Onan

Oil in canvas, by Horace Vernet . 1840. Tamar tricking Judah to get pregnant after the death of Onan In the Book of Genesis , Onan ( Hebrew : אוֹנָן , Modern : Onan , Tiberian : ʼÔnān , "Strong") was the second son of Judah . Certain interpretations of the narrative concerning him have led to the term onanism , which means coitus interruptus . According to the text, after God had killed Onan's older brother Er , Judah told Onan to have sexual intercourse with and impregnate Tamar , the widow of Er, so that the child or children could be declared to be Er's heir(s). Onan had sex with Tamar, but performed coitus interruptus each time, spilling his "seed" ( semen ) on the ground, so that there would not be any offspring which he could not claim as his own. The passage states that this displeased God, who killed Onan as punishment for disobedience. According to some biblical scholars who contextually read this passage, the description of Onan is an eponymous aetiological story concerning fluctuations in the constituency of the tribe of Judah , with the death of Onan reflecting the dying out of a clan; Er and Onan are hence viewed as each being representative of a clan, with Onan possibly representing an Edomite clan named Onam , mentioned by an Edomite genealogy in Genesis. The Jewish attorney Alan Dershowitz has suggested that Onan and Tamar engaged in frottage or in anal sex . Also, he suggests that God's anger was directed not at the sexual act, but at Onan's disobedience by refusing to impregnate his brother's widow. The text emphasizes the social and legal situation, with Judah explaining what Onan must do and why. A plain reading of the text is that Onan was killed because he refused to follow instructions. Scholars have argued that the secondary purpose of the narrative about Onan and Tamar, of which the description of Onan is a part, was to either assert the institution of levirate marriage (in which a man marries his deceased brother's widow), or present an aetiological myth for its origin; Onan's role in the narrative is, thus, as the brother abusing his obligations by agreeing to sexual intercourse with his dead brother's wife, but refusing to allow her to become pregnant as a result. Emerton regards the evidence for this to be inconclusive, although classical rabbinical writers argued that this narrative describes the origin of levirate marriage. However, other early writers have sometimes focused on the spilling seed , and the sexual act being used for non-procreational purposes. One opinion expressed in the Talmud argues that this was where the death penalty 's imposition originated. This interpretation was held by several early Christian apologists . Jerome , for example, argued: But I wonder why he the heretic Jovinianus set Judah and Tamar before us for an example, unless perchance even harlots give him pleasure; or Onan, who was slain because he grudged his brother his seed. Does he imagine that we approve of any sexual intercourse except for the procreation of children? Clement of Alexandria , while not making explicit reference to Onan, similarly reflects an early Christian view of the abhorrence of '"spilling seed'": Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated , nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted To have coitus other than to procreate children is to do injury to nature' Many Christian groups have cited the Onan narrative as justification for bans on both masturbation and coitus interruptus, and, since medieval times, have also used it to justify a prohibition against contraception . This view – that wasted seed refers to masturbation – was upheld by many early rabbis. However, the Levitical regulations concerning ejaculation , whether as a result of heterosexual intercourse or not, merely prescribe a ritual washing, and remaining ritually impure until the next day began on the following evening.

Onan ( Hebrew : אוֹנָן , Modern : Onan , Tiberian : ʼÔnān , "Strong") is a minor biblical person in the Book of Genesis chapter 38, who was the second son of Judah . Like his older brother, Er , Onan was killed by Yahweh . Onan's death was retribution for being "evil in the sight of the Lord" through being unwilling to father a child by his widowed sister-in-law.

Biblical character; second son of Judah; killed by God due to his employing coitus interruptus in his levirate marriage For other uses, see Onan (disambiguation) . Onan ( Hebrew : אוֹנָן , Modern : Onan , Tiberian : ʼÔnān "Mourner") is a minor biblical person in the Book of Genesis chapter 38, who was the second son of Judah . Like his older brother Er , Onan was slain by God. Onan's death was retribution for being "evil in the sight of the Lord" and disobeying a direct order from the Lord by being unwilling to father a child by his widowed sister-in-law.

Biblical figure; second son of Judah For other uses, see Onan (disambiguation) . Onan was a figure detailed in the Book of Genesis chapter 38, 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 . This act is detailed as retribution for being "displeasing in the sight of Lord". There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ). Genesis: Translation and Commentary (First ed.). 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 . 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). 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).

Story of Onan Biblical figure; second son of Judah For other uses, see Onan (disambiguation) . Onan was a figure detailed in the Book of Genesis chapter 38, 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. Onan was commanded by his father, Judah, to perform his duty as a husband's brother according to the custom of levirate marriage with Er's widow Tamar . Onan refused to perform his duty as a levirate and instead "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 . This act is detailed as retribution for being "displeasing in the sight of Lord". Onan's crime is often misinterpreted as being 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 . There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ). Genesis: Translation and Commentary (First ed.). 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 Freedman, David Noel, ed. The Anchor Yale Bible dictionary . 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). 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). 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. The new Oxford annotated Bible : New Revised Standard version with the Apocrypha (Fully revised fifth ed.). 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).