Genesis 20 - Introduction

Abraham and Sarah at the Court of Abimelech at Gerar (E)

The incident recorded in this chap. resembles in its general features that recorded of Abraham in Egypt, Genesis 12:10-20, and that recorded of Isaac at Gerar, Genesis 26:6-11. In each case the patriarch, fearing for his own life, represents his wife to be his sister. The foreign prince desires to make the patriarch's wife one of his own harem. He is prevented from so doing. The truth is divulged. The patriarch's wife is restored, and the patriarch himself is enriched by gifts or by compensation. In each case the heathen prince acts honourably. As compared with J's story in Genesis 12:10-20, it has been claimed by Stanley Cook that "E's story of Abraham at Gerar in Genesis 20:1-17 displays a great advance in morality; the sin of adultery is condemned in the most emphatic terms, and it is regarded as a capital offence. The stress here laid upon the iniquity marks a stage in ethics comparable only with the Decalogue, where adultery is prohibited, and with the Deuteronomic code (Genesis 22:22), where also the penalty is death (stoning; cf. Ezekiel 16:40; Ezekiel 23:47; John 8:5) 1 [19]." But it is very doubtful whether E and J can be so widely separated. Admission to the harem was not marriage.

[19] Laws of Moses and Code of Hammurabi, p. 106.

This chapter is the first continuous narrative taken from E, the Elohist or Ephraimitic source of the prophetic narrative. In its vivid narrative E resembles J. But it possesses its own distinctive features of language and style. See Introduction.

The fulfilment of the promise is again postponed, while the narrative records a last peril to faith and honour.