© Charles Chandler

 

Tanakh

commentary

Genesis 12 Genesis 20

Sarah-Gilukhepa married Amenhotep III, but had no children by him, and was later expelled from Egypt. There are two very similar stories of Sarah being passed off as Abraham's sister, and being taken in, once by a pharaoh in a Jahwist account, and the other by Abimelech in an Elohist account. Are they two different versions of the same story? Or was there an attempted liason between Sarah and Amenhotep III, and between Sarah and Abimelech sometime later? Perhaps Abraham took Sarah to Abimelech to get Isaac.