Abraham & his half sister wife

In Genesis 20:12 Abraham referred to Sarah his wife as his half sister (a daughter of his father). In some extra-biblical Jewish writings (e.g. Pseudo-Jonathan Targum of Genesis 11:29; and Josephus Ant. 1.151), Sarah is presented as Abraham’s niece. Likewise, Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 20:12 presents Sarah as Abraham’s cousin. Why the Jewish writers were more comfortable with Abraham marrying his niece or cousin but not his sister is an open question. However, it continues to make a case that textual redaction in the Hebrew Bible was an on going work among Jewish scholars to the very end of the Second Temple period.

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