Gerar

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Gerar - meaning lodging-place - was a Philistine town and district in what is today south-central Israel. Archaeological evidence points to the town having come into existence with the arrival of the Philistines at around 1200 BCE and having been little more than a village until 800-700 BCE.

Biblically, the town features in two of the three wife-sister narratives in Genesis. The Bible records that Abraham and Isaac each stayed at Gerar, near what became Beersheba, and that each passed their wife off as their sister, leading to romantic complications involving Gerar's Philistine king, Abimelech. (Genesis 20:1 , and Genesis 26:1) The Haggada identifies the two references to Abimelech as to separate people, the second being the first Abimelech's son, and that his original name was Benmelech (son of the King) but changed his name to his father's, which clearly evidences that the name means "my father is the king". Most estimates place the biblical story to near 2000 BCE.

The biblical valley of Gerar (Genesis 26:17) is probably the modern Wadi el-Jerdr.

When Abraham went into Egypt in Genesis 12:11-12 because his wife was beautiful he thought that he would be killed for her so he told others that she was his sister. At first reading this in the bible you may think that Abraham was telling a lie but further study shows that Abrahams wife, Sarah, was his half sister, both were children of Terah their farther. Abraham did not break the ninth commandment.

It is not a lie for one who believes in holy scripture and the teachings of God and Jesus to say that any female is their sister. Jesus tells us that all females are sisters and all males are brothers. To the one with their eyes closed to this fact they would just assume that Isaac was telling a lie when he said that his wife was his sister. Isaac did not lie. He was telling the truth. This works both spiritually and physically in the case of Abraham.

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