Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

SOJOURN IN THE NEGEB 20:1-21:34
(Abraham and Sarah), that of the transfer of the birthright
and the paternal blessing (as from Esau to Jacob),
and that of a father’s disposition of his household gods
(images, Gen, 31:19-30). (It is the first of these problems
which we deal with here; the other two will be taken
up in connection with their appearance in the Scripture
text.) Involved in most of these instances are the laws of
inheritance, especially those involved in adoption, and
certain legal phraseology in some cases. Discoveries at
Nuzi have shed a flood of light on these problems. The
difficulty involved,. however, is that of ascertaining the
extent to which Abraham was familiar with this Hurriaiz
customary lm. Traditionally, Abraham has been regarded
as resorting to deception to “save his skin,’’ in the three
instances in Genesis in which he is represented as introducing
his wife as his sister, primarily because the twohusband
and wife-felt that this half-truth and half-lie was
necessary to protect them from the erotic habits of their
pagan neighbors. As we have already seen, the three
occurrences 2 this episode have been used by the critics
as an argument for the composite (documentary) authorship
of the Pentateuch. NOW, according to the light shed
on the problem in the Nuzi documents, it was the custom
among those of the higher social caste there (the nobility)
for a husband to adopt his wife as his sister. This was
designedly for social standing. Speiser (ABG, intro., 40) :
“In Hurrian society a wife enjoyed special standing and
protection when the law recognized her simulctaneously as
her husband’s sister, regardles of blood ties. Such cases are
attested by two separate legal documents, one dealing with
the marriage and the other with the woman’s adoption as
sister. This dual role conferred on the wife a superior
position in society.’’ The idea seems to have been that,
under an old fratriarchal system, a sister had privileges
that wives generally did not have. Hence, when Abraham
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