19:14. And I, Abram, dreamt a dream on the night that I entered the
land of Egypt The
addition of a dream, perceived in antiquity as a form of divine communication,
offers a justification for Abram’s seemingly selfish behavior in the biblical
story. Instead of presenting him as an opportunist who is willing to endanger
his wife to save his own skin, this interpreter has now transformed Abram into
a prophet who received a divine warning about this impending danger.
Furthermore, according to the content of the dream, Sarai, represented by the
palm tree, is the one who raises her concerns over possible harm to Abram,
represented by the cedar tree, and not Abram himself. (Matthew J. Morgenstern
and Michael Segan, “The Genesis Apocryphon,” in Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish
Writings Related to Scripture, ed. Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence
H. Schiffman, 3 vols. [Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2013], 1:251)
