Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

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