101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

132 101 Myths of the Bible
Some twenty-five years later, Abraham and Sarah traveled to the city of Gerar, a
Philistine city ruled by a king named Abimelech, who had an army captain named
Phicol. Sarah, now about ninety, was still a great beauty, and once again Abraham
feared the king would kill him in order to take Sarah as a royal wife. So, again, he had
Sarah pretend to be his sister and again the king took Sarah into the royal household.
But this time, before the king consummated his affair, he had a warning from God and
returned Sarah to Abraham. He, too, bestowed great wealth on Abraham. Subsequently,
Abraham and Abimelech feuded over some wells and they resolved the dispute
with a treaty. They named the site Beer-sheba, meaning“well of an oath.”
About forty-five to sixty-five years later, another famine struck Canaan and God
directed Isaac, Abraham’s son, to go not to Egypt but to Gerar. Again, the city belonged
to the Philistines, Abimelech ruled as king, and Phicol headed up the guard. When
Isaac arrived at Gerar with his wife, Rebekah, the townspeople saw how beautiful she
was and Isaac, fearing the king would kill him, said that Rebekah was his sister.
And Isaac dwelt in Gerar: And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he
said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the
place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon. (Gen. 26:6–7)
Again the king discovered the cover-up, made peace with Isaac, and subsequently
feuded with him over some wells. They concluded a treaty and named the
site Beer-sheba.
Gerar and Beer-sheba lie on the southern border of Canaan, in the Wilderness of
Shur. In describing the length of the Israelite territory, biblical writers occasionally
described it as running from Beer-sheba to Dan. In tribal terms, the territory belonged
to Simeon, the second oldest son of Jacob.
These three stories present alternative accounts of the same event, but the biblical
redactors don’t agree on whether the incident happened in Egypt or Canaan or if it
involved Abraham or Isaac. The incident of Abraham at Gerar belongs to the E source
but the story of Isaac at Gerar belongs to the J source. The Egyptian Abraham story
also belongs to the J source, and both J accounts involve a famine.
In the Abraham famine story, Abraham went to Egypt, but in the Isaac famine
story God told the patriarch,“Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall