Perez

In AV of OT this name is, except in 1 Ch 278, Neh 11* 5, His Pharez, a modification of the LXX Φάρες and ulg. Phares. This last form is found in AV of Mt 1 , Lk 3%, and is retained by RV in 1 Es 5°. Perez was one of the twin sons of Judah by Tamar his daughter-in-law, and received his name from the manner of his birth, Gn 38”. Nothing else is known of his personal history.

In the goveslogies he takes precedence of his twin brother erah, and to him the leading families of the tribe of Judah traced their descent. According to Gn 46", Nu 26-21, there were four Judahite clans, two of which, Hezron and Hamul, represented Perez; the others were descended from Shelah and Zerah respectively. Ewald (HT i.

365) has an ingenious theory, that as in Levi, so in Judah there were twelve families, and that the clan of Perez preponderated in the latter tribe, as that of Kohath did in the former, the Kohathite families being equal to the Ger- shonite and Merarite combined. In support of this he appeals to 1 Ch 2 and 41:33, which he thinks represent two different genealogies of *See an article 2nd series, vol. ii. ἀπόλλυμ:." by the present writer in the Ezpositor, p.

64, ‘A Contribution to the History αἱ PEREZITES Judah. In 1 Ch 2 six sons are assigned to Hezron, equalling in number Shelah and the five sons of Zerah. Ewald here, however, ignores Hamul, the addition of whom increases the preponderance of the Perez families. Indeed 1 Ch 2 deals almost exclusively with them. But the account in 1 Ch 41:15 quite different. Here there is explicit men- tion of six ‘sons’ of Judah: (1) Perez (=Hamul acc. to Ew.)

, (2) Hezron (elsewhere son of Perez), (3) Carmi (grandson of Zerah, Jos 7), and his repre- sentative here, acc. to Ew.), (4) Hur, (5) Shobal (=Shobab, ch. 218), (6) Shelah. Hur and Shobal are in ch. 2 sons of Chelubai or Caleb, son of Hezron. In order to make up the required number of 12 families, Ewald finds in this chapter six other ‘sons’ of Judah. His selection, however, seems quite arbitrary ; ch.

4 is merely a disjointed list of names of persons and places, the mutual relation- ships of which are scarcely defined. Ewald is on surer ground when he says that in both ‘ gene- alogies’ ‘the ee family history of the tribe was combined with the history of the country asa whole, as well as of the possessions and residences of the more powerful families.

’ The blessing pronounced on Boaz by the elders of Bethlehem, Ru 413 ‘ Let ΤΟΥ͂ house be like the house of Perez,’ indicates, indeed, that the descendants of Perez were numer- ous, but is a natural expression in the mouths of members of that family.

In later times, the fact that David and the royal line of Judah were de- scended from Perez through Ram, son of Hezron, naturally accounts for the prominence assigned to the family ; the Emoedenoe of Jashobeam among the captains, 1 Ch 27%, was, however, due rather to his personal prowess than to his descent; and it is to be noted that on comparing the mutually complementary lists, 1 Ch 9*, Neh 11°, we find that in the time of Nehemiah the descendants of Perez were not so numerous as those of Zerah.

Perez occurs, of course, in the genealogy of Christ, Mt 13, Lk 3%. N. J. D. Ware.