Yitschaq The Story-Teller's Difficulty
Yitschaq's life
The storytellers, who before the tents in the cool of the evening were given the responsibility of relating Yitschaq's life, found the theme somewhat uninspiring. Since there was a lack of interesting anecdotes they solved the difficulty by lifting picturesque events from Abraham's life where they abounded.
In particular, there was one story, which, in those primitive times, was very popular; it concerned the trick played by Abraham on two occasions when he camped in a foreign land; it was to ensure his own safety and to obtain the favors of the ruler.
The first occasion was in Egypt or, rather, when the Hebrew clan settled on the eastern approaches to the Nile delta. Fleeing from the famine ravaging the Negeb the Hebrews appeared at the Egyptian frontiers to 'ask for water'. Abraham, realizing that his wife Sarah was beautiful in appearance and that when the Egyptians saw her they would kill him to obtain her for the ruler, instructed her to say that she was his sister 4 so that his life should be saved and he would obtain certain advantages on her account. Events turned out as he had foreseen: on the arrival of the caravan at the edge of the delta Egyptian officials noticed Sarah's beauty and without delay sent her off to Pharaoh's harem. Subsequently the alleged brother was heaped with gifts. But the trick was promptly discovered (probably by the powerful police organization) and Sarah was sent back to her husband.
The story was too good a one not to be used again. Thus we find that much later during a very hot summer Abraham was once more obliged to leave the Negeb. He led his flocks towards the green grass of Gerar where at that time a certain Abimelech was reigning. The Egyptian episode was repeated, but with the difference that on this occasion the warning came from YAHWEH who informed Abimelech in a dream that he must return the woman to her husband. Abimelech, who had not touched Sarah, hastened to comply with this supernatural order. Leading Scriptural commentators are agreed in regarding this passage as a 'doublet' based on the Egyptian episode.
An obvious doublet
There seemed no reason why this anecdote, which the Semite shepherds found very attractive, since it showed the Egyptians or the Philistines at a disadvantage, should not be incorporated in the life of Yitschaq, which was lacking in interesting stories. And so we find Yitschaq and Rebekah in their turn, and for the needs of the cause, as the heroes of this little story. The event is located at Gerar in the same region where Abraham had previously stayed. Still in Yitschaq's time the country appears to be under the rule of an Abimelech! The same place, the same ruler, an almost identical course of events; once more we are faced with an obvious doublet.
Finally, to give a little more body to the story of Yitschaq, the story-teller recalled a series of altercations between Yitschaq's shepherds and those of Abimelech about the ownership of certain wells. These squabbles among Bedouins leave the twentieth-century reader a little cold, but it was by no means the same for the shepherds of those days: the possession of a water supply was absolutely vital. So we can be sure the group of shepherds hung on the lips of the story-teller as he related the course of the arguments. At one place Yitschaq's men protested heatedly, shouting out 'That water is ours', and the patriarch named the well Esek ('quarrel'). On another day there was a further quarrel, again for the possession of a well, which the Hebrew shepherds, had dug: this one was called Sitnah ('accusation'). Lastly, Yitschaq's shepherds dug another well about which there was no argument this time: it was named Rehoboth ('room', 'space').
The story of Yitschaq is set before us with no great outstanding event and in a rather colorless way; that of his son Yacob was to be far more lively and far more astonishing.
4 Sarah, if not the sister, was at least the half-sister of Abraham. They both had the same father (Terah), but not the same mother. Mesopotamian law of this period allowed this kind of marriage. Later Devarim forbade it.
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