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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Genesis 20: 1
  • Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:37:43 EDT


James:
You wrote: "Yhwh felt the need to intervene before Abimelech did anything
untoward."
Not true.
Although the verse you are referencing at first glance appears to be the
narrator making a statement of fact, the reality is that we are to
understand
that verse as being what Abimelech said to his assembled people early the
next
morning. No one was there except Abimelech and Sarah. The author of the
Patriarchal narratives is not pretending to be omniscient.
Why doesn't Abraham ask Sarah to verify what Abimelech said before Abraham
utters, of all things, a fertility prayer for Abimelech? Why doesn't Abraham
ask YHWH to clarify what really happened before Abraham is willing to offer
a
fertility prayer for Abimelech?
Here is what the text says:
"And God said unto him [Abimelech] in the dream: 'Yea, I know that in the
simplicity of thy heart thou hast done this, and I also withheld thee from
sinning against Me. Therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.' … And
Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told
all these
things in their ears; and the men were sore afraid. " Genesis 20: 6, 8
Here is how the author of the Patriarchal narratives wants us to understand
those two verses:
"And Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and
said to them: 'Last night God said unto me in a dream: 'Yea, I know that in
the simplicity of thy heart thou hast done this, and I also withheld thee
from
sinning against Me. Therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.'"
Abraham, Sarah and Abimelech know in advance exactly what Abimelech is going
to say to all of Abimelech's people. That is a key part of the cover story,
so that Abimelech's people will not think that Abimelech is an immoral ruler
who has knowingly taken a married woman into his household and violated
her.
James, consider it this way. If your wife spent a night in another man's
bedroom, how would you react if the man attempted to explain it all away as
follows: "Not to worry, I thought she was your sister, and anyway, last
night
God said unto me in a dream: 'Yea, I know that in the simplicity of thy
heart
thou hast done this, and I also withheld thee from sinning against Me.
Therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.'"
Abraham is not so gullible as to take that lame excuse of a Gentile ruler at
face value. It's all part of the cover story that Abraham, Sarah and
Abimelech have agreed to in advance.
If you do not understand that, you will not understand why Abraham and Sarah
make a beeline for Abimelech's place in Gerar per Genesis 20: 1. Abraham
and Sarah want to interact with Abimelech, who has a fertility problem
somewhat
like Abraham's and Sarah's fertility problem.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois



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