The Three Visitors
Chapter 8, part 3 of The Blessings of Abraham:  Becoming a Zion People
By E. Douglas Clark

“The recuperation period for adult circumcision is long and painful,” notes a modern Jewish author, “not least if the patient is ninety-nine years old and underwent surgery without anesthetic.” ^[1] It was during this tender recovery period, just three days after his circumcision ^{[2] ,} and while Abraham was yet “in great pain,” ^[3] says Jewish tradition, that Abraham was visited by three men. ^[4]

Genesis reports the incident in elaborate detail, beginning with the statement that “The LORD appeared to him by the terebinths of Mamre” (JPST Gen. 18:1).

Why a terebinth, asks a midrash? Because Abraham’s Israelite descendants are like the terebinth tree, which, although it can appear dried up and dead, yet can be revived with water. So also Israel, though they might long languish in apparent spiritual death, yet “when they will repent and the time of redemption will come, they will bloom and become radiant once again.” ^[5]

It is the radiance of latter-day Zion — destined to “shine forth” and become “fair as the sun, and clear as the moon” (D&C 109:73; 105:31; 5:14) — that was foreshadowed by Abraham’s terebinths.

But the details of that appearance are not immediately clear in Genesis, for the statement that God appeared to Abraham is followed by the account of Abraham’s startling discovery of three men who suddenly appear before him, beginning with the detail that Abraham “was sitting at the entrance of the tent as the day grew hot” (JPST Gen. 18:2).

It was the hottest part of a very hot day, say the rabbis, with the sun beating down mercilessly. ^[6] As one writer recounts, “Abraham sits in his tent door enjoying its grateful shade, and looking out on the plain of Mamre, from which the sun’s fiery beams have driven men, birds and panting beasts to such shelter as rocks and trees and tents afford.” ^[7]

Abraham, however, was not focused on himself and his discomfort, compounded by his recent circumcision, but was worrying for whatever travelers might need assistance on a day like that. “Notwithstanding the intense heat and his own sickness he still sat there to invite any stray passer-by.” ^[8] When no one came, he sent his servant to go in search of anyone needing help, even though Abraham had planted trees for the benefit of travelers — rest stops along the way. When the servant returned without success, Abraham determined to go himself. ^[9]

The Travelers Appear

It was then, says rabbinic tradition, that Abraham discovered the travelers. “Looking up,” says Genesis, “he saw three men standing near him” (JPST Gen. 18:2). Their appearance, according to a rabbinic text, was sudden, as though they had fallen out of heaven. ^[10] Rashi says that when Abraham caught sight of them, they appeared to be holding back, as if they did not want to approach and trouble him. ^[11]

Abraham might easily have remained seated, and simply directed a servant or subordinate to attend to these travelers. Or, says one writer, “he may wait their approach, leaving them to solicit his hospitality. Not he — Abraham rises.” ^[12] A modern Jewish commentator notes that “excuses are always at hand and come readily to mind for the one who seeks them, but the true disciple of Abraham does not look for excuses.” ^[13]

Abraham arose and, despite the scorching heat, and “although he was in great pain from his wound, ran forward to meet them,” according to the Zohar. ^[14]   Genesis tells that upon reaching them he “bowed himself toward the ground” (Gen. 18:1–2).

Who were these three men to whom Abraham ran? As the story unfolds in Genesis, one of them is named as the Lord Himself. But according to biblical scholar Claus Westermann, the text cannot intend to really mean what it says here; it must mean simply that the messenger speaking had been sent by the Lord. ^[15]

So it is also in the Joseph Smith Translation, which expressly identifies the three visitors as “angels of the Lord” (JST Gen. 18:13, and repeatedly thereafter), an identification also made by Jubilees ^[16] and most rabbinic texts, ^[17] one of which calls the three men “ministering angels.” ^[18] The Joseph Smith Translation reports the angels as saying that the Lord had told them: “I will send you, and ye shall go down now” (JST Gen. 18:20), and further describes them as “holy men ... sent forth after the order of God” (18:23).

