ABRAHAM' S INCESTUOUS MARRIAGE WITH SARAH

A VIOLATION OF THE HOLINESS CODE

by
GERSHON HEPNER
Los Angeles
Verbal resonances help to demonstrate intertextual links between
biblical laws and narratives.
1
The language Abraham uses to explain
his relationship with his half-sister Sarah in Gen. xx 13 echoes that
in the Holiness Code prohibiting relationships between half-siblings
(Lev. xx 17). The biblical author links Abraham's incest with Sarah
to that of Lot with his daughters and Judah with his daughter-in-law.
It is likely that the incest of Abraham with Sarah is meant to fore-
shadow that between David and his half-sister Abigail. The analysis
confirms the theory that many Genesis narratives allude to biblical
laws.
I
When there is famine in the land of Canaan Abram and Sarai go
to Egypt, Abraham tries to pass Sarai off as his sister, telling her:
Pray say , that you are my sister, in order that it may go well for me, so
that ^"DCD^, it be good for me, on account of you ^23 , and I may live, on
account of you (Gen. xii 13).
Abraham's words echo those of Jeremiah:
Listen to the voice of YHWH that I speak to you, "[0S3 "]*? ",
and it will be good for you and you will live (Jer. xxxviii 20).
Jeremiah's language is designed to protect the Judean women from
being taken into captivity and raped (Jer. xxxviii 23),
2
and the verbal
1
G. Hepner, "Verbal Resonance in the Bible and Intertextuality," JSOT 96 (2001),
pp. 3-27.
2
Jeremiah uses the word , you will be seized, which is the verb used to describe
rape, as in Gen. xxxix 12 and Num. 13. It is likely that the use of this verb implies
Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2003 Vetus Testamentum LIII,2
Also available online - www.brill.nl
144 GERSHON HEPNER
resonance linking the pericopes suggests that Abr aham wishes to pre-
vent that happeni ng to Sarai. Abr aham tries to pass Sarah off as his
sister for similar reasons in later narrative when they go to Gerar,
where Abimelech is the ruler: "And Abr aham said regarding Sarah
his wife: KTl , she is my sister" (Gen. xx 20).
This relationship violates the prohibition of incest between brother
and sister that the Holiness Code repeats three times (Lev. xviii 9; 11 ;
Lev. xx 17) and the Deuteronomi st also anathematizes (Deut. xxvii
22). The words TON, she is my sister (Gen. xx 2), allude to the
Holiness Code' s first prohibition of sibling incest which uses the words
NT -[, she is your sister.
The nakedness of your father's daughter of your father's clan, ",
she is your sister, you shall not uncover her nakedness (Lev. xviii 11).
II
Abraham' s conceal ment to Abimelech of the fact that Sarah is his
wife violates the Covenant Code' s prohibition of telling a "", lie:
"0, from the word of a lie remain distant, pH2l "p, and a per-
son who is blameless and innocent, do not kill, because I will not pH^K, con-
sider righteous, the guilty (Exod. xxiii 7).
Abimelech pleads to God that he not be sentenced to death for the
sin he nearly committed by taking Sarah:
And Abimelech did not draw close to her, and he said: My Lord, will
you kill a nation that is pHl D, completely innocent?
Surely he said to me: She is my sister. And she herself said: He is
my brot her. ^ ^ " , with blamelessness of my heart, ]
n
p33% and with clean-
ness, of my hands I did this.
And God said to him in a dream: Surely I knew that you did this
"^', with blamelessness of your heart, and I myself held you back from
sinning to me. That is why I did not enable you to touch her (Gen. xx
4-6).
The words ~)p^ , from the word of a lie (Exod. xxiii 7), apply to
Abraham' s lie to Abimelech regarding his marital status. On the other
that he wishes to prevent Judean women from being raped and the verbal resonance
that links Abraham's words to his may imply that Abraham wishes to prevent Sarah
from being raped.
