Tag: Sarah

You are my Brother

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So when God made me wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘Let this be the kindness that you shall do me: whatever place we come to, say there of me: He is my brother.’”
Genesis 20:13 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS, 2006)

I don’t typically take single verses and disconnect them from their context, but I can’t help but notice the sweetness in this thing Abraham says.

To shield me from harm, your kindness is to call me “brother.”

May we all hold this notion close to our heart. May we love one another.

Erasing Iscah

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Some theological disagreements are fun, as they demonstrate creative but faithful interpretations. For example, in the Jewish teachings, there is talk about the kind of fruit that was on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Perhaps it was a fig, tied to the fig leaves that Adam and Eve used to cover themselves. Perhaps it was more like wheat, because a child only gains reasoning and the capacity to defy their parents when they’re old enough to eat wheat. Again – creative, but not consequential. (In any event, the fruit wasn’t an apple).

But some disagreements are hard.

What do you think of Abraham? Is he generally good with some dark stains, or is he generally flawed with some bright spots? Where you land on this opinion shapes how you interpret what happens in Genesis 20.

Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
Genesis 20:12 (NASB)

Is he telling the truth here, or is he still being deceptive with Abimelech? Is this a right explanation, or is it clear that he was simply covering his lie?

What is the consequence of your conclusion? Who does it impact?

I’ll tell you.

How you answer “is Abraham telling the truth” impacts a woman named Iscah.

Now these are the records of the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died [a]during the lifetime of his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child.

Now Terah took his son Abram, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they departed together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran and settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years; and Terah died in Haran.
Genesis 11:27-32 (NASB)

Iscah (which is where we get the name Jessica) is mentioned once in all of scripture. According to Genesis 11, she is Milcah’s sister, and Haran’s daughter. This would make her Abraham’s niece.

The sages looked this passage with intense curiosity, because verse 29 is written so strangely. It’s worded in such a confusing way, it’s almost fitting that the passage is given to us right after the Tower of Babel. It’s hard to follow. But Iscah is sitting there, looking into the future. Her name means “one who looks forth,” and some wonder if she was a prophetess.

And so a rabbi makes a statement that some disagree with, but it’s recorded in the commentaries as something to ponder:

“Iscah is Sarai.”

This statement holds true if Abraham is deceiving Abimelech. But if Abraham is actually being fully truthful (she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father), Iscah vanishes, because Iscah is not the daugther of Abraham’s father Terah, but the daughter of Abraham’s brother Haran.

Iscah simply disappears with no explanation. She dies without a word. But if Abraham is deceiving Abimelech, Iscah can be Sarah, and she lives on.

In the same way our perceptions shape our reality, our theologies do the same.

In this case, they can erase entire lives.

Caught in a Lie

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Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife;
Genesis 20:12 (NASB)

When you read this plainly, it appears that Abraham and Sarah are half-siblings. However, the Hebrew is full of people using familial words to describe both close and more-distant relationships.

Much later, we’ll see that Jacob refers to his “father Abraham,” but he is talking about his grandfather, so this feels legitimate.

Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Lord, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’
Genesis 32:9 (NASB)

So is Abraham really being honest here?

In a previous post, I said Sarah is described oddly at the top of the chapter; we can link the Abraham->Sarah relationship with Israel->Ark, where the ark is merely being used for victory. A stolen blessing.

Look closely at this next instance of misrepresentation to gain a blessing…

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. Come now, sit and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.”
Genesis 20:19 (NASB)

Motivated by Fear

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And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you encountered, that you have done this thing?” Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.
Genesis 20:10-11 (NASB)

In Hebrew, Abimelech actually asks “מָ֣ה רָאִ֔יתָ,” which means “What did you see?”

Abraham’s response is often written as “I thought,” but it is אָמַ֗רְתִּי, which actually means “I said,” which means he told his people.

Notice that Abraham never actually answers Abimelech’s question. Perhaps he didn’t actually see anything. He was simply afraid.

The Prophet’s Role

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Now therefore, restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
Genesis 20:7 (NKJV)

When “prophet” is first introduced, we are shown the prophet’s role:

1. To restore relationship
2. To plead on behalf of someone:
– a) So they may live
– b) So they may avoid destruction

The word “restore” is שׁוּב (shuv), and it’s the same as “repent” or “turn back.” It is a word that means to return to origin and start again. It is a word of healing and repair.

But restore back to what?

The phrase “man’s wife” is אֵשֶׁת־הָאִישׁ (ishet ha’ish). Literally “the wife of the husband.” These words bring us back to Genesis 2, when Adam first meets his wife, who is just like him, as though she’s made in his image and likeness.

And this points us back to Genesis 1: “Let us create mankind in our image.”

The prophet’s role is firstly one of restoration. To restore us to one anther, and to God. To bring us into oneness and wholeness and peace with God, like it was in the Garden.

And this is done through intercession, through praying on behalf of others.

Look at the words of life and death. God doesn’t say “if you don’t, I will kill you.” He says “if you do not שׁוּב (shuv), you will die.

In the hebrew, it is מוֹת תָּמוּת (mot tamut). “You will surely die.” (lit. dying-die)

Yes. The same words from the Garden.

In the first story of death, we were told if we ate from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, we would mot tamut. But here: if we do not restore, we will mot tamot.

Can you see it? Can you see God’s desire? God wants the restoration of relationships: Ish and Ishah, God and humanity, we and our neighbors… as it was in the garden. As it is in heaven.

