Is the Sunday School Manual Off Base Here?

[Scott Lloyd]

I find the Old Testament mildly frustrating at times. It seems painfully obvious that a great deal has been excised from the accounts and we are just reading between the lines (for example Genesis really gives us know idea why Abraham is such a monumentally good figure). That's partly why we get all those Midrashic stories.

But, as for Abraham being the head of the faith, if one subscribes to dispensationalism then Mormonism traditionally places Abraham as a head of a dispensation and a fresh renewal of the Gospel. So, while there may have been the Gospel among some (like Melchizedek) it would be Abraham's job to dispense the Gospel to the rest of the "world". This makes the idea that Sarah was already a full fledged worshiper of Yahweh unlikely. But, she may have well had some basic concepts lacking the greater truths that Abraham was charged with dispensing.

In short, I would read "someone of his own faith" only loosely or use katherine the great's kin argument.

Does a dispensation necessarily have to be preceded by a general apostasy from the gospel such as occurred between the apostolic period and the Restoration? Apparently not in the case of Abrahamic dispensation, as Melchizedek held the priesthood and was able to bless Abraham and receive tithes from him. So I think it just as likely that Sarah and others were faithful adherents to the gospel as handed down from Adam.

[Nofear]

Does a dispensation necessarily have to be preceded by a general apostasy from the gospel such as occurred between the apostolic period and the Restoration? Apparently not in the case of Abrahamic dispensation, as Melchizedek held the priesthood and was able to bless Abraham and receive tithes from him. So I think it just as likely that Sarah and others were faithful adherents to the gospel as handed down from Adam.

Perhaps not, but at least in the dispensations set forth in the link provided, the pattern of general apostasy (not necessarily complete, but general) seems plausible if not likely.

[Calm]

The verb can mean to laugh, and by extension to tease, but it can also mean to fondle, to make out. The LXX and the Vulgate have a fuller verse, that Ishmael was [playing] with Isaac. The wording is identical to what Isaac was doing with Rebbecah later on, in Gen 26:8.

If we don't approach Sarah as the heartless harpy-from-hell, and assume that she had Abraham cast out a mother and son into the desert over a 15 year old taunting a 2 or 3 year old, then whatever it was she saw must have deeply disturbed her.

Oh my, thanks for the info...I think.