ABRAHAM'S MARRIAGE WITH SARAH 145
hand the words pHHI "pn, and a person who is blameless and innocent, apply
to Abimelech. He is pH^, innocent, since he never commits adultery,
and "p], blameless, since he acted f pn, with blameless, of his hands (Gen.
xx 5). He claims to be more righteous than Abraham, who does not
hesitate to lie to him, violating the Covenant Code.
The terms "TG^'DrQ, with blamelessness of my heart (Gen. xx 5), and
"'', with blamelessness of your heart (Gen. xx 6), link Abimelech to
David (1 Kings ix 4; Ps. lxxii 3).
3
His name means
u
my father is the
king". The link between him and David about whom Solomon could
say "my father is the king" may be coincidental although this is unlikely
since the Psalmist in Ps. xxxiv mentions an Abimelech from whom
David flees, changing his demeanor in a manner that echoes the way
that Abraham deceives Abimelech.
4
Ill
The connection between the Abimelech in Genesis xx and xxvi and
the one with whom David has contact is highlighted by the connec-
tions between the narrative describing David's attempt to flee from
Saul while he prophesies in a state of nakedness to the contiguous nar-
ratives of the incestuous union between Lot and his daughters and
that between Abraham and Sarah that follows it, linking Abraham to
Saul as well as Lot.
To save his life which he fears Saul threatens in the same way that
Abraham fears Abimelech threatens his, David slips away from him.
The word CD^O, slip away, a keyword in the narrative describing the
way that he slips away from the naked king Saul, appearing 5 times
(1 Sam. xix 10, 11, 12, 17, 18), also appears 5 times in the narrative
of Lot describing the way that Lot flees from Sodom to lie naked with
his daughters (Gen. xix 17 [2], 19, 20, 22). David goes to 1, Naioth,
a word that appears 6 times in the narrative and nowhere else (1 Sam.
xix 18, 19, 22, 23 [2]; 20: 1). When the word appears 4 times with
a bet it reads as \2, in Naioth (1 Sam. xix 18, 19, 22, 23), and links
3
The Psalmist also associates the phrase with the avoidance of lies (Ps. ci 2, 7).
4
The author of Samuel calls Abimelech mentioned in Ps. xxxiv 1 Achish (1 Sam.
xxi 11). The way that David "changes his demeanor" in the presence of Abimelech/Achish
pretending to be mad echoes the way that Abraham changes his demeanor in the pres-
ence of Abimelech, pretending to be a single man! Interestingly enough, the verb UDib,
be guilty, appears in Ps. xxiv 22 and the narrative of Abimelech and Rebekkah (Gen.
xxvi 10).
146 GERSHON HEPNER
David' s escape from Saul to Lot' s escape from Sodom to lie with his
mn , daughters. The author of Samuel says:
And he went there to 3, Naioth, in Ramah and there was on him as
well the spirit of God, and he went around , and prophesied, until
he came , to Naioth, in Ramah.
And he removed, even he, his garments , and prophesied, even he,
before Samuel, and fell down Dil?, naked, Tib^T]-
1
?^ wm DTTT
1
, all that
day and all the night. That is why they say: "Is Saul also DKOD, among the
prophets?" (1 Sam. xix 23-24).
Not only does the nakedness of Saul , in Naioth, echo the immoral
conduct of Lot with his , daughters, but the word ?, naked, describ-
ing Saul's nakedness resonates with the word 1?, in a cave, denot-
ing the place where Lot lies with his daughters:
And Lot rose from Zoar and settled in the hill country, and his two
daughters were with him, because he feared to settle in Zoar, and he
settled mUDS, in a cave, he and his two daughters (Gen. xix 30).
Ther e are other connections with the Lot narrative, both narratives
taking place H
i
T
L
?3, at night (Gen. xix 33, 35; 1 Sam. xix 24). The verb
$21, prophesy, keyword that appears 8 times (1 Sam. xix 20 [3], 21
[2], 23, 24 [2]), links Saul's shameful attempt to act as a prophet while
naked to that of Abraham in the court of Abimelech in a narrative
that appears immediately after the Lot narrative and contains the only
explicit reference to the word W21, prophet, in Genesis, when God says
to Abimelech:
And now, return the man's wife because he is a 3, prophet, and he will
pray for you (Gen. xx 7).