This is the prophet’s prayer.

Because everything else is death, chaos, destruction, hopelessness, emptiness, loneliness.

And she…

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Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she, even she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the [a]integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this.”
Genesis 20:

Genesis 20:5 contains an extra “she” (and-she and-even-she) that most translations render as “she herself,” but the Midrash points out that this is intended to demonstrate how much Abimelech was convinced Sarah was Abrahams sister and that he was innocent.

“Did he not say to me: She is my sister? And she, also she…” – she, his donkey drivers, his camel drivers, the members of his household, and the members of her household, all of them said so.
Bereshit Rabbah 52:6

“EVERYBODY said it!”

Conception

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But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also?”
Genesis 20:4 (NKJV)

The text is very clear that Abimelech didn’t sleep with Sarah. Why is it so important to mention it here, while keeping it vague back in Genesis 12, when Pharaoh takes Sarai?

The rabbis say that this serves a very important purpose.

Based on the timeline, this encounter in Gerar is near the time Isaac should be conceived.

By drawing attention Abimelech’s words AND by reinforcing them with God’s own words (“I didn’t LET you go near her!”), nobody in the story can question if Abraham is the father.

Furthermore, the Tze’enah Ure’enah states the following to reinforce this!

The explanation is that the Holy One brought it all on the household of Abimelech that they could not give birth to children, could not urinate or defecate. All of their bodily orifices were stopped up. Even a hen could not lay an egg. It was hoped that Abimelech would understand and notice that his sin was because he had taken Sarah as a wife.
Tze’enah Ure’enah on Genesis 20:4:1

Abimelech’s Challenge

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But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also?”
Genesis 20:4 (NKJV)

When Abimelech, who does not know Abraham’s God, is challenged by God in a dream, his response is fascinating.

“Will you slay a righteous nation as well?”

On the one hand, Abimelech defends himself and his actions, so his statement can be rendered this way: If you destroy this nation with me in it, you’ll have destroyed a righteous man.

This links to the previous chapter, where a city was destroyed.

On the other hand, Sodom and Gomorrah are like the wicked world destroyed in the flood. The rabbis say that Abimelech’s word might be as follows:

“If this is how You judged the generation of the Flood and the generation of the Dispersion, perhaps they too were innocent.”

You might think, “how could Abimelech possibly dare to speak to God like this?!”

Perhaps this is why God came to him *in a dream,* and why Abimelech merely refers to God as Adonai, and not as the divine name or as God Himself.

Faithfulness

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But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married.”
Genesis 20:3 (NASB)

The rabbis suggest that the people of Abraham’s day believed that faithfulness is of such great importance that adultery was considered worse than murder.

Back in Genesis 12, Abram’s fear was that the men of Egypt would be willing to MURDER him, but he’s not worried that they’ll simply abduct Sarai and sleep with her or take her as their own wife.

It came about, when he was approaching Egypt, that he said to his wife Sarai, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.
Genesis 12:11-12 (NASB)

Perhaps part of this idea comes from seeing that God commanded faithfulness first in Genesis 2:24, but the story of murder isn’t shown until Genesis 4 when Cain kills Abel.

And perhaps this is why God warns Abimelech the way He does.

Sarah and the Ark

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And there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.
Genesis 20:2 (NIV)

It’s easy to think that Abraham’s lie to Abimelek is just like his lie to Pharaoh, but the differences are the key to understanding the story.

For starters, there’s no mention of Sarah’s beauty. She’s 90 now, so it’s unlikely that her physical appearance is related.

Second, there is no mention of fear. Genesis 12 mentions the fear of famine that drove them to Egypt and the fear that Pharaoh would kill Abram. But here in Gerar, Abraham isn’t afraid, and he doesn’t think that the men of the city are going to try to kill him. At least, not in the same way. In Genesis 12, the fear is truly about dying. But in Genesis 20:11, the fear mentioned is that the people here don’t “fear God.” The fear of dying, then, isn’t like Genesis 12. Abraham believes he will be kept alive because God has proven Himself faithful. So perhaps Abraham’s fear is about something else.

The rabbis point out an unusual way Abraham relates to Sarah in this verse.

“and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah…”

The text reads “of Sarah,” or אֶל־שָׂרָה in Hebrew. The word “of” here is אֵל (el).

It should be עַל (al), not אֵל (el).

What’s the difference?

“al-Sarah” would mean “about Sarah,” or “of Sarah.” But instead, we are given “el-Sarah,” which really means “towards Sarah.” The word implies a directional relationship, and it carries with it a sense of utility.

The rabbis tie this story to 1 Samuel 4:21.

She named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The Glory has departed from Israel”—because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband.
1 Samuel 4:21 (NIV)

Here, we have “of the ark,” or “el haron” and it’s the same usage, and the story involves a fissure in the relationship where the ark is used as utility, and not relationally.

The whole story of 1 Samuel 4 involves the people of God taking the ark and believing that simply using it will get them a victory or reward.

This may be the meaning: Abraham isn’t repeating a mistake from the past. He is taking God and his wife for granted. Perhaps he has the following mindset:

“The last time something like this happened, we walked out with treasure. Perhaps we can do it again.” For Abraham, Sarah becomes a means to an end.

The lesson is that we who are within God’s covenant can find ourselves misusing our relationship with one another and with God. It should not be this way.

The ark in the land of the Philistines is Sarah in Gerar.

Abimelek is the King of the Philistines.