The Book of Gardens and Parks: On Genesis

Say—I pray thee—thou art my sister. (Genesis 12:13)

One might ask, “What was it that made Abraham say that Sarah was his sister, and also to ask her to say the same, despite the fact that this is a lie which is forbidden both by reason and by Revelation?

If the cause was as he says in the text: And they shall kill me (Genesis 12:12), how could he be afraid of that, after what God had promised him in the text: And I will make of thee a great nation (Genesis 12:2)?

Did he doubt what God had promised him and guaranteed, and despite all the firmness of his obedience and the promptness with which he carried out His commands?

Also, if the people, i.e., the people of Egypt, were of this kind, what was it that caused him to go to a country where the people behaved in this way, so that he should need this trick which involved falsification of language, which is clearly shameful and immoral?”

We should say that the answer is in his words, that “she is my sister,” because that is not a lie. Brotherhood is of various kinds, and since it is possible to call an Aramaean “brother” because we have one father in common with him, viz. Isaac, why should it be denied that Abraham might call Saray his sister, seeing that they have in common Noah and Shem and others, without this being a lie?

Also, we have explained in section thirty-one of the Introduction that the saints may speak words which have two meanings, showing one meaning to the listener, while their intention is the other meaning.

When Abraham says that she is his sister, the obvious sense causes Pharaoh and others to suppose that she is his sister by his father and his mother, while the latent sense is as we have indicated, and so the two saints were not responsible for a lie.

Turning now to the question of why he should go to a place which has such a character, we find that there are two answers.

One is that he needed to leave the country he was in because there was famine there, and the nearest land to it was Egypt; and so he went there for this reason.

The second answer is that possibly he did not know of the practice or character of the people in that respect, and that he learned of it only when approaching the country from one who informed him, as it says in the text: And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt (Genesis 12:11). When he learned this and was not able to return, he had recourse to this device.

Suppose it should be said: Since, if he had said she was his wife, they would have taken her surely, then, if he said: “She is my sister,” they would be even more likely to take her.

Our reply is that if he had said “My wife,” and her beauty had excited desire for her, since it was not their custom to marry another man’s wife, they would have killed him so as to be able to get her from him, as is shown by the words: And they will kill me.

When he said “She is my sister,” he did so in the hope that they would leave him alone while they sought her hand from him and asked him to give her in marriage, so that there would be a sufficient interval of time for him to ask God to provide and for some way to open up by which he and she should escape through the prevention and causation of God—who is great and exalted.

Some scholars have asserted that he only sought protection by saying that she was his sister—as we have said—so that, if they should put him under constraint for some reason and not leave him alone, he would then be able to divorce her and so, when she left him and [the Egyptian] took her [to wife], there should be no offence committed in respect of herself, or of the man to whom she went or of Abraham himself, who would have escaped slaughter. [ . . . ]

Now, if a man like Abraham—on whom be peace—, with all his excellence and his perfect obedience, and the promise which the Lord of the Worlds had made him, was afraid and terrified, all the more then should a lesser man fear and tremble all his days.

Thus, the fear and terror which possessed him became a training and an education to men, teaching them to do likewise, viz. to be ever anxious and fearful, for fear incites them to scrutinize their religious practices, to be on their guard against sin, to avoid wrong-doing and to long always for God with fasting and prayer and the like.

Source: St. Petersburg RNL MS Evr.–Arab. I, 4532, fols. 34r–37v.