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Genesis tells how Abraham asks Sarah to say she is his sister before she is taken by Pharaoh, yet the story does not describe Abraham’s thoughts. Genesis Apocryphon from the Dead Sea Scrolls fills this gap by describing him as anxious and overwhelmed.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 12:13
Hebrew Bible
11 As he approached Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman. 12 When the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will keep you alive. 13 So tell them you are my sister so that it may go well for me because of you and my life will be spared on account of you.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 When Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. So Abram’s wife was taken into the household of Pharaoh, 16 and he did treat Abram well on account of her. Abram received sheep and cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
1Q20 20:10
Genesis Apocryphon
Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings
8 is lovely.” And when the king heard the words of Hyrcanus and the words of his two companions, for the three of them spoke with one mouth, he desired her greatly, and he sent 9 quickly and had her brought. And he saw her and was amazed at all her beauty, and he took her for himself as a wife. And he sought to kill me, but Sarai said 10 to the king, “He is my brother,” so that I might profit on her account. And I, Abram, was left alive because of her, and I was not killed. And I, Abram, wept 11 bitterly, I and Lot my brother’s son with me, on the night when Sarai was taken from me by force.
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Notes and References
"... This journey to Egypt certainly troubled interpreters. For one thing, as the couple was preparing to cross the Egyptian border, Abraham instructed the beautiful Sarah to tell the Egyptians that she was his sister rather than his wife, lest they kill him in order to take her for themselves. "Say you are my sister," he says, "so that it may go well with me because of you, and so that my life may be spared on your account" (Genesis 12:13). These hardly sounded like heroic words! To make matters worse, the Bible records that Sarah acted on Abraham's advice and that, as a result, she was taken by Pharaoh to his palace for an unspecified period of time ... Interpreters were understandably disturbed by Abraham's apparent cowardice and subsequent silence ... Many ancient writers, in retelling the story, thus felt entitled to add in what the story had somehow left out, an account of Abraham's deep distress at these events ..."
* 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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