The Abraham Story: Abraham The Snake

Abraham the Snake

Today we are going to follow Avram and Sarai, exalted father and princess, and they're going to fall from their heights of Eden glory, unfortunately. I've found that it really pays off to be sympathetic as we read about these characters. Put yourself in the mindset of the characters

Remember there was this tour through the land where He was worshiping God in the verses right before this. That’s important.

Genesis 12:10–20 LEB

And there was a famine in the land. And Abram went down to Egypt to dwell as an alien there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it happened that as he drew near to enter into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “Look now, I know that you are a woman beautiful of appearance, and it shall happen that, if the Egyptians see you, then they will say, ‘This is his wife,’ then they will kill me but let you live. Please say you are my sister so that it will go well for me on your account. Then I will live on account of you.” And it happened that as Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. And the officials of Pharaoh saw her, and they praised her beauty to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to the house of Pharaoh. And he dealt well with Abram on account of her, and he had sheep, cattle, male donkeys, male slaves, female slaves, female donkeys, and camels. Then Yahweh afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues on account of the matter of Sarai the wife of Abram. Then Pharaoh called for Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to myself as a wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go.” And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and then sent him and his wife and all that was with him away.

Famine and a Crisis of Faith

There was a famine. It's the the opposite of Eden. It's not the abundance of food, now it's the shortage of food. What did God just say he was going to do for Avram in the land?

Bless you, great nation, you'll be a blessing, blessings associated with abundance, food and so on. But now there's a lack of food. 

So we're in the realm of ... Even though the word "faith" won't be used for a couple more chapters, this is total, we're in that realm here.

What God said and promised is not what he experiences in reality. And so what happens when God's people find their circumstances testing their trust in God's promise?

So that's a lot loaded into that opening sentence, but what else are we supposed to think of why he would leave the land? We're told it's because of the famine.

The first story we are told about after Avram’s obedient sojourn to Canaan is about Avram’s lack of trust and his deception of the nations that leads to curse and plagues upon them.

However, Avram’s deception is motivated by an understandable feeling. After going to a land where he was promised abundance, he discovers scarcity in a time of famine. The famine is Avram’s second test of faith. Will he remain in the land and trust God, or will he make up his own plan and attempt to find blessing and abundance by his own wisdom?

Avram’s “Wife-Sister” Plan

verse 11: "And it came about when he came near to entering Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, 'Look, please, I know that you are a woman beautiful to look at, beautiful of sight. (Eden!!)

And when the Egyptians see you,'" just the emphasis on what they will see, "'They'll see you and they will say, "This is that guy's wife?" They're going to murder me, kill me, but you, they will keep alive. So please say you're my sister so that there will be good for me on account of you. So that I may stay alive on account of you.' And it came about when Avram entered Egypt and the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful."

Geneis 12 1020 literarydesign bible project

Okay, let's just pause there. It's the first movement. So notice that they leave to go down to Egypt. It's the first beat. Second beat, they are about to enter it, and then there's a speech. And then a little narrative concluding, "Then they get to Egypt." So this whole thing is framed of going down, right before, and then they get there. 

There's a couple ways you could understand Avram's speech and his concerns here.

He recognizes something that's true; his wife's beautiful. And he is pretty certain that people will notice that and that they're gonna have to plan for that. And is he right about that? Is he vindicated in anticipating that? Totally, yep. It was exactly what the Egyptians noticed. 

Sarai as his sister. First, it is a half-truth, as Avram admits in 20:12, because Sarai is his half-sister from his father’s side. Marrying one’s step-sister was not uncommon in ancient Near Eastern cultures (in fact, it’s what Avram’s brother Nakhor did, see 11:29).

So the whole pivot here is on his plan. He's got this plan.

He thinks that her beauty is actually going to endanger his life. And so he is gonna engineer this plan to preserve his life. And even more, "Maybe we can get rich off this.

This could go actually really well.

We could be well provided for if I tell everybody that I'm your brother." So depending on your cultural background, I didn't grow up in a culture where arranged marriages are a thing.

Where fathers like, haggle with each other for the bride price for their daughters. So that is a foreign world to me, I just know about it through movies to be honest with you. Not through lived experience. There are many cultures still today that operate this way, and it was the way most human cultures operated for most of human history.