The highly unusual appear ance of the word W2, prophet, links
Abr aham the 3, prophet, to the naked king about whom the people
ask: "Is Saul also D^DD, among the prophets?" (1 Sam. xix 24). Since
the Abimelech narrative is j uxtaposed to the Lot narrative, the verbal
resonance that links it to the Saul narrative implies that the incestu-
ous relationship the ^D3, prophet, Abraham has with Sarah revealing
what the Holiness Code calls #, her nakedness (Lev. xx 17), is not
only as shameful as that of Lot with his daughters in a , cave, but
as disgraceful as the nakedness of Saul who acts as though he were
DfcVDD, among the prophets, when 1V, naked. Thi s not only links the
shameful conduct of Abr aham to t hat of Saul but raises questions
ABRAHAM'S MARRIAGE WITH SARAH 147
about the paternity of Isaac since the shamefulness of Saul's conduct,
prophesying while naked, may be the reason why at the beginning of
the narrative after Saul first begins to prophesy people claim not to
know who his father is (1 Sam. 12), as Esler suggests.
5
On the one
hand the linkage between Abraham's relationship to Sarah and that
of Lot with his daughters in a mi?Q, cave, implies that Isaac, the son
born to Abraham and Sarah, is no less the product of an incestuous
union than Moab and Ammon, the sons born to Lot and his daugh-
ters.
6
On the other hand, it implies that people raise the question
whether Isaac is actually Abraham's son in the same way that they
ask whether Saul is the son of Kish.
7
IV
After Abimelech rebukes Abraham for concealing the fact that Sarah
is his wife Abraham says to him:
And it happened that when the gods made me wander from the house
of my father I said to her: This is "]", your lovingkindness, which you
should do for me. To every place where we come say concerning me:
TfK, he is my brother (Gen. xx 13).
Abraham's confession is an allusion to the prohibition of sibling
incest that the Holiness Code describes as :
5
P. F. Esler, "The Madness of Saul: A Cultural Reading of 1 Samuel 8-31," in
Gender, Culture, Theory: Biblical Studies/Cultural Studies: The Third Sheffield Colloquium, eds.
J. Cheryl Exum, S. D. Moore (JSOTSup 266, Sheffield, 1998), pp. 231-35.
6
The word mi?D, in a cave, also plays an important role in the narrative of Judah
and Tamar because Judah meets Tamar with the help of an Adullamite (Gen. xxxviii
1, 12), and Adullam is associated with caves (1 Sam. xxii 1; 2 Sam. xxiii 13). The
Ruth narrative also echoes both narratives and is linked to them by the word ,
grain pile (Ruth iii 7), implying that the grain pile where Boaz meets Ruth echoes the
cave where Lot lies with his daughters and the ones that the Torah associates with
Judah and Tamar when it links their encounter with Adullam. Indeed, When the Torah
points out that Abraham buries Sarah in a ^, cave (Gen. xxiii 9, 17, 19, 20), it
links Lot's union with his daughters in a cave with the posthumous union of Abraham
and Sarah in the cave he buys to bury his sister-wife. The word H^DDQ, double, describ-
ing the cave (Gen. xxiii 9, 19), means "double" and highlights the fact that after the
patriarchs die they lie as a couple in the cave Abraham buys. The burial site of Sarah
is a monument to the incestuous nature of her union with Abraham.
7
The Torah attributes the paternity of Isaac to God in Gen xxi 1, where the word
I pS not only means "take note" but implies that Isaac is a fnpS, deposit, and must be
returned to God, as God demands in the near-sacrifice of Isaac (see G. Hepner, "Verbal
Resonance in the Bible," pp. 7-8).
