The sister-wife story of Abraham and Sarah in Egypt reworks the sister-wife story of Isaac and Rebekah in Gerar. The passage is an intertextual bricolage, composed to have Abraham, the paradigmatic “first Israelite,” personally experience the nation's core redemptive event.
Already in 1877, Marcus Kalisch, one of the first Jewish scholars to engage in the critical study of the Bible, noted that the story of Balaam’s donkey is a late insertion which contradicts the rest of the story, both narratively and ideologically. Indeed, in the main story, Balaam is a prophetic character to be respected, while the supplement lampoons him.
God instructs Moses to tell the Israelites two different names, Ehyeh and YHWH.
The history and geography of the Judahite clan of Shelah as portrayed in the Bible and in the extra-biblical Sources.
The story of the scouts introduces Hoshea bin Nun for the first time, following which Moses renames (only) him Joshua before sending him off to scout the land. And yet, Joshua has already featured in several stories as Moses’ protégé.
A literary strategy used by pre-modern editors and authors that works in a similar way to the classic cinematographic catch-phrase, “Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch.” (With an addendum by Prof. Marc Brettler)