Forefather Judah, Forefather

Forefather Judah was the fourth son of the patriarch Jacob, born to Leah in Mesopotamia (traditionally dated to the 19th-18th centuries BC). It was he who proposed to his brothers that they sell Joseph to merchants rather than kill him (Gen. 37:26-27); later in Egypt he pledged himself as surety before "Joseph" for the safety of his younger brother Benjamin (Gen. 43:9; 44:32-34). Through his union with Tamar he became the father of the twins Perez and Zerah (Gen. 38).

MESSIANIC SIGNIFICANCE: Jacob's deathbed blessing to the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:8-10 — "the scepter shall not depart from Judah... until Shiloh comes") is interpreted in Christian tradition as a direct Messianic prophecy. Through his son Perez, Judah becomes a direct ancestor of King David and, consequently, of Christ ("the Lion of the tribe of Judah"). His name gave rise to the tribe of Judah, the Kingdom of Judah, and the very ethnonym "Jew."

He is commemorated, like the other sons of Jacob, on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (a movable feast, the second Sunday before Nativity). Given his position in Christ's genealogy in the flesh (through Perez, to David), Judah, unlike most of his brothers, is additionally commemorated on the narrower Sunday of the Holy Fathers (the Sunday immediately before Nativity, following the genealogy of the Gospel of Matthew).

IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION: as with Forefather Issachar (see the separate entry issachar), the claim of commemoration "on Cheesefare Wednesday" is not confirmed by any source and appears to be the same erroneous confusion with Cheesefare Sunday (the remembrance of Adam's expulsion). The category has been corrected from righteous to forefather.