So Avram is positioning him himself as her brother.

So what we're talking about is a cultural practice where if you want to approach a young woman to marry her, you go talk to dad or you go talk to the brother, the elder brother. And it seems like that's the move Avram's pulling here. So in the past, I used to think, like, he's just hanging her out to dry completely. You know? Like, "You're not my wife." But in a way, people would expect the brother to be the guardian or the overseer of.

And if the Egyptians see that the woman's beautiful, in theory, his plan is they'll have to come talk to him, and then he can deal with it from there. 

But I don't think his motives are malicious, but he's definitely in self-preservation mode.

And he is making her vulnerable on his account, or she's paying the cost of his fear for his life. So in that sense, he is, to use the metaphor, hanging her out to dry. 

He's exposing her to risk to cover for his own insecurities.

This is like the first main story about this guy other than his worship tour. And he left and did what God told him, to go leave the land. You're like, "Okay, all right. Way to go. You know, I think God can work with this guy." But let's just stop for a moment and ponder. This is God's chosen one. In the first main narrative, the first words, the first time he ever gives a speech is to save his own neck and put others at risk so that he can secure good for himself. 

It's not a flattering portrait, not in the least.

“In the ancient Near East there was a well-known socio-legal institution of ‘fratriarchy’ that existed over a long period of time. Where there is no father, the brother assumes legal guardianship of his sister, particularly with respect to obligations and responsibilities in arranging marriage on her behalf. Therefore, whoever wished to take Sarai to wife would have to negotiate with her ‘brother.’ In this way, Abram could gain time to plan escape. Of course, this went awry when the Egyptian turned out to be Pharaoh himself.” Sarna, Nahum M. (2001). The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis. Jewish Publication Society. 95.

From this angle, Avram’s motivations appear both clever and foolish, but not malicious. His initial plan was aimed at preserving his and Sarai’s lives, because any Egyptian who proposed to Sarai would have to respect her brother. If he were known as her husband, he would more likely be the object of jealousy. This helps us see that Genesis 12:14 actually vindicates Avram’s plan, as Egyptians see her. So far so good. But his plan does not account for the possibility that the king of all the land might “see” and “take” Sarai.

You've got the humans, and you've got them standing before the tree that represents a choice. It's the tree of good and bad and knowing good and bad. And then you've got God who's given a word about- Seems like God's in the same slot, but Sarai has become the tree that represents a test for Avram.

And so the question is, what is Avram going to do? But then what he does is lie.

He lies. 

This is what, Hebrew Bible scholar Jonathan Grossman's written a lot about this with design patterns and hyperlinks, he calls it "dynamic analogy." Where when later stories are recalling and modeled on earlier ones, it's rarely a one-for-one swap. The authors creatively put characters in different slots of the story, and sometimes they'll even change.

So let's ask ourselves, if the characters are humans and the tree, God and the snake, who is playing what role in this story? And so it seems very clear that Sarai represents the tree and that people are gonna wanna look at her. And you've got a human, Avram, who wants good for himself by his own plans or wisdom. 

Avram the Snake

Genesis 12:14–19 CSB

When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, so the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s household. He treated Abram well because of her, and Abram acquired flocks and herds, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels. But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife, Sarai. So Pharaoh sent for Abram and said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She’s my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and go!”

Okay, so next scene.

Verse So you remember the Egyptians saw the woman. Well, some other Egyptians saw her, the officials of Pharaoh. Avram did not plan for this.

"So they went and they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into the house of Pharaoh.

And he," that is, Pharaoh, "did good to Avram on account of her. In fact, there was for him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male servants and female servants and female donkeys and camels, sevenfold." Sevenfold abundance.

What is Yahweh's response to all this? He sends plagues on Pharaoh, "great plagues on him and his house on account of Sarai, Avram's wife."

So you have Sarai who is the object of delight for all these men in the story.

That itself is just interesting to ponder. Sarai is passive here, and this whole story is about men and their desires and their fears.

It's a critical portrait of all of them. So when one man sees her beauty, he's afraid for himself. So he makes her vulnerable. And now you've got these other men who see an opportunity to take what is good in their eyes. So Pharaoh and his officials do the taking of what is good. So they become the Adam and Eve figures.

