Sister Wives

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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SPEAKER_2 (0:29)

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Dan Beecher (0:45)

I would say that God was the master of mixed messaging. I'm going to kill you if you don't let her go. I didn't do anything. I know because I stopped you.

Dan McClellan (0:54)

Yeah, a bit of a narcissist.

Dan Beecher (0:56)

Just keep stopping me then. What are you doing?

Dan McClellan (1:04)

Hey, everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:06)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:07)

And you're listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and we combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How are things today, Dan?

Dan Beecher (1:19)

Things are good. Things are good.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and we are going to be looking at some very weird stuff in the Bible, and I'm excited about it. In the first half, we're going to be talking about it's a... What is... No, we're taking issue in the first one. The taking issue is specifically about lying about who's... About your wife being your sister, question mark? I don't know. It's a weird one.

Dan McClellan (1:50)

It seems to be a habit on the part of some folks.

Dan Beecher (1:53)

Yeah, there's a whole family... It's a family tradition by the time we get through things. And then in the second half of the show, we're going with, what is that? And we're talking about something that your text to me auto-corrected as seraphim, but it's not that. It's teraphim.

Dan McClellan (2:09)

Yes. Isn't that a light chicken gravy that you...

Dan Beecher (2:12)

Oh, it's delicious.

Dan McClellan (2:12)

That's a callback to Three Amigos, by the way. But moving on. Yeah. Teraphim.

Dan Beecher (2:18)

I'm excited about that. So let's start us off with taking issue. All right. And as we said before, we're taking issue with lying and saying that your wife is your sister.

Dan McClellan (2:34)

Yes.

Dan Beecher (2:35)

It happens multiple times and it's very confusing to me. So let's start in Genesis 12

And this is Abram or Abram and Sarai. We're not yet Abraham and Sarah yet.

Dan McClellan (2:53)

Yeah. Sarai. So there's a famine in the land, as is the won't of that particular land. Sure.

Dan Beecher (3:02)

It's famine prone.

Dan McClellan (3:04)

Yes, they head down to Egypt to Gare, to Sojourn, to reside there. The famine was very severe in the land. When they're about to get to Egypt and Abram pulls over and he's like, Look, sweetie. And the NRSVUE has him say, I know well that you are a woman beautiful in appearance. Yeah. And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife. Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say, you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account. We don't get anything by way of response from Sarai. She's not really an independent agent in this narrative, but that's exactly what happens.

Dan Beecher (3:53)

Which is weird because this has big implications for her.

Dan McClellan (3:58)

Yeah.

Dan Beecher (3:58)

It's not like this is just, Hey, tell a quick white lie and we'll all be good. Yeah. This becomes very meaningful in her life.

Dan McClellan (4:06)

Yeah, yeah. You would think she would have been like, Well, wait a minute. Doesn't that mean they're gonna all be pursuing me? Can this be a discussion?

Dan Beecher (4:16)

Because I feel like you're just dictating something that maybe I need to be a part of. And what a weird thing. Is there any explanation or any reason, do we have a reason to believe, that people would be fine with him having a hot sister, but like murder him if he has a hot wife? Like what's going on here?

Dan McClellan (4:40)

Well, I think it's the, you know, it's something that a lot of men, particularly members of the male loneliness epidemic these days, if a lot of them fantasize about being able to get with some celebrity or another, and then if they find out she's married, all of a sudden they're like disappointed, as if this actually ruined some plans they had for the future. And certainly they develop resentment for the spouse of this person that they really had the hots for. And so you can imagine that anciently, if a guy comes into town with a hot wife, that there would be people who would be like, wow, she's really hot. Let's just get rid of her husband.