Genesis 20.1-23.20

Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit / Isaac's Birth / Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness (Redux) / Covenant Between Abraham and Abimelech / The Near Sacrifice of Isaac / The Children of Nahor / Sarah's Death and Burial

"Let's do some E!"

Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit: Genesis 20.1-18

Chapter 20 is the first continuous E-source narrative in the bible, and is another example of the "matriarch=sister trick" tale first found in Genesis 12.10-20.

Abraham again journeys toward the Negeb, this time settling between Kadesh and Shur. While living in Gerar, Abraham tells King Abimelech that Sarah is his sister. Naturally, King Abimelech sends for Sarah. God confronts Abimelech in a dream, telling him he is about to die for taking Sarah. Abimelech defends himself, asking, like Abraham, if God will destroy an innocent people. Says Abimelech, "Did [Abraham] not himself say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she herself said, 'He is my brother.' I did this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands" (Gen. 20.5). (Though Sarah does not speak in the narrative, it is possible she actually did claim Abraham as her brother.)

God reveals his bluff, and furthermore claims his control over the situation:

Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart; furthermore it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then, return 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 that are yours.

(Gen. 20.6-7)

In the morning Abimelech calls his servants and Abraham together. He asks why Abraham would act as he did. Abraham answers:

I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, 'This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, He is my brother.

(Gen. 20.11-13).

As in his dealing with Pharaoh in Genesis 12, Abraham receives sheep and oxen as well as male and female slaves. He also receives Abimelech's land and a thousand pieces of silver.

For this Abraham prays to God, "and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the house of Abimelech's because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

Now, without getting crass, it appears that Abimelech was suffering a sexual problem, which. Hence God's earlier comment, "furthermore it was I who kept you from sinning against me." Quite tactfully put.

Ostensibly Sarah is beautiful and not old when King Abimelech takes her. This story does not fit chronologically in the narrative, then, and it is of note that Abraham and Sarah both are referred to names that they receive in the P narrative at ages ninety-nine and ninety, respectively. This might be an indication that in the E source, Abraham and Sarah always had these names. If that is the case, this alternative version of the story might have served as a parallel telling of roughly the same period of Abraham and Sarah's life.

Why insert it here? Possible the land that Abraham receives. It also plays with the idea of barrenness that pervades the Abraham narrative. Land and children are the two keys to the covenant.

Isaac's Birth: Genesis 21.1-7

Sarah conceives a son who is named Isaac. He is circumcised when he is eight days old, as commanded. There is more laughter. Sarah says, "God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me" (Gen. 21.6) This is fitting, as Isaac's name means "he laughs" and laughter typifies the Abrahamic narrative.

Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness (Redux): Genesis 21.8-21

Genesis 21.8-21 is another E-source retelling of the J story of Genesis 16. This version, like Genesis 20, has a strange chronology, as Hagar's son, whose name is not given, is seemingly about the same age as Isaac, not fourteen as he would be in the P-source.

Isaac grows and is weaned. Abraham makes a great feast the day Isaac is weaned.  Sarah sees Hagar's son playing with Isaac and becomes angry. She demands that Abraham casts Hagar and her son out, which distresses Abraham. God tells Abraham to go with it; Isaac is the line of offspring that will carry Abraham's name. God will however still make a nation of the other son's descendants, who still have Abraham's blood.

Abraham sends Hagar off with bread and a skin of water. When the water is gone, she hides her son under bushes, not wanting to see him die. God hears her son crying and the angel of God comes to Hagar. The angel tells Hagar not to worry, and that a great nation will come of her son. When God opens Hagar's eyes, she sees a well (a connection with the J story).

The boy grows up in the wilderness and becomes an expert with the bow. His mother finds a wife for him in Egypt, her home land.

Covenant Between Abraham and Abimelech: Genesis 21.22-34

More E narrative.

Abimelech recognizes that Abraham, an alien in his land, is protected by God. He asks for Abraham to be open with him.

Abraham complains about a well of water that Abimelech's men seized. Abimelech justifies himself, perhaps fearful of Abraham's God: "I do not know who has done this; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today" (Gen. 21.26). Abraham and Abimelech deal with the problem by making a covenant. Abraham gives sheep and oxen to Abimelech, setting aside seven ewe lambs so that Abimelech will act as a witness that Abraham dug the well. The place is therefore called Beer-sheba (well of seven or well of the oath). The covenant sworn, Abimelech returns to the land of the Philistines. Abraham plants a tamarisk tree there and calls on the name of the Lord, El Olam. This is likely an epithet for the Canaanite high God El. Here Abraham applies it to his God, who has granted him this foreign land. Just as it is an old land with a new people living in it, the name El Olam is an old title with a new god it applies to.

The Near Sacrifice of Isaac: Genesis 22.1-19

My apologies if I just spoiled the ending. 

Still more E narrative!

God decides to test Abraham: "He said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am'" (Gen. 22.1). God tells Abraham to takes his only son Isaac to Moriah, to sacrifice him as a burnt offering. Normally this is something reserved for animals; Hebrew religion does not condone human sacrifice.

Abraham sets out the next morning with a donkey, two men, Isaac, and the wood. On the third day Abraham leaves the two men and donkey, loads up his son Isaac with wood, and continues on carrying the knife and fire. What follows is a scene full of irony and drama. Like God, Isaac calls out to his father, "Father!" Abraham answers, "Here I am, my son" (Gen. 22.7). Isaac asks where the lamb is for the sacrifice. Abraham, knowing his son is to die, nevertheless correctly answers, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son" (Gen. 22.8). The two walk on.

They come to the place God has appointed and Abraham builds an altar and lays the wood. He bounds his son and places him on the wood. He is about to kill his son with the knife when the angel of the Lord calls for him to stop: "Abraham, Abraham!" He answers, "Here I am." The angel of the Lord says, "Do not lay you hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me" (Gen. 22.12).

Abraham sees a ram caught in a thicket and offers it instead. Abraham names the place, "'The Lord will provide'; as it is said to this day, 'On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided'" (Gen. 22.14).

There is a final promise of offspring. Abraham returns to the men and they return to Beer-sheba

Anyone know what mount this is? Anybody? Does the Temple Mount ring a bell? How about al-Haram ash-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary?

Is this where God gathered the dust for Adam? Where Abraham bound Isaac?  The site of Muhammad's Night Journey? The site of the Third Temple?

This much is true: It was the sight of the two Temples of Jerusalem. It is the current location of the Western Wall, Dome of the Rock, and Al-Aqsa Mosque. Not familiar with these terms? Tread carefully. Biased information and outright fabrications about the site abound.

The Children of Nahor: Genesis 22.20-24

Today's genealogy in burgundy!

Sarah's Death and Burial: Genesis 23.1-20

Sarah dies at the age of 127 in Hebron, a foreign land. Mourning the death of his wife, Abraham asks the Hittites for property so that he might bury his wife. The answer that he may choose his place. But Abraham wishes to own the land, presumably so that nothing will happen to it. What follows is a fantastic scene of diplomacy. Abraham desires Ephron's property. Ephron, overhearing him, offers it for free, which is of course an empty gesture.The real reason he does not give a price is because he does not want a foreigner buried on his land. Abraham offers to pay full price, though not naming it, as he probably does not know what the full price is. Ephron slyly asks an exorbitant price: "My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver - what is that between you and me? Bury your dead" (Gen. 23.15). Abraham immediately agrees to the price, seeing past the speech to the real meaning.

Sarah is buried facing Mamre/Hebron in a cave of the field of Machpeleah, in the land of Canaan

Tomorrow: Freudian tales from Genesis.