'My sister. My wife.'

What's going on here in Genesis 20, anyway? Was Abraham lying when he claimed Sarah was his sister? Or is there more to the story than that?

Welcome back to The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined where I re-tell and re-story the legend of the first Matriarch of Genesis.

In today’s installment, I translate Genesis Chapter 20:9-13, in which King Abimelech, who has been shaken by his nightmare encounter with God, calls Abraham to account for himself.

Abraham, in turn, explains why he wasn’t (and also was) lying when he introduced Sarah as his sister.

To catch up on previous installments, check out the Table of (Evolving) Contents for my translation here.

What’s the story with Abraham lying to King Abimelech and saying that Sarah is his sister, not his wife?

As Abraham asserts in these verses, he was not lying: He and Sarah share a father, but have different mothers.

He also claims that if he had introduced Sarah to the king as his sister, he might have been killed for the sake of his beautiful wife.

I find that explanation difficult to believe.

For one thing, as stunning Sarah might be at age 90, I doubt men would have killed Abraham for his elderly wife’s physical beauty alone.

Furthermore, risking his wife’s reputation and safety to save his skin would be grossly out of character for a man who in all other dealings exemplifies generosity, humility, and fair play.

So what other motive could Abraham have had to introduce Sarah as his sister? One explanation could be that he didn’t!

This whole sister/wife explanation might have been written over the original oral legend to cover up what was really going on:

Inspired in large part by the scholarly work of Savina J. Teubal in her book Sarah the Priestess, I believe that Sarah and Abraham have come to King Abimelech’s court so Sarah could perform a Sacred Marriage ritual, in which a priestess and king would symbolically, or literally, consummate a union to bring fertility to the land and/or to the women of the land through a set of spiritual prayers and practices. In this case, Sarah would have come to rejuvenate her own fertility so she could fulfill God’s promise of a pregnancy so late in life.

Was Sarah also Abraham’s sister? Probably. But the most important relationship in this context may have been that Sarah was also his partner in carrying out religious functions.

I hint at all of this in my translation.

A long and complex love story

I was also moved by the fact that when Abraham responds to Abimelech, he starts by hearkening back to the time when he and Sarah received a new calling, which prompted them to set out from the known to the unknown and enter new geographic and spiritual territory.

By giving such a full explanation of their relationship, he is letting the king know that he and Sarah are much more than just husband and wife, or merely sister and brother. They are a prophet and priestess who have built a partnership over many decades based on loyalty, faithfulness, love, and presence.

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Brotherly love

In Hebrew, as in English, the word for brother (in this case achi / אָחִ֥י) can refer to a sibling, or it can suggest any close bond between relatives, allies or companions.

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• Keep reading to hear the audio of my translation of Genesis 20:9-13 in which Abraham explains that he is both Sarah’s brother and her husband.

• Then check out the Translator’s Notebook for more about how I plumbed the ancient Hebrew vocabulary to create this poetic and restorative version.

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