Texts in Conversation
The Legend of Keret and Genesis 18 both describe a deity promising that a hero's wife will bear a son. In Keret, El promises Huraya will bear a child for the childless Kirta; in Genesis, God tells Abraham that Sarah will have a son.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Legend of Keret
Epic of Kirta
Ancient Near East
Whose eyes are lapis lazuli, Eyeballs, gleaming alabaster; Who'll transfix me; I'll repose in the gaze of her eyes; Whom El has given in my dream, The Father of Man in my vision Who will bear a child for Kirta, A lad for the Servant of El. Kirta awakes - it's a dream! The Servant of El - a vision!
Date: 1500 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Genesis 18:10
Hebrew Bible
9 Then they asked him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” He replied, “There, in the tent.” 10 One of them said, “I will surely return to you when the season comes round again, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” (Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, not far behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were old and advancing in years; Sarah had long since passed menopause.) 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, especially when my husband is old too?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child when I am old?’ 14 Is anything impossible for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” 15 Then Sarah lied, saying, “I did not laugh,” because she was afraid. But the Lord said, “No! You did laugh.”
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Notes and References
"... the patriarchal tales in Genesis display a number of broad similarities with these Ugaritic father tales in terms of plot development. The biblical and Ugaritic stories concern a father, portrayed as pious or favored by the god(s), who lacks an heir or a wife. The deity or deities promise the father that he will have offspring to carry on the line, but this promise is compromised in some manner. The challenge is remedied, although in some cases the expected heir fails to qualify or does not survive to inherit, and a younger or socially liminal (female in the Ugaritic texts) family member either inherits or comes to the aid of the father’s interests ..."
Baden, Joel S., Jeffrey Stackert, and Christoph Berner (eds.)
The Oxford Handbook of the Pentateuch
(p. 729) Oxford University Press, 2021
* 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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