Abraham’s “Lie”.
From Haran, Abraham migrated to Canaan
and, during a famine, he even visited Egypt briefly (see maps in MBA 25-26). As
Abraham neared Egypt, he instructed Sarai (later Sarah) to inform the Egyptians
that she was his sister (Gen. 12:11-13). The Book of Abraham (2:22-25)
attributes this action to a commandment from the Lord. Interestingly, in the
Genesis Apocryphon, one of the texts from the Qumran region of the Dead Sea, it
is through a dream that the Lord instructs Abraham to protect his life in this
manner (see Theodor H. Saster, The Dead Sea Scriptures, 3rd ed., pp.
364-365).
Sarah’s genealogy is not found in Gen.
11, when she marries Abraham. At a later stage, however, we find Abraham using
the same tactic of calling her his “sister” when in the land of Abimelech at
Gerar. When asked how he would so lie, he replied, “and yet indeed she is my
sister: she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother;
and she became my wife.” (Gen. 20:12)
We have here the impression that Sarah
was Abraham’s half-sister, sharing the common father but having different mothers.
Nevertheless, we have it in Jewish tradition that she was the daughter of
Haran, Abraham’s brother (Jasher 9:1-4; Josephus, Antiquities I, vi, 5
& I, vii, 1). Indeed, Jewish tradition identifies her with the Iscah of
Gen. 11:29. That she was, in fact, Abraham’s niece, the daughter of Haran, is further
confirmed in Abr. 2:2.
The term “brother” and “sister” in Hebrew
frequently can be translated merely as “(paternal) kinsman” or “close
(paternal) relative”, and this might explain how Abraham was justified in
calling Sarah his sister (in Gen. 12:14, he calls his nephew Lot by the title “brother”).
However, it does not explain why he told Abimelech that they had the same
father but not the same mother! The answer to this more complex question lies
in the legal procedure of adoption, as practiced by the Hurrians of northern Mesopotamia.
From the tablets of the 15th century BE found at Nuzi, we learn that both men
and women could adopt relatives or others for purposes of inheritance and
family security. It seems to have been typical of these Hurrians that, if a man
died and left minor children, these children would be adopted by his father or brother.
(There are similar customs found at Mari and amongst the Hittites.) It seems
likely, therefore, that Terah, Abraham’s father, adopted the children of his
deceased son Haran (see Gen. 11:29). But since their mother was still alive,
they would legally have had the same father as their uncle Abraham, but not the
same mother.
The Mari texts (18th century BC) and
Nuzi texts (15th century BC) also indicate the existence of marriage with
half-sisters, apparently to ensure that the succeeding firstborn son be more “purely”
of the family. In some cases, a man would “adopt” his wife as sister. (Indeed,
in many so-called “primitive” societies today, the term for “wife” and “sister”
is the same). It may be, in Gen. 29:14, that Laban is adopting Jacob, thus
making possible his subsequent marriage o Leah and Rachel. (John A. Tvedtnes, “Abraham
and Isaac,” [2-3], in “Biblical Backgrounds: Old Testament, An Historical,
Archaeological, Geographical and Linguistic Study Guide” [unpublished, c. 1982])