There are times when I feel badly for Abraham. He has been maligned by many Christians.
James 2:23 “And the Scripture had been fulfilled which says “And Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness”, and he is called a friend of God.
Who else do you know who was called a friend of God?
I have heard people say that Abraham was was an idol worshiper and a pagan. Thanks to a translation error and misunderstanding of how terms were used in his day people also believe that Abraham married his true sister.
Knowledge and wisdom makes one wise to see truth. Although not inspired the Book of Jasher is a historical document that the scripture twice tells us to examine for more information. According to Jasher, Abraham grew up in the house of Shem learning God’s law. Terah, Abraham’s father, was an idol worshiper and at one point Abraham gave his father some grief about that. Terah also gave Abraham some grief about that grief.
Concerning Abraham marrying his sister here is the quote from Genesis 11:29.
Genesis 11:29
And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
Let’s take a look at two verses dealing with Abram and Lot.
Gen 14:12
And they took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.Gen 14:16
And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.
Did you notice that in Genesis 14:12 Lot is called Abram’s brother’s son or his nephew, as we would say today, and then in Genesis 14:16 Lot is called Abram’s brother. So one might suggest that in Abram’s day the word brother could be understood to also include nephews. Let me suggest that the same is true for the word sister.
In the Hebrew language a noun can be singular or plural based on the context. Strong’s says that the Hebrew word for daughter is bath, 1323. If you do an Englishman’s search for this word you will see that quite a number of the instances are translated as daughters and also some are daughter. So now here is Genesis 11:29 with the word daughters instead of the singular daughter.
Genesis 11:29
And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughters of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
Interesting! So now let’s get a second source for this idea from the Book of Jasher.
Jasher 12:44
And at that time Nahor and Abram took unto themselves wives, the daughters of their brother Haran; the wife of Nahor was Milca and the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai. And Sarai, wife of Abram, was barren; she had no offspring in those days.
Haran had just died before they took his daughters as wives. Abram then also took upon himself the care of his nephew Lot. Abraham knew God’s law very well and would have known it was improper for him to marry his sister. Sarah was actually Abraham’s niece. Leviticus 18 does not prohibit the marriage of a man and his niece. So it is helpful to remember how Abraham understood the word sister when reading the following. Keep in mind that daughter can also include grand daughter.
Genesis 20:12
And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
Tim