Hebrew Myths (25 page)

(
a
) At Gerar, between Kadesh and Shur, Abram again passed off Sarai as his sister. When King Abimelech of Gerar would have enjoyed her, God threatened him with death. Like Pharaoh, Abimelech protested his innocence; but God answered: ‘Nevertheless, make amends by sending Sarai back, and begging Abram to intercede for you!’ This Abimelech did, though reproaching Abram, who said, unperturbed: ‘When the gods caused me to wander abroad, I commanded my wife: “Tell all whom you meet that I am your brother!”—which is the truth.’

King Abimelech gave Abram oxen, sheep, bond-women and a thousand pieces of silver, and invited him to stay at Gerar. Abram then made his intercession and God, who had closed the wombs of all the Gerar women, restored their fertility.
²⁶⁵

(
b
) Some say that Michael threatened Abimelech with a sword, and overruled his excuses, arguing: ‘When strangers enter a city, it is proper to offer them food; but improper to inquire after their women. Since you inquired after Sarai, Abram feared that your men might kill him if he acknowledged her as his wife. The guilt must therefore be yours!’

They explain that God not only made the Gerar women barren: He closed up their other secret orifices, and those of the men too, so that at dawn the sorely troubled people met together, complaining: ‘By Heaven, one more night like the last, and we shall be dead!’
²⁶⁶

***

1
. Gerar was the name of both a kingdom and its capital city. The Land of Gerar lay on the south-western border of Canaan, separating it from Egypt, between Gaza and Beersheba. The city of Gerar was located in or near the Valley of Gerar which is identified by some scholars with modern Wadi Shari‘ah, to the north-west of Beersheba, by others with
modern Wadi Ghaza, due west of Beersheba. But the name of the country survived as late as Byzantine times, when Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea called it Geraritica.

2
. The designation of Abimelech as a Philistine king (
Genesis
XXI. 33–34; XXVI. 1, 8, 18) has been regarded as an anachronism, since the arrival of the Philistines in Canaan is usually assumed to have taken place around 1200
B.C.
, whereas Abraham lived in the second half of the fifteenth century
B.C.
An increasing number of scholars, however, incline to the view that the 1200
B.C.
Philistine invasion was not the first (just as Joshua’s was only the concluding phase of a protracted process of Hebrew immigration into Canaan) and that some Philistines may well have been established in Gerar by 1500
B.C.

3
. The original home of the Philistines was Caphtor, which does not necessarily refer to the island of Crete (
Keftiu
in Egyptian) alone, but rather to the Minoan sphere in general, including the south-west of Asia Minor. Minoan or Caphtorian culture goes back to the third millennium
B.C.
, and one instance of its early impact on the East-Mediterranean coast is the location in Caphtor of Kothar wa-Khasis’s workshop. He was the divine craftsman known to Greeks of the fourteenth century
B.C.
as Daedalus. In 1196
B.C.
the Peoples of the Sea were defeated by Rameses III, whose monuments at Medinet Habu depict them wearing their characteristic helmets—the Biblical word for helmet, ‘
koba
’, is borrowed from Philistine, a non-Semitic tongue. Egyptian monuments mention several ‘Peoples of the Sea’, among whom the Pulasati, or Purasati, have been definitely identified with the Philistines.

4
. An earlier monument of Pharaoh Merneptah (late thirteenth century
B.C.
) mentions the Aqaiwasha or Ekwesh as one of the Sea Peoples. These have been equated by Eduard Meyer and others with the Achiyawa whose kingdom flourished in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries
B.C.
in Pamphylia (southern Asia Minor), although some historians regard the island of Rhodes as their main base. They are known to have penetrated also Cyprus, are regarded as Achaeans (
Achivi
in Latin), and have been identified with the Hivi, or Hivites, frequently referred to in the Bible as one of the pre-Israelite peoples found in Canaan.

(
a
) When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God changed his name to
Abraham
, which means ‘Father of Many Nations’; once more announcing that his descendants should rule all the Land of Canaan, but now making this bequest conditional on the circumcision of every male child at the age of eight days. Thereupon Abraham circumcised himself and his entire household. God also changed Sarai’s name to
Sarah
, which means ‘Princess’, promising that she should become a mother of nations.

Abraham fell upon his face before God, but secretly laughed to himself, thinking: ‘How can a child be borne by a ninety-year-old woman to a hundred-year-old husband?’ Yet, needing assurance that at least Ishmael would thrive, he said: ‘O that my son Ishmael might keep Your ways!’ God answered: ‘Have I not declared that Sarah will bear you a son? And since you laughed at My promise you shall name him
Isaac.
Ishmael is already blessed as the destined father of twelve princes, and ancestor of a great nation; but I will make My everlasting covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear you next year.’

So saying, God vanished.
²⁶⁷

(
b
) Not long afterwards, as Abraham sat at his tent door in the terebinth grove of Mamre, three strangers approached. He invited them to wash their feet and take refreshment. While Sarah baked a large number of ember-cakes, Abraham ran to kill a calf for supper, and offered the strangers curds and whey besides. They sat in the shade of a tree, and presently asked where Sarah was. Abraham replied: ‘In yonder tent.’ They told him: ‘A year hence, she will bear you a son.’

Sarah laughed to herself when she overheard this prophecy, since her monthly courses had long ceased.

They asked: ‘Why does Sarah laugh? Is there anything God cannot accomplish?’

‘I never laughed!’ cried Sarah, reddening.

‘You did laugh!’ they repeated.

Abraham’s visitors then rose to go, and he went part of the way with them. They were bound for Sodom.
²⁶⁸

(
c
) The following year Sarah bore a son, whom Abraham named Isaac and circumcised after eight days. Sarah said: ‘All the world will laugh when they hear that I am suckling Abraham’s son.’ But he gave a great feast on the day of Isaac’s weaning.
²⁶⁹

(
d
) Some say that astrologers had cast Abraham’s horoscope, and told him: ‘You will never beget a son!’; but God reassured him: ‘This horoscope was cast for Abram; therefore have I changed your name, and as Abraham you will beget a son. I have also changed Sarai’s name because of her horoscope.’
²⁷⁰

(
e
) Others say that Isaac’s birth was announced three days after Abraham’s circumcision of his entire household, and that God commanded Michael, Gabriel and Raphael to comfort Abraham, who suffered much pain, as always happens on the third day. The archangels protested: ‘Would You send us to an unclean place, full of blood?’ God answered: ‘By your lives, the odour of Abraham’s sacrifice pleases me better than myrrh and frankincense! Must I go Myself?’ Then they accompanied Him disguised as Arab wayfarers. Michael was to announce Isaac’s birth; Raphael, to heal Abraham; and Gabriel, to destroy the evil city of Sodom.
²⁷¹

***

1
. The narrative alternates frequently between singular and plural verb forms when referring to the deity here called Elohim. Though Gunkel and others have attempted to resolve this apparent inconsistency by suggesting that the chapter is based on several different sources, the alternation seems deliberately chosen to emphasize God’s power of appearing in trinity. The divine character of the strangers (or ‘Stranger’) is conveyed by their knowledge that Abraham’s wife is now named Sarah, and that childlessness has been her greatest sorrow. They also know that Sarah has laughed to herself, though she remains unseen. Midrashic commentators make all three strangers archangels.

2
. Sarah’s long barrenness is paralleled in the myths of Rebekah (
Genesis
XXV.—see 38.
a
), Rachel (
Genesis
XXIX.—see 45.
a
), Samson’s unnamed mother (
Judges
XIII), Samuel’s mother Hannah (1
Samuel
I), and the Babylonian hero Etana’s wife.

3
. God’s change of Abram’s name to ‘Abraham’ does not, at first sight, seem to deserve the importance it is here given, since both are variants of the same royal title
Abamrama
, or
Abiramu
, occurring in cuneiform tablets from the nineteenth and seventeenth centuries
B.C.
; so also is ‘Abiram’, the name of a leading conspirator against Moses (
Numbers
XVI. 1).
Abiramu
means ‘The God Ram is [My] Father’, or may be read as ‘The Father is Exalted’. ‘Father of Many Nations’, the meaning given to ‘Abraham’ in
Genesis
is, however, borne out by the Arabic
raham
, meaning ‘multitude’. The divine name
Ram
occurs also in Adoniram, Jehoram, Malchi-ram; and its plural (
Job
XXI. 22) is used to describe heavenly beings. A King of Edom in Sennacherib’s day was called Malik-ramu—‘Ram is King’.

Changes of names at the coronation ceremony or the assumption of important office were common in Israel; thus Hoshea became Jehoshua (
Numbers
XIII. 16), Gideon became Jerubbaal (
Judges
VI. 32), Jedidiah became Solomon (2
Samuel
XII. 25), Eliakim became Jehoiakim (2
Kings
XXIII. 34), Mattaniah became Zedekiah (2
Kings
XXIV. 17). Jacob’s adoption of the title ‘Israel’ (
Genesis
XXXII. 29—see 47.
b
) may be a further example.

4
. ‘Sarai’ also is merely another, older form of ‘Sarah’, both deriving from an ancient Semitic noun meaning ‘queen’ or ‘princess’. A goddess named Sharit or Sharayat (the phonemic equivalent of Sarai) was worshipped at Bozrah in the Hauran. This suggests that the account of Abraham and Sarah’s marriage records the union of a patriarchal Aramaean tribe headed by a priestly chieftain, with a matriarchal proto-Arab tribe led by a priestess-princess.

5
. The curds and whey offered to Abraham’s guests is translated ‘butter’ in the Authorised Version. Milk, poured into a skin and shaken, acquired the agreeably sour taste of buttermilk.

6
. Abraham is shown no particular reverence in the Bible until Ezekiel’s time (early sixth century
B.C.
—
Ezekiel
XXXIII. 24); neither is Sarah, until Ezra’s, when
Isaiah
LI. 2 was written.

7
. Sarah’s pregnancy at the age of ninety is a curious example of how pious editors converted unusual events into miracles. Here they have taken literally Abraham’s mocking exaggeration of his own age and Sarah’s, on hearing that she will bear him a son after perhaps some thirty years of marriage. That she had passed her menopause is editorial comment, not Abraham’s statement. Midrashic enlargement on the miracle (Pesiqta Rabbati 177 a–b; Tanhuma Buber Gen. 107–08; Gen. Rab. 561, 564; B. Baba Metzia 87a) has been copious: thus the women of Abraham’s household thought Isaac a supposititious child, and tested Sarah’s motherhood by inviting her to suckle their own infants. When she bashfully refused, they grew still more suspicious, until Abraham told her ‘Uncover your breasts and provide milk for this entire brood!’, which she did.

(
a
) God hesitated before confiding to Abraham His proposed destruction of Sodom; but did so after being hospitably welcomed at Mamre. He told him: ‘The evil fame of Sodom and Gomorrah has reached My ears. I shall now go down and see whether it has been exaggerated.’ Abraham drew closer, and said: ‘Would my Lord indeed sweep away the good with the wicked? There may be fifty righteous men in Sodom!’ God replied: ‘For the sake of fifty righteous men I will spare it.’ Abraham then bargained with God, asking: ‘What if there be only forty-five such men? Or thirty? Or even so few as twenty?’ Each time God answered: ‘For their sakes I will spare the city.’ At last He agreed to hold His hand for the sakes of only ten righteous men, and went hastily away.

Two of the three angels whose shape God had taken reached Sodom that evening. Lot saw them nearing the city gate, prostrated himself humbly and said: ‘Pray turn aside, my lords, wash your feet and spend the night in my house!’ They answered: ‘Do not trouble yourself. We can sleep in the street.’ Lot, however, persuaded them to visit his house, where he baked unleavened bread, and they feasted well in his company.

Meanwhile a crowd of Sodomites surrounded Lot’s house, crying: ‘Where are the young strangers whom you brought here? Send them out for our pleasure!’ Lot went into the street and locked the door behind him, pleading: ‘Pray, neighbours, refrain from such wickedness! These are my guests, whom I cannot let you abuse. I would rather you deflowered my two virgin daughters; and will fetch them at once, should that satisfy your lusts.’ They shouted: ‘Stand back! A late-comer to Sodom, and you dare reprove us? Beware, lest we deal worse with you than with these strangers!’

Thrusting Lot aside, they tried to force an entrance; but the angels blinded them, unlocked the door from inside, rescued Lot, and locked it again. The Sodomites, after groping about to no purpose, retired cursing.

The angels asked Lot: ‘Have you any kinsfolk here—sons, daughters
or sons-in-law? If so, gather them quickly and flee, because we are commanded to destroy this city.’ Lot went out, found his sons-in-law, and urged them to escape with him; but they laughed at this prophecy of immediate doom. Just before sunrise, the angels said: ‘Come now, take your wife and these two daughters and flee without delay, lest you perish!’