You are indeed patrick on the spot! Thanks again for your correction. I've had to make another correction that reveals is a very subtle distinction on a very key point:
"Whoever wrote Leviticus (as in your proclaimed paternal ancestors) surely believed Tamar was a Priestess. In fact, associating Genesis 38:24 KJV with Leviticus 21:9 KJV (corrected from 20:10) sanctions the very high probability Tamar was a LEVITE Priestess, daughter of Levi!"
I am not aware David was ever directly referred to as a Jew in the OT, or the NT for that matter. Christians ambiguously (through lack of a ancestral knowledge, respectfully) refer to Jesus as a Jew. Jesus was not just any ole Jew of some ambiguous ancestry... Jesus was a Pharzite Jew (Matthew 1:3, Luke 3:31, 32, 33). This may seem like splitting hairs, patrick jane... but, those who instigated the crucifixion were the Shelanite descendants of Judah, while Jesus and David were the descendants of Judah and Tamar via their eldest twin son, Pharez. Hence, David was not just any ole ancestrally ambiguous Jew following the traditions of the elders... David was a Pharzite Jew, as was Jesus, to be ancestrally explicit. To be more ancestrally precise even still, David and Jesus were ISRAELITES considering my correction above.
Of course, Judaism, playing smoke and mirror games, has recanted the significance of ancestry shifting from foot to foot appreciating chair's post... while Moses made ancestry of God's chosen irrefutable (Deuteronomy 7:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) as Ezra affirmed over a thousand years later in Ezra 9:1, 2, 3, 7... look a few verses further:
Ezra 9:11, 12, 13, 14, 15, KJV "Which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possesses it (Deuteronomy 7:1, 2), is an unclean land with filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abomination, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. 12) Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons (Deuteronomy 7:3 KJV), nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever (Deuteronomy 25:5, 6). 13) And after all that is come upon us (Israelites) for our evil deed, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God (of Israel) hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, an dhast given us such deliverance as this (Ezra 9:8 KJV); 14) Should we again break thy commandments (ancestral ambiguity in, "Jew"), an djoin in affinity with the people of these abominations (Canaanite Shelanites)? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? 15) O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses (Judah hooked with with a Canaanite = Shelanites): for we cannot stand before thee because of this."
David was not any ole Jew, and neither was Jesus... as you hear chair diluting out the ancestry of David with the story of Ruth, which I well anticipated, btw. I've gotta render unto Caesar... but, I'll be back to respond to chair's appreciated rebuttal.
kayaker