Sarai and Pharaoh

Genesis Apocryphon 20:2–34

3rd–1st Century BCE

2How splendid and beautiful is the form of her face, and how . . . 3and fine is the hair of her head, how lovely are her eyes, how delightful is her nose, and all the radiance of 4her face . . . How lovely is her breast, and how beautiful all her whiteness. Her arms, how beautiful, and her hands, how 5perfect, and . . . the appearance of her hands…

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This excerpt retells the Genesis narrative of Abram and Sarai’s sojourn to Egypt immediately after their arrival in the land of Canaan. It bears noting that the texts of the Genesis Apocryphon sometimes assume the first-person voice of the protagonist, in this case, Abraham. The continuation of this text can be found in “Boundaries of the Land Promised to Abraham.”

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