148 GERSHON HEPNER
And any man who takes his sister, the daughter of his father or mother
and sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is , lovingkind-
ness-disgrace, and they shall be cut off before the eyes of their people. He
uncovered the nakedness of his sister; he must bear his punishment (Lev.
xx 17).
The most common meani ng of the word " is "lovingkindness"
but it also means "disgrace," as in Prov. xiv 34; xxv 10. In Aramai c
the cognate word translates the Hebrew 2, disgrace, in Gen.
xxx 23 and xxxiv 14 and in the narrative of Amnon and Tamar
translates the word '', my disgrace, that Tamar uses to denote the
disgrace associated with the act of sibling incest Amnon had forcibly
performed with her (2 Sam. xiii 13). The word "70 is a Janus word
8
that
implies "disgrace" as well as lovingkindness.
9
When Abraham uses it
to describe his relationship with Sarah he refers not only to her 0,
lovingkindness, but also the , disgrace, caused by violation of the
Holiness Code' s prohibition of incest.
Interestingly enough, the violation of the Holiness Code that pro-
duces the birth of Isaac echoes the one that produces Rebekkah, Isaac's
wife, because she is the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Abraham' s
brother and Milcah, the niece of Nahor being the daughter of Har an
(Gen. xi 29). Marri age with such a niece violates the prohibition in
Lev. xx 20.
10
While Isaac is the product of one violation of the Holiness
Code his wife is the daughter of the product of another.
After Abimelech rebukes Abraham for having misled hi m about the
status of Sarah Abraham replies:
And H2DK, indeed, she is also my sister, the daughter of my father but not
the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife (Gen. xx 12).
The adverb 3, indeed, appears in only one other context, when
Achan admits that he has sinned by violating the law of , pro-
8
For Janus words, see G. Rendsberg, "Janus Parallelism in Gen. 49:26," JBL 99
(1980), pp. 291-293; M. Malul, "Janus Parallelism in the Hebrew Bible," 4 1 (1997),
pp. 246-249.
9
Rashi and Bekhor Shor on Lev. xx 17 suggest that "0 denotes the lovingkind-
ness that a brother may feel towards a sister, citing the Midrash that Cain showed
", lovingkindness, to his sister when he started the human race by marrying her, cit-
ing the midrash on Ps. lxxxix 3 (Sifra xx 116; B. T. Sanhdrin 58b).
10
See V. P. Hamilton, "The Book of Genesis, Chapters 18-50" (Grand Rapids,
1995), pp. 89, 11.
ABRAHAM'S MARRIAGE WITH SARAH 149
scription: "And Achan answered Joshua: 30, indeed, I am the one
who has sinned" (Josh, vii 20). The disaster that Abraham nearly
causes Abimelech and his court echoes that which Achan nearly causes
the people of Israel. The linkage indicates that Abraham is not only
making a legal assertion but admitting his guilt like Achan.
Although in the ancient Near East the term "brother" characteris-
tically means "brother, son of a mother," as attested by word pairs in
Ugaritic, Akkadian and Hebrew (Gen. xxvii 29; xl 29; Judg. viii 19;
Ps. 1 20; lxix 9; Deut. xiii 7),
11
Abraham's explanation hardly excuses
his conduct since in Lev. xx 17 the Holiness Code explicitly forbids
such a relationship specifically forbidding an Israelite to have sex with
a half-sister, described as "his sister, the daughter of his father or
mother". Abimelech uses the word 0 that Abraham uses to describe
his incestuous relationship with Sarah to describe his conduct towards
Abraham:
But now swear to me by God that you will not ", deal falsely, with
me or my son or grandson; "103, according to the lovingkindness, that I have
perf ormed for you act towards me and t he l and in whi ch you have
soj ourned (Gen. xxi 23).
