Genesis 20-22

The Elohist or "E" Source

In chapter 12 of Genesis the J source contains a story in which Abram, fearing for his life as he enters Egypt, passes his wife Sarai off as his sister.  Here in chapter 20 we have nearly the exact same story in a slightly different context as Abraham and his wife Sarah have settled in Gerar in the region of Negeb, the desert of southern Israel.  Abraham and Sarah's arrival in Negeb seems to make utterly no sense at this point in the narrative, as Abraham has already journeyed north from Egypt, through the Negeb, and split the promised land with Lot in Chapter 13.  This is just one example of how the story becomes truly confusing as a result of multiple narratives having been stitched together.  This version of the story comes to us by way of the Elohist or "E" source, and is the first passage in the chronological narrative of the Torah to derive from said source.

The Elohist's writing is more similar to that of the Yahwist than that of the Priestly writers, but unlike J, which most scholars identify with Judah, likely originated in the northern region of Israel.  The E source as described in the documentary hypothesis and its permutations is the most fragmentary of the surviving "documents" we have today.   J and E were supposedly redacted together into a "JE" document following the fall of the northern kingdom, but prior to the time when the final redactors combined the Priestly and Deuteronomic documents with this older narrative material to finalize the Torah.  Today's post will be looking at a large chunk of E material which makes up the majority of chapters 20-22.

She's My Sister Reprise

Getting back to the narrative, this version of the "she's my sister" story is very similar to that of the J story except for a few notable differences.  As in the tale from chapter 12, in chapter 20 Abraham fears for his life and so lies about his wife, calling her his sister (20:11). Sarah is taken as a wife by the local king (20:2) - this time King Abimelech of Gerar.  The King finds out and chastises Abraham (20:9-10), but then lavishes gifts of livestock and slaves upon him (20:14).  Regarding dissimilarities, in this version God (Elohim) comes to the king in a dream to tell him what has happened rather than striking the kingdom with misfortune (20:3).  God also reveals that he kept Abimelech from consummating the marriage (20:6), whereas in the J tale we could only assume that the Pharaoh did indeed copulate with Sarai.  Abraham also reveals that in fact he wasn't entirely dishonest as Sarah is in fact his half-sister (20:12).  So that's... pretty gross.

It's utterly fascinating to see two narratives which are nearly identical both preserved in the text of the Torah, with small alterations.  It seems clear that the original story diverged in different communities over time - and in fact even a third version of this story exists later in the narrative, though our protagonists have changed (we'll get to that in chapter 26).  It causes one to wonder, what was the original narrative like?  How many mutations occurred in the story before it was written down?  How many other versions of the tale of a patriarch lying about his wife being his sister were floating around in ancient Israel?

Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away... Again

In chapter 21 we have another parallel narrative to something we've already read back in Chapter 16.  Once again, Hagar, Abraham's concubine and mother of his son Ishmael, has drawn the wrath of Sarah.  In this version of the story, Isaac has already been born to Sarah and so she grows concerned that Ishmael will gain a share of Isaac's inheritance (21:10).  Unlike in the J story, where Sarah mistreats Hagar causing her to flee of her own accord, here in the E version Sarah demands that Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away.  Abraham is rightly concerned, but God (Elohim) promises that Ishmael will survive and father a nation (21:11-13).  Abraham sends her off with only a skin of water and her young son on her shoulder (21:14).  Due to the insertion of the E narrative, Ishmael is no longer a circumcised 13 year old as in the priestly narrative (17:25), but has aged down (as one would also assume Sarah did in the previous chapter, being beautiful enough to warrant the king's attention) enough to be carried by his mother.  Alone in the wilderness, Hagar begins to prematurely mourn her young son, as he will inevitably die:

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes.  Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the child."  And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.
- Genesis 21:15-16.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that Hagar's suffering is entirely inflicted upon her by Sarah.  It was Sarah's plan for Hagar to give Abraham a son in the first place (granted, in a different narrative, though it can reaaonably be assumed that the E source had a similar tradition).  It is then Sarah who becomes jealous and mercilessly demands Abraham send them away.  Hagar must feel completely and utterly betrayed.  It's not a good look for Sarah.  But fret not, for as in J, Hagar encounters an angel who reassures her and directs her to a well (21:19).  However, unlike in the J version of this story, in the E version Hagar and Ishmael never return to Abraham.  If I were Hagar I wouldn't be keen to ever see Abraham and Sarah again either.

Strangely, for some reason the end of chapter 21 returns to Abimelech in what seems to have been the original ending of chapter 20 (21:22-34).  The banishment of Hagar looks like it was inserted in slightly the wrong place in the narrative here, splitting up the sister-wife story before it had completely resolved.  It's possible the story of Hagar's banishment was placed here due to the theme of the well in the wilderness of Beer-sheba, as a dispute between Abraham and Abimelech centers around the ownership of a well which gives rise to the place name "Beer-sheba" (21:31).  But that's just a wild guess from an armchair bible scholar.

