From: Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [b-hebrew] Genesis 20: 1
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:35:40 -0400
Chapter 20 verse 7:
Here is where the Torah tells what I had just posted, and also tells
us that Avimelech did NOT sleep with her in the end: G-d is talking
to Avimelech in his dream: "But now return the man's wife FOR HE IS
A PROPHET" (ie; he therefore knows that you did not touch her, and
therefore...) "he will pray for you and you will live"
We also know that Avimelech did not touch her, because G-D SAID SO in
verse 6 (G-d stopped him by His warning to him)
There is no need to question if Avimelech lied to his servants or
not, because G-d doesn't lie!
(This is in response to your: "Whether Abimelech is being truthful
or not in claiming to his servants that
Abimelech had not come near Sarah we will never know. In my view,
the author of the Patriarchal narratives wants us to understand
these verses as being what Abimelech said to his servants, not as
necessarily being what actually happened.")
Shoshanna
In particular, at the point that Abraham utters that profound
fertility prayer for Abimelech, how could Abraham have known what
had actually gone
on the previous night?
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois