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The Greek Septuagint translation of Genesis 20 adds that Abraham called Sarah his sister because he feared being killed if people knew she was his wife. The Hebrew does not explain this, suggesting the translator wanted to explain Abraham’s actions.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 20:2
Hebrew Bible
1 Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev region and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived as a temporary resident in Gerar, 2 Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her. 3 But God appeared to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.”
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Genesis 20:2
Septuagint
1 And Abraham removed from there to the southern country, and lived between Kadesh and Shur, and stayed in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said concerning Sarah his wife, She is my sister, for he feared to say, She is my wife, for fear that at any time the men of the city should kill him for her sake. So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 And God came to Abimelech by night in sleep, and said, Look, you die for the woman, whom you have taken, whereas she has lived with a husband.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... scholars believed that the translation (LXX Genesis) was made from a text close to Masoretic text... “These Notes are also based on the presupposition that the parent text being translated was in the main much like the consonantal text of the Masoretic text.” Likewise, Wevers ascribed the long addition in LXX Genesis 20:2 to the translator: “Once again it illustrates the intelligent approach Genesis took in interpreting his parent text; the text simply had to make sense” ..."
Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Qumran, Septuagint: Collected Essays, VTSup 167 (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 3:170.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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