The last time the phrase “order of God” was used in the Joseph Smith Translation was in association with the translated city of Enoch: “And men having this faith, coming up unto this order of God, were translated and taken up into heaven” (JST Gen. 14:32). The term “holy men” is found in a revelation to Joseph Smith (D&C 49:8), where it means, according to Joseph Fielding Smith, translated beings. ^[19]

That the visitors to Abraham will actually eat is further indication of their translated status, for spirits (whether premortal or postmortal) could not have eaten, nor were there any resurrected beings at that time on this earth. And since, as Joseph Smith explained, “there are no angels who minister to this earth but those who do belong or have belonged to it” (D&C 130:5), ^[20] if Abraham’s visitors were not mortal, they were necessarily translated beings.

But did Abraham recognize them as messengers of God? Most commentators presume that he did not, but the Joseph Smith Translation adds an intriguing detail as Abraham first addresses them: he calls them “My brethren” (JST Gen. 18:3). Nowhere else in the Abraham story does he use this form of address.

The medieval Jewish sage Nachmanides held that when the three angels came to Abraham, he recognized them ^[21] — a view held also in early Anglo-Saxon tradition. ^[22] Likewise according to modern Jewish scholar Benno Jacob, Abraham’s recognition of his visitors is indicated by both his words and his actions: nowhere else does Abraham call himself the servant of men; and as magnanimous and generous as Abraham was, he entertained enough guests that “he cannot possibly have received every passer-by in th[e] exuberant manner” in which he was about to entertain these guests. “Yet, he recognizes the messengers of God.” ^[23]

Modern scholar Gordon Wenham holds that Abraham’s gestures of running and bowing to the three men “express both the warmth of Abraham’s welcome and his deep respect for his visitors. Elsewhere in Genesis people run to greet long-lost relatives, and they bow down to the high and mighty.” ^[24] And according to Van Seters, Abraham’s “obeisance to the visitors [is] in a manner befitting only a king or deity. This is certainly more than a show of politeness.” ^[25]

The Identities of the Visitors

If Abraham did recognize these men, who were they? As we saw earlier in an early Syriac source, Abraham had once exhibited similar enthusiasm when he bowed in greeting before Melchizedek, ^[26] who, according to Philo, was Abraham’s close friend. ^[27]

It is Philo also who adds a potentially significant detail to the Genesis report about these angels a few verses later.  The verses concern one of the three visitors, reported in the traditional Genesis text to be the Lord (Gen. 18:17–19), but the angel of the Lord in the Joseph Smith translation (JST Gen. 18:17–18).  Where the visitor says that he would not hide what he would do from Abraham, Philo adds that the words spoken were actually “Abraham my friend.” ^[28]

If these were the words of the angel rather than God, the angel must have already been a friend of Abraham — suggesting the interesting possibility that one of these holy men, these translated beings, might well have been Abraham’s friend Melchizedek, who now resided in the Enoch’s translated city of Zion.

Abraham pleaded with the three angels not to pass by their ^[29] “servant,” and he pressed them to stop and refresh themselves. “Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts” (Gen. 18:4–5). ^[30] Abraham then sprang into action and set in motion a “flurry of activity.” ^[31]

“It is worth noting,” says biblical scholar Claus Westermann, “that no one is in a hurry elsewhere in the patriarchal stories; here it is haste in the service of others.” ^[32] Commenting on Abraham’s actions, a Jewish midrash notes that “the righteous act with speed.” ^[33]

Abraham quickly enlisted Sarah’s and the servants’ help in preparing a lavish feast. “And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man” who “hasted to dress it” (Gen. 18:6–7). The young man, according to Jewish tradition, was none other than Ishmael, whom Abraham was training in the ways of righteousness and service by not just preaching to him but involving him. ^[34]

When the meal was ready, Abraham set before his guests the tender veal along with curds ^[35] and milk, and then “waited on them under the tree as they ate” (JPST Gen. 18:8). As a modern commentator notes, from first to last the meal is “rich fare,” as Abraham “specifies the use of ... the finest and choicest of wheat flour,” then “selects the calf for the main dish, a rare delicacy and a sign of princely hospitality among pastoralists,” and even includes milk, which “was highly esteemed in the ancient Near East and was offered to the gods.” ^[36]

In the words of another scholar, “the ‘little water’ and ‘morsel of bread’ turn out to be a sumptuous feast” for the visitors. ^[37] The Talmud remarks that “such is the way of the righteous; they promise little, but perform much.” ^[38] And personally waiting on these guests was Abraham himself, who “is completely at their service.” ^[39]

An early Jewish source notes that “our father Abraham was the greatest in the world, yet he served the angels” ^[40] — a telling example of what Jesus would teach, that the greatest among His disciples would be their servant (Matt. 23:11).

