Biblical Times Podcast Liora Ravid

The story of Sarah belongs to her – yet, it also sheds light on the world of other women from four thousand years ago, who are mentioned in the Bible. The story of Sarah’s journey opens a door to the world of women in the Bible, why girls got married when they were eleven or twelve years old, why at the age when our daughters are still studying in elementary school, watching TV or playing on their tablets, the women of the ancient world were already married women? We'll also talk about why the Bible speaks positively of polygamy, and of course, why the status of a barren woman fell to the lowest point on the social ladder. 
The Bible relates that men married wives who belonged to three classes: 'senior women' (or senior wives), concubines, and maidservants. If they took women war captives, they had children with them as well (Deut. 21:10-14). The Bible doesn’t give us an explanation of the difference between these three classes, so we’ll have to do that work ourselves.

One day, against all expectations Sarah conceived and gave birth to Isaac. As expected, she took back the special rights of the firstborn from Ishmael and transferred them to her own son. The Old Testament says that one day Sarah saw Ishmael “making merry.” The meaning of the word “making merry” has never been completely clarified. Still, something about Ishmael’s behavior incited Sarah’s anger, and she demanded that Abraham throw him and his mother out of their home.
It doesn't matter what made Sarah’s blood boil. Even if nothing specific made her angry, she still had to banish Ishmael and Hagar from her home. 

When Sarah lost all hope of having her own child, she gave Abraham her servant Hagar, so that Abraham would have a son through her.
Sarah intended to recognize Hagar's son Ishmael as her own son, and to give him the special status that ancient society reserved for the oldest son. She intended for him to be Abraham’s successor, the one who would continue his lineage.
For example, what right did Sarah have to give her maidservant to Abraham so that she would have a child for her? What were the legal relationships between her and Hagar? What status did Ishmael, the son born to Hagar, have?
Hagar exploited the fact that she gave birth to Abraham’s firstborn son to mock and humiliate Sarah. She felt that the pregnancy had turned the hierarchy of Abraham’s household upside down. Hagar was now in the superior position, able to mock Sarah for her barrenness.

According to the biblical story, God gave Abraham the mission to go on the journey, and so Abraham is the hero of the journey. God didn’t give Sarah any mission, so she was relegated to the sidelines. The main thing we remember about her is that she was barren. Abraham was righteous, and Sarah was barren!
But although God didn’t give Sarah any mission, she walked beside Abraham throughout the entire journey. She climbed mountains with him. She walked with him over the razor-sharp stones on the days they crossed the Sinai Desert. She survived snowstorms and sandstorms at his side, and together with him, she suffered from the very limited food supply.
Sarah lived in a world in which a woman’s sole role was to bear children for her husband.
Sarah did not fulfill this role. She did not give Abraham a son, and her social status in Abraham’s household fell to the lowest of the low.

Twenty years is a very long time to be on the roads – but they fit into one lifetime, just as the Bible says.
As soon as we’ve proved that the journey passes the feasibility test, we can rule out the argument that it’s an unfounded myth. A myth can’t pass the feasibility test that we specified as a condition for the solution to our biblical riddle.

Our goal in episode 2 is to understand what hides behind the names of settlements through which Abraham and Sarah and their family traveled?
In order to answer these questions, we opened atlases and calculated the distance between the places that Abraham and Sarah, passed through on the journey, from beginning to end. According to our calculations, the three walked some 2175 miles or 3500 kilometers. We also checked the topography and the climate conditions they faced at each of the stops along the way.