While Abimelech's use of the word 2?, deal falsely, is extremely
ironic, alluding to the Covenant Code's prohibition of IpO DID,
from the word of a lie remain distant (Exod. xxiii 7), which Abimelech feels
Abraham violated when he lied to him about Sarah's marital status,
his use of the word " falsely implies that his conduct towards Abraham
and Sarah was both kind and disgracefulkind when he rewarded
them couple richly before sending them away, and disgraceful when
he lay with Sarah and allegedly fathered Isaac. He wishes Abraham
to think that he, the king whose name means "father of the king," is
the father of Isaac. This is a lie because God had prevented him from
touching Sarah (Gen. xx 6). While Abraham had lied to Abimelech
to protect his own life Abimelech lies to Abraham in order to protect
the life of Isaac. Abimelech's demand that Abraham should not act
falsely towards his son or grandson is a devious attempt to protect the
life of Isaac whom he claims to be his son, fearing that Abraham will
threaten him with death just as he had threatened Ishmael with that
1
' See . M. Levinson, "Textual Criticism, Assyriology, and the History of Interpretation:
Deuteronomy 13: 7a as a Test Case in Method," JBL 120 (2001), pp. 211-243.
150 GERSHON HEPNER
fate (Gen. xxi 10-21) and anticipating the near-sacrifice of Isaac in
Genesis xxii.
12
He acts deceitfully not only towards Abraham but
towards Abraham's son, falsely raising questions concerning the legiti-
macy not only of Isaac but any grandson of his whom Isaac might
bear because his duplicitous use of the word "70 implies that all Sarah's
descendants are really his rather than Abraham's. It is as if Abimelech
is asserting that the Israelites are ethnically Philistines, an assertion
whose falsity would be particularly offensive to the ethnically-conscious
exiles following the program of ethnic purification established by Ezra
and Nehemiah. Most Genesis narratives were probably written during
this period and many such as that of Abraham's separation from Lot,
the ancestor Ammonites and Moabites (Gen. xiii 7-18) highlight the
importance of ethnic purity. Abimelech's lie to Abraham may reflect
the way that the indigenous population in Yehud rejected this program!
To compound the irony of Abimelech's deceitful claim that he acted
with " towards Abraham the Torah relates that Abimelech's epony-
mous successor considers lying with Rebekkah but then has second
thoughts when he sees Isaac sporting with her (Gen. xxvi 8-10). Although
this Abimelech is ostensibly not the same as the one in the Abraham
narrative the Torah does not make this point explicitly. The deliber-
ate vagueness regarding his identity means that he could be the
Abimelech in the Abraham narrative. By lying with Rebekkah he would
lie with a woman he considered to be his daughter-in-law since he
falsely claimed that Isaac, Rebekkah's husband, was his son and such
a relationship would indeed be a 0, disgracel Indeed, a close read-
ing of the language that Abimelech uses to Sarah when sending her
away suggests that he is indeed implying that her incestuous relation-
ship with Abraham is comparable to the one that Judah has with his
daughter-in-law Tamar in a later narrative. He says to Sarah:
Here, I have given a thousand pieces of silver to your brother. Here, it
is a WTV H1CO, coverngfor the eyes, for everyone who is with you, and you
are rebuked (Gen. xx 16).
The reason why Abimelech refers to Abraham as "your brother"
rather than "your wife" as would have been expected, is because he
wishes to highlight the fact that Abraham's relationship with Sarah is
12
For the many parallels between the narratives of the near-death of Ishmael and
the near-sacrifice of Isaac, see S. Nikaido, "Hagar and Ishmael as literary figures: an
intertextual study," FT 51 (2001), pp. 219-242.
ABRAHAM'S MARRIAGE WITH SARAH 151
incestuous, linking it to the incestuous relationship between J udah and
his daughter-in-law Tamar . Thi s provides the rationale for the term
DTU niDD is that it links Abimelech' s gift to Sarah to the clothes that
Ta ma r wears before having sexual relations with her father-in-law
J udah:
And she removed her widowhood clothes from her ODrTl, and covered her-
self, with a veil and wrapped herself and sat WYV , at the entrance to
Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah because she saw that Shelah had
grown up and she had not been given to him as a wife.
And Judah saw her and considered her to be a harlot because nPDD,
she had covered, her face (Gen. xxxviii 14-15).
The words ODITI, and covered herself (Gen. xxxviii 14), and 03, she
had covered (Gen. xxxviii 15), resonate with DICO, covering (Gen. xx 16).
The place name of DTI?, Enaim (Gen. xxxviii 14, 21), which appears
nowhere else in the bible resonates with the word DTI?, eyes (Gen. xx
16) and has three rationales in the narrative of J udah and Tamar .
First, the term DTI? nnSD can mean "ent rance to the eyes," ironically
highlighting the fact that Judah' s eyes are not open when he sees
Tamar .
1 3
Secondly, the word DTI? may be an allusion to the word
niV, conjugal right (Exod. xxi 10).
14
The root P13U means "open, " as Levine
has poi nted out,
1 5
having this connotati on when it denotes verbal and
sexual response, so that the phrase DTI? nnSD, at the entrance to Enaim,
can mean "at the entrance of the sexual opening," a blatantly sexual
met aphor for the blatantly sexual way that Tamar approaches Judah.
Thirdly, the word DTI? links the sexual encounter between J udah and
Tamar to Abimelech' s use of the word DTI?, eyes, after his failed sex-
ual uni on with Sarah (Gen. xx 16). The gifts that Abimelech gives
Sarah and the way that Tamar dresses herself before having sexual
relations with J udah bot h allude to a law of the Covenant Code:
If he takes another for himself he must not diminish her food 100
3?*!, and her clothing and her conjugal right (Exod. xxi 10).
13
E. W. Good, "Deception and Women: A Response," in "Reasoning with Foxes,
Female Wit in a World of Male Power," Semeia 42 (1988), pp. 117-132.
14
G. Hepner, "The Affliction and Divorce of Hagar Involves a Violation of the
Covenant and Deuteronomic Codes," Zeitschrift fr Altorientalische und Biblische Rechtsgeschichte
(2002) (in press).
15
E. Levine, "Biblical Women's Marital Rights," Proceedings of the Amercan Academy of
Jewish Research 63 (1997-2001), pp. 87-136.
152 GERSHON HEPNER
Since Abimelech had attempted to take Sarah as a supplementary
wife the Covenant Code obliges him to provide her with 3? nmCO,
and her clothing and her conjugal right, which he does symbolically by giv-
ing her DTI? mCO, a covering of the eyes, foreshadowing the way that
Tamar implies that Judah must provide her with )3?1 7)03, and her
clothing and her conjugal right, when the Torah describes her conduct with
words that resonate with this phrase, COm, and covered herself, mCO, she
had covered (Gen. xxviii 14, 15), and the place name called DTI?, Enaim
(Gen. xxxviii 14). The link between the two narratives suggests that
Abimelech implies to Sarah that her relationship with Abraham is as
incestuous as the more flagrandy incestuous relationship between Judah
and his daughter-in-law. When he uses the word " to describe his
own conduct towards Abraham (Gen. xxi 23), he implies that he him-
self has had a relationship that was both loving and disgraceful with
Sarah, anticipating the disgraceful relationship that another Abimelech,
presumably his son, will consider having with Rebekkah who would
be his daughter-in-law if Isaac were his son.
The Torah also links Abraham's incestuous relationship with Sarah
to that which Lot has with his daughters. The word pIlKQD, like one
who laughs, describing the Lot's ostensible laughter that causes his sons-
in-law to remain in Sodom and die in the holocaust in Sodom (Gen.
xix 14) links Moab and Ammon, the sons born to Lot's daughters, to
, Isaac, the son born to Abraham and Sarah who laugh after they
hear they are going to have a son (Gen. xvii 17; xviii 12). ?, oar
(Gen. xix 30), where Lot's incestuous relationship with his daughters
takes place also links the narratives because the Torah says:
For YHWH 2? ?, had completely held back, every womb of Abimelech's
house on account of Sarah, Abraham's wife (Gen. xx 18).
