Biblical Parallels Index – Bereshit 20/0
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Biblical Parallels Index – Bereshit 20
Wives and Sisters There are several stories in Sefer Bereshit where someone passes off their wife as thier sister.
Tools
- See Makbilot Bamikra that Avraham’s claim that Sarah is his sister is parallel to two similar stories, one earlier in the narrative of of Avraham and Sarah (Bereshit 12) and one in the narrative of Yitzchak and Rivka (Bereshit 26).
- Tanakh Lab indicates though Bereshit 12 (the wife-sister story of Avraham in Egypt) and Bereshit 26 (the wife-sister story of Yitzchak in Gerar) contain a signifcant number of linguistic parallels (as seen here), Bereshit 20 has many fewer parallels to Bereshit 26, despite both taking place in the same locale (see here).
Articles
- See המוטיב 'אשתי-אחותי ומלך' שלושה סיפורים וארבעה וקריאה אחרת by Prof. Moshe Zipor who compares and analyzes the wife-sister stories, using the comparison as a paradigm for how to do comparative readings of Tanakh in general.
- See Endangering Sarai in Egypt for an exploration of the moral and strategic questions that arise about the behavior of the Avot in this narrative and in the others in which they claim that their wives are their sisters.
