When I was at university I had a friend and neighbour who had previously owned a pet budgerigar.
Somehow, it was revealed one day that the budgie had been called Onan. At the time I hadn't heard of this minor character from the book of Genesis. If you read about him in this story you can see that the name was chosen by someone with a sense of humour and a good knowledge of the bible.
Just like the budgie, Onan 'spilled his seed on the ground'.
What a nutty book! If both men are the sons of their father, shouldn't the children of the second son by his own wife perpetuate the family line? The more practical reason it seems to me would be that a childless widow would have no stature in the community and no connection to the late husband's family. Not that the biblical god gives a crap about women, but it would explain that barbaric practice better than an obviously erroneous idea about genetics. If the 2nd son's seed was good enough to impregnate the 1st son's wife, why isn't it good enough to impregnate his own wife?
ReplyDelete(I have a bird and I keep plastic around the cage to keep him from spilling his seed on the floor!)
I thought that "budgie called Onan" joke originally came from someone famous (Mae West?)
ReplyDeleteIt's funny whoever thought of it!
Thanks foor this blog post
ReplyDelete