And so you've got God, you've got Adam and Eve, right? You've got Pharaoh and his officials taking what is good in their eyes. 

And it only leaves one slot available for Avram. And who's the one telling lies in this episode?

Avram. He's the snake. Yeah. The chosen one has become the snake.

Now this is not surprising to you if you pondered what God said to the snake and the woman. Namely, that the snake is gonna have seed and the woman's going to have seed, and there's gonna be hostility between the two.

And unless you think it's talking about baby snakes, the only other conclusion is that it's people who are going to behave like a snake. And when you've got snake-like folk and when you have image-of-God-like folk in the narratives, there's gonna be sparks flying in the story. And I think this is a great example. Where Avram, through his actions, is behaving more like the snake than as an image of God here.

And so what does- Okay, so let's just ponder that. I think that's how the slots work in terms of the design pattern we're mapping onto Genesis 3. 

What's interesting is that it's not the snake figure, Avram, who gets the rough treatment here. It's Pharaoh and Pharaoh's house.

So instead of becoming a blessing to the nations, God's chosen one, through deceit and cowardice, has brought down curse and death on the nations. 

Now that also raises interesting questions about Yahweh's character in this story, right? Was it wrong, is it wrong for Pharaoh to see and take a woman for himself? Like, just like that? Well, I think kings were actually kind of known for that kind of thing.

And it's actually a pattern that's repeated itself through most of human history. Men see a woman they want, they take her. So it's not that Pharaoh's innocent, but he certainly didn't know that it was another man's wife. And that's not his fault, is it? So it's this complicated ethical dilemma. 

What is Yahweh to do?

Punish Avram? He just made a promise that he would bless this guy and curse those who treat him as cursed. So look at the dilemma Yahweh's in. He has to defend a liar and a cheat.

Not because it's the just thing to do, but because he made a promise. And so he ends up sending- Are you with me? This is really ethically complicated, this whole scene. Totally. So how's it gonna resolve?

Verse 18: "Pharaoh called Avram and he said, 'What's this that you've done to me?'" It's exactly what Yahweh says to Eve and to the snake when he shows up in the garden, like copy and paste Hebrew. "What is this that you have done?" "'What is this you have done to me? Why didn't you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, "She's my sister?" so that I took her for my wife. Now then. Here's your wife. Take her, get out of here.' And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, they sent him away with his wife." Oh yeah, and with all that sevenfold stuff.

Glaring gap in the narrative is, how did Pharaoh find this out? And the story just doesn't care.

In the narrative parallel, the second time Avram does this with another king, you do find out it's in a dream and a vision. Here, it's just somehow he just knows. And what he comes asking is what God asked the guilty humans in Eden.

"What is this that you have done?" And so, yeah, here's the story. So this is a meditation on how the seed of the woman can become the seed of the snake among the nations if they don't trust the creative word of God's blessing and promise. When they fail to trust in the blessing, they will become vehicles of curse instead of blessing to others around them.

Remember, the portrait of Avram is not like of a malicious evildoer. It's of a fearful coward who is willing to preserve his own life at the expense of others. 

Avram the Snake Chart from Bible Project

This is on a page in the notes of Tim Mackie’s course on This section. just so you can see how the vocabulary of hyperlinking works and 'cause we're early on, so it's helpful to kind of see examples. 

So look at, for example, at Avram's speech here in Genesis 12:11 and 12, "I know that you are a woman, beautiful of sight and they will see you, kill me, and let you live." Genesis 3:6, "And the woman saw-" Oh, and her name is Khavvah, which is the word "life."

So, "and the woman named Life saw the tree of knowing what is good and evil and it was desirable to the eyes." So you see how the narrative is taking all the key words, and then it's just deploying them in kind of new, creative ways. But once you see that network of key words, it just, (vocalizes) should upload the whole Eden story.

