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2 Responses to “(Audio) Genesis Part 10”

1. # Robin Davis on 26 Jan 2010 at 2:30 pm

   Dear Haverhill Community Church,
   A friend referred me to your website, specifically the series on Genesis, as I am teaching a class Sunday mornings at our church, Christ Church of Hamilton and Wenham. Please pass this on to the pastor who teaches the class. It is meaty and excellent!
   I wanted to share something I learned in Gordon Hugenberger’s Theology of the Pentateuch class concerning Abraham’s “lie” to Pharaoh and Abimelech. New evidence has come to light which gives a totally positive interpretation to what Abraham did, and which shows that Abraham was in fact doing his best to protect Sarah and to keep himself alive for her sake. I have class notes I could email if that might be helpful. We all know Abraham was a sinner – like us – but Scripture never condemns Abraham for this ploy, and in fact he is sent out with much wealth and God actually punishes Pharaoh and Abimelech with plagues, etc. The key to interpretation is that in Northern Mesopotamia, where A. was from, sisters did not inherit from brothers. So if Pharaoh had married Sarah, he would not thereby acquire Abraham’s wealth if and when Abraham died. Sarah was “taken” – abducted, as it were – not the expected protocol of Pharaoh approaching Abraham and asking for his “sister’s” hand. Had he done what was expected and typical, A then would have told him, “Oh,no, you can’t marry her because she is my wife.” End of discussion. Pharaoh would have wanted S because S and A were clearly very wealthy (318 men in their household, cities named after their relatives, etc.) Anyway, nowhere in Scripture is Abraham condemned for his action, and women are commended who submit to their husbands as Sarah did. A did what was right – not tell a lie and ask his wife to go along with it. She was both wife and sister; putting the “sister” part first would help preserve both of their lives. Ordinarily this strategy would have worked as they traveled around; but in the 3 cases we have in Genesis (A & S, plus Isaac) it didn’t – because Pharaoh and Abimelech did the outrageous thing of “taking” these women. Their virtue was protected for a time, however, because the women would have had months of beauty treatments, etc., as Esther did. In the mean time God vindicated them. If you want my notes, I’d be happy to share. Gordon Hugenberger was quoting some new discoveries which are reported in some article – don’t have the title here.
   Again, many thanks for your wonderful teaching and for making it available on the web.
   Sincerely,
   Robin Davis

2. # Dave on 30 Jan 2010 at 12:53 am

   Hi Robin,

   My name is Dave Herring, I am the webmaster and pastoral intern at Haverhill Community Church. I wanted to thank you for your kind comments about the Genesis class I’ve been teaching on Wednesdays as you’ve been tuning in online. Your words are very encouraging to me personally, and we are thankful you took the time to write up such a lengthy comment (it is rare to have that kind of thoughtfulness in our day!).

   I am very familiar with Dr. Hugenberger’s teaching on Abraham and the “lies” to Pharaoh and Abimelech since I took both “Christ in the OT” and “Theology of the Pentateuch” at Gordon-Conwell back in 2003-2004. I even purchased the “Theology of the Pentateuch” Semlink class last year, and I have a stash of the bootlegged audio from “Christ in the OT” that I still listen to time and again. I love Dr. Hugenberger and I consider him to be one of the most influential biblical-theological teachers that I have ever had. As a matter of fact, I would not even have taught a class like this had it not been for his classes. Regarding his argumentation about the inheritance practices in the ANE, and it’s bearing on these narratives, I find it to be keen and brilliant as an angle of approach. It does seem rather odd how the Pharaoh brings Sarah into his court, but then again, we don’t have all the details as to how it worked out. However, at this point I am not convinced that this exonerates Abraham. It is clear from the text that Abraham was afraid that he would be killed on account of his wife and therefore he did what he did. That being said, he was not believing in the promise of 12:1-7 in that moment of his life. My effort in the class was to show that he sinned very similarly to Adam in the garden as Abraham, like Noah, is a “New Adam” figure in the story-line. Dr. Hugenberger’s important thoughts are well-noted in my mind, and I plan to revisit them each time I go through Genesis (I plan many more ventures in my life!!!).

   Robin, thanks again for the comment, and may the Lord continue to bless you and the saints at Christ Church.

   Warmly,

   Dave

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