Noach (Part 3) - Genesis 6:9-11:32

Near the end of the Noach Torah portion we read (Genesis 11:31) and are told this interesting tidbit:

“Terach took his son Abram (who will become “Abraham”), and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and his daughter in-law Sarai (who will become “Sarah”), the wife of Abram, his son, and they departed…”

Later one, we will read three versions of the same tale. We could group them into a title called:  “Don’t tell the king that you are my wife. Tell him that you are my sister!” Two times “Abraham” supposedly pulls this trick, and one time (Genesis 26:7), the storyteller chooses to put Isaac into the narrative.

Which is more likely? - Two people lying to a king three different times as part of a family tradition, or that it is the same story told by different authors.

It is something to consider.

But in one version, the king demands an explanation for the lie. In an earlier and shorter version, (12:18), Abraham doesn’t tell the king why he lied. But in a later and lengthier version, Abraham tells the King that he was afraid that he would be killed (Genesis 20:10), followed by a “Well, I didn’t technically lie” explanation (Genesis 20:12):

“And also, [she is] indeed my sister, she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.”

So she is Abraham’s half-sister by his father. And yet, the author of Genesis 11 never calls her “the daughter of Terach”, but simply “the daughter in-law of Terach”.

This is yet another example of authors of one story having no concern with continuity of another author.

It’s an issue certainly worth noting.