The incestuous conception of Isaac after God ^? ^?, had completely
held back, every womb of Abimelech's house echoes that of Moab and
Ammon in 72, Z
oar
) where God does not hold back the wombs of
Lot's daughters. Interestingly, the Torah emphasizes that Lot is only
able to reach Zoar because he prays to the angels to be allowed to
go there (Gen. xix 20). The rationale for this ostensibly redundant
prayer may be because it foreshadows Abraham's prayer on behalf of
Abimelech (Gen. xx 17), which causes God to IXV ^?, completely hold
back.
ABRAHAM'S MARRIAGE WITH SARAH 153
V
The sibling incest of Sarah and Abraham leading to the birth of
Isaac foreshadows the same sin committed by David when he marries
Abigail. The Chronicler explicitiy says that David and Abigail are sib-
lings, both children of Jesse, the father of two daughters, Abigail and
Zeruiah (1 Chron. ii 13-16). The author of Samuel also describes
Zeruiah as the sister of Abigail (2 Sam. xvii 25), albeit giving the name
of their father as 03, Nahash, thus obscuring her relationship to David.
16
The author of Samuel implies that David's relationship with Abigail
is incestuous by making three allusions to it in the narrative of Amnon's
rape of his half-sister Tamar. Tamar says to Amnon:
And I, where shall I take ^, my disgrace, if you behave like one of
the D^D3, despicable, people in Israel. And now pray, speak to the king,
for he will not ''IMO*', withhold me, from you (2 Sam. xiii 13).
Three intentional allusions link the narratives. The word D^D3, despi-
cable people, resonates with the name of b22, Nabal, Abigail's husband.
,
']I?3D% withhold me, is an allusion to ]"DGN, Amnon, and links Tamar's
words to Amnon to the words "|IQ, has prevented you, and , pre-
vented me, spoken by Abigail to David and David to Abigail (1 Sam.
xxv 26). The word 13, my disgrace, is common to both narratives
(2 Sam. xiii 13; 1 Sam. xxv 39). Since the word , my disgrace, is
semantically equivalent to the word ", disgrace, describing the sin of
incest between half-siblings in Lev. xx 17 its use supports the view
that Abigail is David's half-sister just as Tamar is Amnon's half-sister
and links David's incestuous relationship with Abigail to that of Amnon
with Tamar
17
in a way that is less oblique than the links between his
relationship with Abigail and Abraham's with Sarah.
VI
The Holiness Code in Lev. xx 10-16 condemns to death people
who commit the sins it lists before the sin of sibling incestadultery,
16
For the incestuous relationship between David and Abigail, see J. D. Levenson
and B. Halpern, "The Political Import of David's Marriages," JBL 99 (1980), 507-18,
511 ; B. Halpern, David's Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King (Grand Rapids,
2001), p. 365, fn. 12.
17
Amnon's ruse to induce Tamar to come close to him involves persuading her to
prepare heart-cakes for him (2 Sam. xiii 5-12). This is an act of lovingkindness that
leads to an act that is disgraceful!
154 GERSHON HEPNER
intercourse with one's daughter-in-law, homosexuality, intercourse with
a mother and daughter and bestiality. Despite the severity of the sin,
sibling incest carries a divine rather than human penalty. This is clear
from the phrase "he must bear his punishment" (Lev. xx 17), a phrase
used by the Holiness School to imply that the sinner will be punished
by God rather than a human court.
18
An example is the case of the
suspected adulteress who must suffer trial by ordeal and may not be
sentenced by a court, so that the Torah says that she "must bear her
punishment" (Num. 31). The fact that no human court punishes
incest between siblings may be the reason why Abraham and Sarah
violate this prohibition with apparent impunity.