The Binding of Isaac

Sacrifice of Isaac by Caravaggio - ca. 1603 CE

Chapter 22 comprises what must be considered one of the most famous yet disturbing stories in the bible, in which God (Elohim) demands that Abraham offer his son Isaac as a child sacrifice.  The story is heartbreaking, as the reader projects a sense of despair onto Abraham, and empathizes with the confused child, Isaac.  However, in reading the text, one never gets the sense that Abraham is at all conflicted over whether he should fulfill the bloodthirsty demand of his god.  Abraham follows God's instruction without question.  The emotionless, unthinking obedience with which Abraham carries out his god's will is terrifying.  But luckily, right as Abraham is about to slaughter his son atop a sacrificial pyre, an angel of Yahweh appears and stops Abraham, praising him for his devotion to Yahweh (22:11-12).  A ram seems to magically appear nearby, caught in a thicket (22:13).  In this way, Yahweh provides an alternative to the sacrifice of a child.

Except that's probably not how the original story went.

There is strong evidence that the intervention of an angel of Yahweh was inserted into the text to discourage child sacrifice and harmonize two separate traditions of the patriarchal narrative.  In verses 1-10 it is God (Elohim) who instructs Abraham, hence the traditional attribution of this story to the E source.  However, when it comes time for the slaughter to commence it is suddenly not Elohim or even a messenger of Elohim who stops the ritual, but instead an angel of Yahweh - a name the E source does not use prior to Moses.  Verses 11-15 are likely the work of a redactor, probably during the combining of the J and E sources into a single narrative.  Isaac goes on to father Jacob in the J source, and so of course cannot be ritually slaughtered by his father.  While the redactors of the final text of the Torah have let plenty of contradictions remain, this would be a little too glaring to let pass.

There is also the obvious issue of child sacrifice.  Child sacrifice was a common practice for a time in the ancient near east, and it has been theorized the practice was likely at least somewhat common in ancient Israel.  Most likely, at some point in Israelite history, first born children were slaughtered in the name of Yahweh/El.  Eventually public opinion likely shifted on this issue, as child sacrifice is condemned in the bible as a sin of Israel's neighbors.  Of course, the fact that in one tradition God actually demanded child sacrifice would need to be altered as Israelite culture and religion evolved over time.

When the E source returns "he" (likely referring to Elohim in the original text, not an angel, as evidenced by his use of "I" to bestow the blessing) promises to bless Abraham because he did not refuse his demands.  If we remove the work of the redactor as identified by Friedman, the story flows from verse 10 to 16 thusly:

When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order.  He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.  Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son...  And he said "I swear by myself that because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.  And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.  So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.
- Genesis 22:10, 16-19

Though Abraham tells his men that he and the boy will return (22:5), it is only Abraham who returns to his men in verse 19.  When the E source resumes in chapter 25 Abraham takes a second wife and fathers other legitimate children.  Isaac never again appears in the E material of the Torah.  Even in the J material of chapter 26 in which Isaac is the main character the stories are mostly recycled stories from the life of Abraham.  While chapter upon chapter of Genesis is spent detailing the adventures of Abraham and Jacob, Isaac is an afterthought - the sacrificial story is the most important event regarding Isaac.

But this is how it should be.  Because critically, the sacrifice of Isaac is E's version of the covenant.  Whereas in J Yahweh and Abraham seal their covenant through animal sacrifice and a supernatural vision (chapter 15), and in P God demands the ritual of circumcision as a sign of the covenant (chapter 17), here in E God only promises Abraham to be the father of nations because he has sacrificed his firstborn son.  Together in their unified final form these three accounts seem to paint the portrait of a god who is constantly altering the terms of the deal.  But they are in fact separate etiologies of how Abraham, ancestor of Israel, became the deity's chosen one.  The Elohist's version just happens to be the most horrific one.

Psalm 18

Now this is a fun one!  In this psalm, the psalmist calls upon Yahweh to save him from death (18:1-5), Yahweh hears him from his temple (18:6) then manifests on the earth and intervenes on behalf of the psalmist (18:7-15), rescuing him from his enemies (18:16-19).  Yahweh blesses the psalmist for his righteousness (18:20-24) and in return the psalmist sings his praises (18:25-50).  If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know I have a bit of a thing for theophanies.  Something about the otherworldly descriptions of manifest deity really gets me:

Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.
Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
He bowed the heavens, and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
He rode on a cherub, and flew;
he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering around him,
his canopy thick clouds dark with water.
Out of the brightness before him
there broke through his couds
hailstones and coals of fire.
Yahweh also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice.
And he sent out his arrows, and scattered htem;
he flashed forth lightnings, and routed them.
Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O Yahweh,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
- Psalm 18:7-15

Mmmmm... that's some good storm god stuff there.  Earthquakes, fire erupting from the deity's mouth, darkening skies, storm clouds, hail, fire raining from the sky, lightning, cracks in the earth...  Awesome.

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Okay that does it for this one.  Next up: Abraham buys a tomb, we meet Rebekah, and the fraternal struggle begins.  As always, I welcome you to leave comments below!