In Genesis Abraham is said to have insisted that Sarah was his sister because he feared for his life. Speiser, “The Wife-Sister Motif in the Patriarchal Narratives,” in Biblical and Other Studies, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. This particular practice, on the part of a prospective father-in-law, is documented from the Nuzi tablets. Further, it is possible that Terah, Abraham’s father, had adopted Sarah before her marriage to Abraham and that this is the meaning of the passage in Genesis 20:12. Therefore, Abraham’s claim that Sarah was his sister upon their entry into the land of Egypt is not far-fetched in the least. Because Sarah had lived within the Hurrian culture for a number of years, it is not unlikely that she enjoyed this status in her marriage, a status common among Hurrians. It guaranteed to her special legal and social protections and opportunities which were simply not available to women in any other culture of the Near East. Such a dual status, both wife and sister, had important consequences for a woman. The contact is important when we learn that under Hurrian law women were frequently adopted as sisters by their husbands either before or during the marriage ceremony. Rebecca, like Sarah, spent her youth growing up in Haran, no doubt in contact with Hurrians. Interestingly, only in stories dealing with Sarah and Rebecca do we find the claim made that the wife was also a sister to her husband (see Gen. Their kingdom included the land of Haran in which Abraham and Sarah lived for a number of years before moving to Canaan (see Gen. The Hurrians were people who flourished about the time of Abraham, and later. It was not until the discovery of ancient Hurrian legal texts at the site of Nuzi, a city east of Ashur, the capital of ancient Assyria, that we obtained a clearer background for this incident. 20:12), many students have felt confused with this explanation. Even though Abraham later insisted that Sarah was his sister through his father, but not his mother (see Gen. Most are familiar with the story of Sarah posing as Abraham’s sister (see Gen.
Interestingly, while Abraham and Sarah enjoyed respite from Canaan’s drought, their visit to Egypt provided Sarah with one of her most difficult trials. A Refuge from Famineįor Abraham and Sarah, Egypt constituted a place of refuge from the famine raging at the time of their arrival in Canaan (see Gen. While it was often a place of testing or bondage, it was also a frequent haven from their troubles. But this use of Egypt only partially reflects the attitudes of the ancient Israelites toward that place. In the book of Revelation, for instance, Egypt is equated with Sodom, and both are used as names or symbols for a wicked Jerusalem of the latter days ( Rev. Thus, when in later Christian scripture Egypt is used as a symbol of spiritual bondage, we note that the writers use the place as a symbol understood by the Jews and not a charge against the people. Only rarely are individuals native to Egypt mentioned by name (see, for example, Gen.
The emphasis in the Bible consistently falls not on Egyptians as persons but on Egypt as a place. And Joseph, from whom so many of us have descended, performed his greatest service to God and His people in that land. One of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament, Moses, was called up out of Egypt. From Abraham to Jesus, the prophets, patriarchs, and people had a continuous connection with the place called Egypt, and on more than one occasion they dwelt there. Biblical Egypt served both as a refuge and as a threat to the Lord’s people in Old Testament and New Testament times.
One of the most intriguing words in the scriptures-as a place, as a reference, as a symbol-is Egypt, the land of so many of our Father’s children.