So when Avram says, "Say that you're my sister, so there may be 'tov' for me on account of you, tov va'avurekh, and I will have life." So he wants to have life on account of her so that there's goodness. And so then we're told Yahweh sent plagues on Pharaoh on account of, it's that same word "ba'avur" here, Adam and Eve's actions result in a curse on the ground. "The ground is cursed, ba'avurekh, because of you." So in this story, Avram's lying gets good on account of the wife. In the Eden story, Adam and Eve's desire for what is good all of a sudden makes the ground cursed on account of them. So it's this inversion. Good on account of you, the ground's cursed on account of you.

We've already talked about this. The Egyptians saw the woman, that she was beautiful of sight. She was taken, that's exactly from the woman saw the tree was good, desirable to eat, she took. 

12:17 Do you remember in the garden of Eden narrative when the woman's talking to the snake and she said, "You know, God told us that we can eat from all the trees. Oh, just that one in the middle. We can't eat it or touch it." She adds a word, 'cause God never said "Don't touch it." I mean, I guess if you're not supposed to eat from it, you don't touch it. But like, what is that? Why does she add that? The word "touch," it's the Hebrew word "naga‘," it can also be used for "gentle touch" or "harsh touch," in terms of striking or hitting. And it is the word, the word "plague," it's the word "strike," or this word "to touch or strike." So she's told not to touch or strike the tree. And then what God does is strike or touch Pharaoh because he took from the

The wording is chosen in these creative ways to echo things from earlier in the story. 

Implications of These Analogies

Avram is depicted on analogy to the shrewd snake. He is crafty, and he is able to use his circumstances to his own advantage, but at the expense of others. Avram’s decision to lie puts Sarai in danger while also bringing plagues upon Pharaoh. In this scene, Avram’s prosperity (= blessing) comes precisely through the suffering of the others.

Sarai’s beauty is set in relationship to the beauty of the tree of testing in the garden of Eden. A good thing becomes co-opted by deceivers and used for their own advantage.

Notice that Pharaoh’s role in the story activates two analogies.

Pharaoh on analogy to Adam and Eve: Pharaoh is innocent, yet he still commits wrong. While his “taking” of a woman is certainly an exercise in patriarchal power and privilege, he is portrayed as faultless in terms of his motives. But his innocent motives don’t erase the fact that he’s taking another man’s wife.

Pharaoh on analogy to God: After Pharaoh finds out about Avram’s deception, he takes on the divine role of holding Avram accountable.

God’s Promise and God’s Justice

This story presents an uncomfortable portrait of God’s relationship to the nations. God defends the deceiver in this story and brings judgment on someone who has acted wrongly but without wrong motives. This chapter begins a long drama of tension between God’s covenant promises to the family of Avraham and the divine character traits of justice and equity.

God just promised to “bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you as cursed.” In this story we see God protecting Avram even though he doesn’t deserve it. God’s promises place him in a morally inconvenient situation.

“[Abram’s behavior] would appear to put Yahweh in somewhat of a bind ... Yahweh must decide whether and how to take Abram’s side when problems arise with others—even when the conflict arises from Abram’s less-than-honest behavior. Pharaoh treats Abram honorably and generously, but Yahweh evidently decides that having a human friend in a wicked world requires a thoroughgoing commitment to the welfare of that individual, even when it works against the welfare of others. Standing with someone inevitably leads to standing against someone else. Yahweh, therefore, strikes Pharaoh and his household, even thought the mess was made by Abram … This first act of divine violence after the flood is momentous, as it is directed toward people who have not, to the best of their knowledge, acted wickedly, for the sake of demonstrating solidarity with the family Yahweh has befriended.” Hawk, L. Daniel (2019). The Violence of the Biblical God. Eerdmans. 48-49.

Avram’s Egyptian Plunder

This story also sets up a number of themes that will be developed in future episodes.

Avram’s lack of trust in God’s protection and promise. This will be addressed again in chapter 15.

Avram’s short-sighted schemes to get or retain God’s blessing by his own wisdom. This will replay itself again in chapters 16, 21, and 22.

Avram’s “plunder” consists of animal flocks and slaves, both of which will cause problems in later stories.

Abram and Lot Separate

Bibliography

https://bibleproject.com/classroom/abraham

Middleton, J. Richard. Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2021.

Cotter, David W. Genesis. Edited by Jerome T. Walsh, Chris Franke, and David W. Cotter. Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2003.

Josephus, Flavius, and William Whiston. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987.