Biblical Parallels Index – Bereshit 26/0
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Biblical Parallels Index – Bereshit 26
Famine, Wives, and Sisters Several stories in Tanakh discuss how famine led some of the Patriarchs to leave their home in search of food and to pass off their wives as their sister to protect himself.
Tools
- See Makbilot Bamikra for a listing of all of the stories that relate to famine in the land of Israel. Looking at those in Torah, one can note that of the three Patriarchs, Yitzchak is the only one who is commanded not to leave Israel in response to the lack of food.
- See Makbilot Bamikra for a listing of each of the stories in which one of the forefathers claims that his wife is his sister. Yaakov is the only one not forced to do, as he descends to Egypt under the protection of Yosef and with a full clan.
- Tanakh Lab – Tanakh Lab1 indicates that the chapter most linguistically similar to Bereshit 26 (the wife-sister story of Yitzchak in Gerar) is Bereshit 12 (the wife-sister story of Avraham in Egypt). To compare the two, see here. Interestingly, though Bereshit 20 shares many of the same themes, and even takes place in the same locale as Bereshit 26, it has many fewer parallels, as seen here.
Articles
- See Endangering Sarai in Egypt for an exploration of the moral and strategic questions that arise about the behavior of the Avot in the narratives in which they claim that their wives are their sisters.
- See Toldot: The Legacy of Rivka by R. Michael Hattin for an analysis of the ways that Yitzchak’s and Rivka’s experiences and legacies echo and strengthen those of Avraham and Sara, and how this role informs Rivka’s actions in Parashat Toldot.
