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Death of Onan. watercolor by Franc Lanjšček

Judah and Tamar. Oil in canvas, by Horace Vernet. 1840. Tamar tricking Judah to get pregnant after the death of Onan

In the Biblical Book of Genesis, Onan (Hebrew: אוֹנָן, Modern Onan Tiberian ʾװnān ; Strong) was the second son of Judah.^[1] Certain interpretations of the narrative concerning him have led to the term onanism, which means masturbation or coitus interruptus.

According to the text, after God had killed Onan's older brother Er, Judah asked Onan to have sex with Tamar, Er's widow, so that the offspring could be declared Er's heir.^[2] 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.^[3] The passage states that this displeased God, who killed him.^[4]

According to some biblical scholars who contextually read this passage, the description of Onan is an eponymous aetiological myth concerning fluctuations in the constituency of the tribe of Judah, with the death of Onan reflecting the dying out of a clan;^[5][6] Er and Onan are hence viewed as each being representative of a clan, with Onan possibly representing an Edomite clan named Onam,^[7] mentioned by an Edomite genealogy in Genesis.^[8] Alan Dershowitz has suggested that Onan and Tamar engaged in frottage or anal sex. And that the anger of Yawah was directed not at the sex act, but at the disobedience of refusing to impregnate his brother's widow.^[9]

The text emphasises the social and legal situation, with Judah explaining what Onan must do and why; the 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 Tamar narrative, 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;^[5] Onan's role in the narrative is, thus, as the brother abusing his obligations by agreeing to sexual involvement with his dead brother's wife, but refusing to allow her to become pregnant as a result. Emerton regards the evidence for this as inconclusive, although classical rabbinical writers argued that this narrative describes the origin of levirate marriage.^[10]

However, other early writers 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.^[11] This interpretation was held by several early Christian apologists; Jerome, for example, arguing:

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 seed. Does he imagine that we approve of any sexual intercourse except for the procreation of children?^[12]

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^[13]

To have coitus other than to procreate children is to do injury to nature'^[14]

Many Christian groups, especially Roman Catholicism, have subsequently 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^[15] or of masturbation or nocturnal emission,^[16] merely prescribe a ritual washing, and remaining ritually impure until the next day began on the following evening.

[edit] Fiction

• Timothy Findley uses a phrase "The Rain of Onan" in his novel Not Wanted on the Voyage (1984). "it was now that the rain, having lost its translucence and its mauveness, began to take on an opaque milky look, and Noah said that what had been an "evil" rain was now a 'passionate' rain being poured from the sky-spent and wasted on the dying earth and this he called 'The Rain of Onan.'"^[17]

• Robert Jordan, the main character in Ernest Hemingway's book "For Whom the Bell Tolls", also makes reference to Onan, the night before he is due to fight in battle:

He smiled and thought: "I'll keep any oversupply of that for tomorrow. I'll need all of that there is tomorrow. There are no pine needles that need that now as I will need it tomorrow. Who was it cast his seed upon the ground in the Bible? Onan. How did Onan turn out?" he thought. "I don't remember ever hearing any more about Onan". He smiled in the dark.

• American writer David Foster Wallace created a fictional version of the United States of America renamed the Organization of North American Nations or O.N.A.N. in his novel Infinite Jest

• Christopher Moore references the story of Onan in his book Lamb:

"The sin of Onan. Spilling the old seed on the ground. Cuffing the camel. Dusting the donkey. Flogging the Pharisee. Onanism, a sin that requires hundreds of hours of practice to get right, or at least that's what I told myself."

• Italian rock band Verdena has a song titled "Onan" on their album, Solo un Grande Sasso (Only a Large Stone).

• Tom Stoppard makes reference to Onan in his play Arcadia in the following exchange in Scene One:

Septimus [...] I am sorry that the seed fell on stony ground.
Thomasina That was the sin of Onan, wasn't it, Septimus?
Septimus Yes. He was giving his brother's wife a Latin lesson and she was hardly the wiser after it than before.^[18]

[edit] Notes and citations

1. ^ Genesis 38:8
2. ^ Genesis 38:8
3. ^ Genesis 38:9-10
4. ^ Genesis 38:10
5. ^ ^{a b} J. A. Emerton, Judah And Tamar
6. ^ Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica
7. ^ Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica
8. ^ Genesis 36:23
9. ^ Alan Dershowitz, The Genesis of Justice
10. ^ Genesis Rabbah 85:6
11. ^ Niddah 13a.
12. ^ Jerome, Against Jovinian 1:19, (AD 393)
13. ^ Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor of Children 2:10:91:2 (AD 191)
14. ^ Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor of Children 2:10:95:3
15. ^ Leviticus 15:18
16. ^ Leviticus 15:16-17 makes no distinction between the two
17. ^ Findley, 1984, p.124
18. ^ Stoppard, 1993, p.2