An Atheistic Bible Study Of Genesis Chapter Twenty

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Abraham was showing so much concern for his nephew Lot before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but now completely loses interest in asking how he is afterwards or even if he survived. The last chapter to feature Lot saw him being raped in a cave by his own daughters. Abraham leads Sarah on a nomadic journey, living in the region of Kadesh and Shur. They then head towards Gerar. In Chapter twelve, Abraham and God scammed an Egyptian Pharaoh by selling Sarah (then Sarai) as a harem slave pretending that she was Abraham’s sister and not his wife (as if selling your sister to a harem of slaves was any more moral). Now in Chapter 20, Abraham repeats this stunt with the King of Gerar, Abimilech. God then appears to Abimilech in a dream to tell him the truth, Sarah is Abraham’s wife, so if Abimilech has sex with her God will kill him and all his people. Abimilech agrees to sell Sarah back to Abraham, and as they negotiate for her he asks Abraham why he pulled this deception on him in the first place. Abraham tells him that he thought the people of Geher ungodly so he feared being murdered by them, but as Abilimech is a follower of Yahweh, he is suddenly not seen in quite the same prejudicial way. Abraham adds that technically speaking Sarah is his sister as she I actually his step-sister as well as his wife. She has the same father as Abraham, though a different mother. This incestuous arrangement somehow makes sarah’s temporary slavery acceptable. Abraham states that they pull this sales scam every time they approach a new city where slavery is practiced, so while we have only seen two examples of this nasty game played by Abraham so far, there are other instances of it the Bible hasn’t shared with us too. The whole scam by Abraham is clearly just so he can take cattle, money and slaves of his own in compensation for Sarah’s embarrassment, even though Abraham and God directly orchestrate her fate. This time alone Abraham takes Sarah back from Abimilech, along with sheep, oxen and several of Abimilech’s laves, who are now Abraham’s slaves. Abimilech gives Abraham and Sarah another gift, a thousand pieces of silver. As a reward, and a horrible final twist to the tory, God lifts the curse he has put on all the women till in Abimilech’s kingdom of Gerar, so they are no longer barren. Wives, slaves, etc, can now have children there. It sounds like a blessed miracle until you realize that God is the one who made the women barren in the first place. The extent to which slavery runs in the Bible is shocking, and it is often the heroes and prophets who have slaves. Even early Christian keep them and there is no commandment that goes ‘thou hall not take others as slaves’. Jesus makes no effort to denounce slavery, It has not ended by the end of the Bible. Only when Jews or Christians themselves are enslaved is any objection or need to liberate them invoked. Sheer hypocrisy. Arthur Chappell