mg01

I'm wondering if the three occurances of this tale may reflect a cleaned up original. What has always caught me was that in all three cases our hero comes away from the situation with wealth.

In the current form of all three, the antagonist (Pharoah/Albimelech) isn't really one at all, because though as a foreigner, the story goes to show how even he has respect for the same deity as the hero. Yet when one considers how deception frequently comes into play in many other patriarchal tales, it draws into question as to what the original nature of these stories may have been. Could it be that the hero was in fact the trickster who sets up the target by offering him his wife as sister as a bride then together they deviously makes off with the booty? That seems like it would be tale worth repeating. (Ha-ha, our ancestor tricked those guys next door and stole his stuff!)

Some Googling turned up this link, but it was the only one I could find. A Prelude to Biblical Folklore: UNDERDOGS AND TRICKSTERS

Has anyone else ever ran across this idea before?