual activity was not masturbation but coitus interruptus.
- ^ Coogan, Michael David; Brettler, Marc Zvi; Newsom, Carol A.; Perkins, Pheme, eds. (2018). The new Oxford annotated Bible : New Revised Standard version with the Apocrypha (Fully revised fifth ed.). New York, New York. ISBN 978-0-19-027609-6. OCLC 1006596851.
Onan's death is attributed to his refusal to perform this duty of impregnating Er's widow, Tamar, probably by coitus interruptus (rather than "onanism," masturbation).
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