Abraham had understated not only what he would do for the meal but also for the washing of the visitors’ feet. The bringing of water to allow a visitor to wash his feet was appreciated hospitality for ancient Near Eastern travelers, whose sandaled feet were constantly dusty. ^[41] But some early sources insist that more than hospitality was involved on this occasion.

The Zohar states that the washing of the visitors’ feet was done for the purpose of ritual purity. ^[42] And according to the Testament of Abraham — which, like the Joseph Smith Translation, calls Abraham’s three visitors “holy men” ^[43] — it was Abraham himself who washed their feet. ^[44]

So said also the church fathers, ^[45] who saw Abraham’s act to be a foreshadowing of the Savior washing the feet of the Apostles ^[46] and an example, says Origen, of the New Testament’s cleansing the dust off the feet as a testimony in the day of judgment, ^[47] which latter-day revelation similarly identifies as one of the purposes of the washing or cleansing of feet. ^[48] Judgment was indeed imminent for Sodom and Gomorrah, the final destination of these three angels.

That the angels’ feet were washed by Abraham also indicates that it may well have been the priesthood ordinance described by Joseph Smith as “calculated to unite our hearts, that we may be one in feeling and sentiment, and that our faith may be strong, so that Satan cannot overthrow us, nor have any power over us here.” ^[49]

Apparently, these visitors from Enoch’s Zion, where all were “of one heart” (Moses 7:18), were participating in an ordinance designed to unite hearts and strengthen faith in the momentous blessing they were about to pronounce.

By the Mutual Faith of Abraham and Sarah

The angels then asked Abraham where Sarah was — a question to which, as would soon become apparent, they already knew the answer. So why ask? The medieval Jewish scholar Rashi repeated a Talmudic tradition reporting that “the ministering angels knew, indeed, where our mother Sarah was, but they asked this question in order to call attention to her modesty and so to endear her all the more to her husband.” ^[50] Another rabbinic source observes:

But the question regarding Sarah’s whereabouts was asked in a voice that she also could hear, apparently intentionally so; for what the angels will now say, they want her to hear. According to the Joseph Smith Translation, one of the angels “blessed Abraham” (JST Gen. 18:9) and said, as recorded in Genesis: “I will return to you next year, and your wife Sarah shall have a son!” (JPST Gen. 18:10).

Why did the angel not say, as would be customary for the culture and times, that Abraham would have a son through Sarah? Perhaps out of the Lord’s tender regard for Sarah, who had waited so long and sacrificed so much, having never murmured against God or her husband.

When the visitor inquired of her whereabouts, she was standing just out of sight behind the tent door and heard every word. Her reaction is reported by Genesis, with an explanatory preamble. “Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing” (NKJV Gen. 18:11), or, as another translation has it, she “had stopped having the periods of women” (JPST Gen. 18:11).

In the words of the medieval Jewish grammarian David Kimhi, “old age now weighed heavily upon them.” ^[52] No wonder that despite Sarah’s faith and faithfulness, and in the face of her biological reality, as an Islamic source observes, “by then her heart had lost hope of giving birth to a son.” ^[53]

Genesis continues: “Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?’” (NKJV Gen. 18:11–12). ^[54] Sarah has been sharply criticized for her behavior, beginning with her apparent eavesdropping. But as Martin Luther pointed out, the very reason that she stood near the tent door where she could hear was that she was waiting to see whether Abraham had any further instructions for her, she having already personally assisted in preparing the elaborate meal. ^[55]

She has been further criticized for what she said to herself, but Luther points out that the very fact that it was simply to herself, and not for the hearing of others, is likewise to her credit. ^[56]

And at whose words was she laughing? The traditional Genesis text, as translated by the King James, says it was the Lord Himself (“LORD”) who overheard Sarah’s response and asked Abraham why Sarah laughed. Not so in the Joseph Smith Translation, which makes it absolutely clear that it was not the Lord but merely one of the three men. Nor had Sarah personally interacted with these men, probably according to custom. ^[57] “She did not know,” explains Nachmanides, “that they were the angels of the Supreme One.” ^[58] It was at the words of an apparent human being, a traveler she knew nothing about, that she silently chuckled to herself.

