In the Book of Abraham, we learn that it was God, not Abraham, who devised the plan for Abraham to tell the Egyptians Sarai was his "sister," not "wife" (a wordplay in Egyptian):
And it came to pass when I was
come near to enter into Egypt, the Lord said unto me: Behold, Sarai, thy wife,
is a very fair woman to look upon; therefore it shall come to pass, when the
Egyptians shall see her, they will say She is his wife; and they will kill you,
but they will save her alive; therefore see that ye do on this wise: Let her
say unto the Egyptians, she is thy sister, and thy soul shall live. And it came
to pass that I, Abraham, told Sarai, my wife, all that the Lord had said unto
me Therefore say unto them, I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be
well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee. (Abraham
2:22-25)
Interestingly, the JST does not make this change, instead, following
the KJV that it was Abraham who devised this stratagem:
and
it came to pass when he was come near to enter into Egypt that he said unto
Sarai his wife b[e]hold now I know thee to be a fair
woman to look upon therefore it shall come to pass when
the Egyptians see thee shall see thee that they shall say this is his wife and they will kill me but they will save thee a live say say I pray thee unto them I am his sister
that it may be well with thee <me> for his <thy> sake and my soul shall live because of thee . . . (“Old
Testament Revision 1,” p. 29)
Such flies in the face of those who impute a greater authority to
the JST than what it deserves.
Further Reading
Abraham
2:22-25 and the Genesis Apocryphon from Qumran
