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  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] daughters jacob never spoke of
  • Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 14:52:37 -0500

Dear Shoshanna,

"coloring the truth" - my words, not Rashi's or Abraham's, I could have used different phrases but - I thought this was a list about semantics in Hebrew, not English.

The point being, that for whatever reasons Avraham thought he needed to "lie" (which is not the point of this discussion, but we can cite that, too...commentaries explain that in verse 2) - he did his best to remain as close to the truth as possible.



HH: One other point here is that Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister. If she really was his half-sister, then he was not asking her to lie. If she was not, then not only was Abraham lying but he was compelling Sarah to lie too. This seems a completely unworthy way to behave, and I cannot think Abraham acted that way.

HH: After Abraham was caught by Abimelech in his misrepresentation of reality (Genesis 20), Abraham explained himself fully. He had no real need to aggravate the situation by concocting more fabrications. He admitted what he had done.

HH: God had already told Abimelech in a dream to give Abraham back his wife and have Abraham pray for him so that he would live and not die (Gen 20:7). Although Abraham did not know this, it must have taken some of the rage away from Abimelech.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




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