Sarah: Women of Genesis: 1 (Women of Genesis (Forge)) (44 page)

The writers of the Old Testament took women very seriously. But nowhere are women more centrally involved in the lives of great and holy men than in the accounts of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In some senses the women can be seen as driving the story; certainly the storytellers want us to see that marrying these women so they can be the mothers of the next generation of holy men is one of the most important things that these prophets can do. And sometimes the will of God is first discovered by or best protected by the wife, and not the husband—as we will see in the next book in this series, about Rebecca, the wife of Isaac.

For now, though, I hope only that the reader will grant me, if not agreement with my choices, then indulgence. I did not whimsically discard anything from the story. Every important omission or change from the common interpretation was deliberate and took place only after great thought and serious attempts at research into what is known about the surrounding culture at the probable time of these events. So if I have erred, it was in the attempt to approach the truth contained in the Bible, and never in disregard of it.

Here are some of the sources I used in preparing this book. They are all interesting and valuable books, even if I often drew conclusions that the authors might not have been pleased with, and even though some of the scholars, at least, were quite avidly of the rejectionist camp. I consulted many other books, but these were the ones I found most useful and trustworthy, and which I intend to use again as sources.

Donald B. Redford,
Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times
(Princeton University Press, 1992)

Gösta W. Ahlström,
The History of Ancient Palestine
(Sheffield Academic Press/Fortress Press, 1993, 1994)

Gay Robins,
Women in Ancient Egypt
(Harvard University Press, 1993)

Michael Rice,
Egypt’s Making: The Origins of Ancient Egypt, 5000–2000 b.c.
(Routledge, 1990)

And for those who do not immediately recognize the source of some of the events early in the novel, those are based on the book of Abraham in The Pearl of Great Price, a book of scripture recognized only within the LDS Church.

Peter James and Nick Thorp,
Ancient Mysteries
(Ballantine, 1999). The great care these authors took in verifying speculation and drawing evidence from many disciplines made this a fascinating and useful tool—especially concerning the location of Sodom and the events surrounding its destruction.

If you have questions or comments about any aspect of this novel, you are invited to visit http://www.hatrack.com or http://www.nauvoo.com.