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

156
yth #62:
Abraham named his son “He Laughed.”
The Myth: And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call
her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son
also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people
shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart,
Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is
ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before
thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his
name Isaac [Hebrew for“he laughed”]: and I will establish my covenant with him for
an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. (Gen. 17:15–19)
The Reality: Biblical redactors changed the name of Abraham’s son to Isaac
because his original name recalled his connection to Osiris, the Egyptian god who
granted eternal life.
Abraham named his son Isaac, which means,“he laughed.” Genesis has several incidents
of laughter in connection with the naming of the child.
The first occasion occurred when God told Abraham that Sarah would bear him
a son. Since he would be one hundred years old at the time, and Sarah ninety, he
thought this pretty funny and fell on his face laughing. God basically ignored Abraham’s
less-than-faithful reaction and reassured him that Sarah indeed would give birth
to Abraham’s sons. He then told him to name the child Isaac. This story belongs to the
P tradition.
The J source has a slightly different account. In that version, God told Abraham
that he would have a child and Sarah overheard the news. She had the same reaction
that Abraham had and for the same reason, she laughed. This time, God expressed
anger at hearing laughter—he saw it as questioning his power—and inquired of
Sarah why she did so. She tried to hide her reaction, denying the act altogether. But
God knew she didn’t tell the truth.