Onan

אונן


Genesis 38 tells the tale of Onan, the second son of Yehudah, and the unnamed daughter of a man named Shu'a, who dies in unexplained circumstances as a result of practicing coitus interruptus with his late brother Er's wife Tamar, on whom the Levirate Law (cf Deuteronomy 25:5-10) required him to father a child; this story is one of the oddest in the Tanach, and needs some explaining. See my commentary in Genesis 38.

Genesis 46:12 and Numbers 26:19: both merely mention him, and his brother Er, as sons of Yehudah, and say that they died in Kena'an (Canaan). Their other brothers are listed as Shelach (שלח) Pharets (פרץ) and Zarach (זרח), and in the Book of Numbers (26:20) tribes (clans) are attributed to them. Pharets and Zarach (or sometimes Parets and Zerach) were in fact only half-brothers, having been fathered by Yehudah on Tamar after she offered herself to him as a sacred hierodule at the harvest festival.

The meaning of Onan is not immediately obvious from the etymology; probably it is a variant of Onam (אונם) = "strong", though, as discussed on that page, there may also be a link to the Egyptian city of On (Heliopolis).

In the contemporary world, the act of male masturbation is often, but incorrectly, called Onanism; as noted above, what Onan performed was coitus interruptus. For a brief explanation of the Levirate Law, properly called the Yibum (יבום), click here. For a fuller explanation, click here. For the text of Deuteronomy 25:5-10, which records the law, click here. But there is also the acacia tree of On (Heliopolis), for which see my note to Exodus 25:5.

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