There is a good deal lurking under the surface of this story. Looking more closely, we see that Judah married a Canaanite woman named Shuah (Genesis 38:2), but the text does not specifically say that Tamar, the woman Judah chooses as a wife for his oldest son (Genesis 38:6), was also a Canaanite. Some scholars take the label of qedēshah as suggesting that Tamar was a Canaanite sacred prostitute. This overstates the data, but at the very least, the story is cast in such a way as to link the incident with Canaanite sacred prostitution. The important point is not whether or not Tamar is a Gentile. Rather, it is that Matthew perceives a link between Tamar and the Watchers template. That linkage most obviously derives from the illicit sexual transgression, but there is more in play than meets the eye...