The King
James Version of the Bible indicates that Pharaoh had not yet taken Sarah to
wife: “Why sadist thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to
wife” (Genesis 12:19). The much more prevalent translation is some variant of “and
I took her to me to wife,” found in the NIV, NLV, ESV, ISV, AVS, and so forth.
This translation indicates that the Pharaoh had already taken Sarah to wife,
although whether that included sexual relations is unknown. A further
indication in the text that the Pharaoh may have had sexual relations with
Sarai comes from comparing this account to the other account when Sarah again
poses as Abraham’s sister and is taken by Abimelech king of Gerar as well as
the account when Rebekah poses as Isaac’s sister when they are in the land of
Gerar. In both of these other accounts the author specifically makes it known
that Sarah and Rebekah have not been sexually taken: “But Abimelech had not
come near [Sarah]” (Genesis 20:4). And in the case of Rebekah, when the king
realizes Rebekah is Isaac’s wife, he proclaims, “What is this thou hast done
unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou
shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us” (Genesis 26:1). That no specific
denial of the Pharaoh having sexual relations with Sarah occurs in the text
leaves open the possibility that he did. One must hope as Latter-day Saint
scholar Hugh Nibley suggested that the Lord saved Sarah by sending an angel, as
he had earlier saved Abraham from being sacrificed on the altar by the priest
of Elkenah. Hugh Nibley, Old Testament and Related Studies (Provo, UT:
Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies; Salt Lake City: Deseret
Book, 1986), 99. (Amy Easton-Flake, “Recognizing Responsibility and Standing
with Victims: Studying Women of the Old Testament,” in Avram R. Shannon, Gaye
Strathearn, George A. Pierce, and Joshua M. Sears, eds., Covenant of Compassion:
Caring for the Marginalized and Disadvantaged in the Old Testament [Provo,
Utah: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021], 127-56,
here, pp. 152-53 n. 17)