The sister ruse, and Pharaoh

As they neared Egypt, Abram asked Sarai to say she was his sister. She was taken into Pharaoh’s house (BSB “palace”; the Hebrew is “the house of Pharaoh”). The Lord afflicted Pharaoh’s household because of her, and they were sent away. How far Pharaoh took her (12:19) is not further described. Views of the ruse are attributed, and no verdict is given. Augustine holds that “There he called his wife his sister, and told no lie. For she was this also, because she was near of blood” (20:12 later states a half-sister relation). Keil accepts that fact but says “But his precaution did not spring from faith.” Calvin finds “something of falsehood” in the plan. Driver calls the statement “true, but not the whole truth” Skinner reports that the narrative assumes “lying is excusable” The Targum has Pharaoh say “I went not unto her”; Augustine writes, “And far be it from us to believe that she was defiled by lying with another”; Calvin holds that “she remained uninjured”, because God acted “lest Sarai should be violated”; Josephus says God put a stop to Pharaoh’s unjust inclinations. Jubilees reports the seizure, the plagues, and the sending out, without the ruse. Josephus also has Abram teach astronomy in Egypt; that expansion is his, and is not adopted here. The record’s own claim is only that she was taken into Pharaoh’s house and that God protected her.