Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryan Rocine" <596547 AT ican.net>]

hi John,  you wrote:

  Re. Alter's type-scene, his view is based on
> the idea that this is the kind of story Israelites liked to hear, so we
have
> lots of them.  I don't at all agree that Israelites would have liked
hearing of
> such behavior by Abraham and Isaac (much less of David), which is often
> characterized as cowardly, shameful, etc.

what makes you say that re: Alter?  i don't remember getting that
impression when i read Alter.  

as for the relationship of the type-scenes to Israel's spjourn in E, the
three narratives we are discussing do share the common thematic events:
God's man sojouns in a foreign land with hios wife, he leaks that she is
his (available) sister to save his own neck, and God intervenes by speaking
to the foreigner who proves to have more concern for the wife than he r own
husband.  moral of the stories: in Egypt (or Babylon or Spain or Eastern
Europe or whatever the land of your sojourning), trust that the
providential care of God is with you, so don't give away the family by
inter-marriage with your hosts.  In effect the moral is that God cares for
the families of his people more than they do.  it is by this common theme,
i think, that all three stories foreshadow Israel's sojourn in Egypt, not
in the details only.  Nevertheless, there are indeed details that relate
the type scenes to I's sojourn in E: in Gen 20, Abimelek tells Abraham to
dwell where he pleases as compared to the invitation of Pharaoh in Gen
45:18 and 47:3-6, and Sarah "multiplies" in Gerar as Israel did in E. and
in Gen 26 there is the famine which is explicitly related to Abraham's(see
26:1) and which, of course, parallels the famine which brought I to E; and
there are both the promise of multiplication of Isaac's seed and the actual
multiplication of his goods as also took place during I's sojourn in E.

> 
> Re. the two noteworthy omissions in Exodus 12 (whether the marriage was
> consummated, how Pharaoh found out the reason for the plagues), I was
hinting
> that you find the two answers in Genesis 20 (the marriage was not
consummated -
> same situation as in Gen 12; God came to Abimelech in a dream).

i thought i more than hinted the same thing(see my last post, the last line
of my second paragraph); but i'm thinking more about these type-scenes as
an admonition to Israel not to inter-marry with their hosts.  isn't
witholding information in Gen 12 even a more effective way to present such
an admonition, at least in the first of three parallel events, than giving
information?

> 
> If Genesis 12 is "gapped" and the gaps are supplied in 20, and 20 is also
> "gapped" (we have no answer to the question, why would Abraham fear for
his
> life over this wrinkled old lady? [Gen 18:12; BLH used elsewhere for
worn-out
> clothing, cracked wineskins, moth-eaten garments]), should we look for
the
> answer in Genesis 12, and what would be the implication?
> 
> Comments?

see above.

sincerely,
Bryan


B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13208

315-437-6744(w)
315-479-8267(h)