While the narratives of Lot and his daughters and Judah and Tamar
are probably anti-Davidic polemics,
19
the rationale of the incestuous
relationship between Abraham and Sarah is unclear. The fact that
Isaac is also the ancestor of all Judeans returning from Babylon as the
indigenous population who also claim to be descended from Abraham
and Sarah (Isa. li 2) makes such a taint extremely problematic because
it affects not only the Davidic dynasty but all Judeans. On the other
hand, it is possible that the narrative of Abraham, Sarah and Abimelech
is not an anti-Davidic polemic at all but implies that Abraham and
Sarah were royalty and had an incestuous relationship like royalty in
Egypt and Phoenicia.
20
God tells Abraham that Sarah will be the ances-
tress of kings (Gen. xvii 16) and the fact that she is Abraham's sister
not only makes her a suitable ancestress of the Israelites because she
is a Terahite
21
but also indicates that her union with Abraham paral-
lels the union of royal Egyptian siblings.
This article confirms others studies in which I have shown that
Genesis narratives often allude to biblical laws.
22
The rationale of such
allusions may be an attempt to imply that ostensibly Sinaitic laws are
actually as old as the Patriarchs. Such a tendentious implication would
be helpful to post-exilic leaders when trying to impose laws that may
18
See J. Milgrom, The JPS Torah: Numbers (Philadelphia, 199), pp. 43, 350.
,C)
G. A. Rendsburg, "David and his circle in Genesis xxxviii," VT 36 (1986), pp.
438-446.
20
J. Cerny, "Consanguinous Marriages in Pharaonic Egypt," Journal of Egyptian Archae-
ology 40 (1954), pp. 23-29; ANET, p. 662b.
21
For the importance of Terahite ancestry, see G. Hepner, "The Begettings of Terah
and the Structure of Genesis and the Tetrateuch," RB (in press).
22
G. Hepner, "The Relationship between Biblical Laws and Narratives," Journal of
Law and Religion 83 (2003) (in press).
ABRAHAM'S MARRIAGE WI TH SARAH 155
well have been post-exilic. Such a polemic is apparent in Genesis xiv-
xv where the references to Melchizedek in Gen. xiv 18 and perhaps
Gen. xv 6 link Abraham to Zadok, highlighting him as the ancestor
not of David but of the Zadokite priesthood.
23
The conflicting views
regarding the Davidic dynasty reflected by many Genesis narratives
may reflect differences between the pro-Zadokite views of Ezekiel (Ezek.
xliv 15-16) and the pro-Davidic views of Deutero-Isaiah
24
and the
Chronicler. The Chronicler accepts the view of the author of Kings
that "there is no man who does not sin" (1 Kings viii 46; 2 Chron.
vi 36) and describes no fully righteous king except for Abijah. The
description of the incestuous relationship of Abraham and Sarah may
reflect what Japhet calls the sober and realistic perspective of the
Chronicler towards Judah' s monarchs.
25
Abstract
Verbal resonances suggest that Abraham's claim that Sarah is his half-sister in Gen.
xx 13 indicates that he violates the prohibition of sibling incest in Lev. xx 17. This
observation links Abraham not only to Amnon who has an incestuous relationship with
his half-sister Tamar but to David who has an incestuous relationship with his half-
sister Abigail after the death of her husband Nabal. The narrative of the conception
of Moab, the son born to Lot after his unwitting incestuous relationship with his
younger daughter, precedes the narrative in which Abraham admits that Sarah is his
half-sister and is followed by the birth of Isaac, suggesting that the Torah implies that
Isaac is no less the product of an incestuous relationship that violates the Holiness
Code than Moab, an ancestor of David and Perez who is born as a result of an unwit-
ting incestuous relationship between Judah and Tamar.
23
See G. Hepner, "The Sacrifices in the Covenant Between the Pieces Allude to
the Laws of Leviticus and the Covenant of the Flesh," WHO (2002), pp. 72-73.
24
See M. Goulder, "'Behold my servant Jehoiachin,' " VT 52 (2002), pp. 175-90.
25
S. Japhet, The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles and Its Place in Biblical Thought (Frankfurt
am Main, 1989), p. 491.
^ s
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