And her spontaneous reaction reveals, as pointed out by some of Judaism’s greatest scholars, that she had not yet been apprised of God’s promise, made to Abraham shortly before, that she herself would bear a son. ^[59] Perhaps Abraham had decided that it was better to let Sarah discover it as it unfolded, or more likely, he been directed not to disclose it.

Might God have even promised Abraham that he and Sarah would be visited by three messengers who would come to bestow this very blessing on Sarah and deliver the good news to her? If so, this might also explain how it was that Abraham recognized the three messengers but did not mention their identity to Sarah. ^[60]

What remains clear is that Sarah was caught completely off guard by the seemingly foolish statement of this unknown traveler, and this was the context for her silent laughter. The episode does not impugn in the least Sarah’s faith in the Almighty. Indeed, her unfailing faith in the Lord and His purposes makes her as much a model for her daughters as Abraham is for his sons, according to the Apostle Peter, who had nothing but adulation for the great Matriarch. It is to this very incident and to Sarah’s very words that Peter points as an example of a model wife: “Sarah was submissive to Abraham,” noted Peter, and “called him lord.” And, adds Peter to the women reading his letter, “you are her daughters, so long as you do good works.” ^[61]

Sarah’s laughter had been inaudible, but one of the visitors immediately asked Abraham, in a voice that Sarah could hear: “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’” (NKJV Gen. 18:13). As pointed out by a commentator, “the speaker knows that Sarah has laughed, though he has neither seen nor heard her.” ^[62] The visitor’s disclosure of what no mortal could have heard is thereby a disclosure of his own identity as a powerful messenger of God.

But the question he asked raises further questions for the readers of this account. He knew Sarah had laughed, and he knew that she knew it, so why point it out? Was it perhaps to demonstrate to her his own divine power so as to increase Sarah’s faith in the blessing he had come to bestow? Perhaps it was, as Ephrem the Syrian maintained, “a sign specifically to her who had not asked for a sign.” ^[63]

But why did the visitor misquote, or not completely quote, Sarah, who had also said that Abraham was old? Because, answered the rabbis, “God ... loves peace and hates controversy. If [the visitor] had told Abraham that Sarah considered him too old to have children, it might have resulted in strife between them. God wanted to maintain their love and peace.” ^[64] Hence, “for the sake of peace, he merely omitted her remark about Abraham.” ^[65] Nothing was more important to the Almighty and His messengers than maintaining between Sarah and Abraham that peace and unity that are the foundation of Zion, the place from which the visitors had come.

Sarah’s Startlement

Even so, Sarah was startled at the visitor’s words, and when she “discovers to her surprise ... that her secret thoughts and emotions have been exposed,” she “bursts forth from the tent” ^[66] to exclaim, “I did not laugh.” To which the visitor replies, “Yes, you did laugh.” ^[67]

A casual reading of this story in Genesis may leave the impression that the visitor is simply insisting on being right and decides to argue the point and have the last word. But a different impression comes in light of the identity of these visitors as hailing from the city of Enoch, that pristine place pulsating with perfect love (Moses 7:18).

This is a visitor not prone to argue and who has no reason to insist on being right or having the last word. Why then does he correct Sarah? Perhaps again to convince her of his divine authority and yet again increase her faith in the priesthood blessing he has come to give Abraham.

The angel then added, as reported in the King James of Genesis: “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” ^[68] But perhaps this translation, as one modern scholar insists, “misses ... the marvellous element of [the Lord’s] promise and the power it contains over human weakness and limitations.” ^[69] Other translations render the angel’s words as: “Is anything too difficult for the LORD?” ^[70] “Is anything impossible for the LORD?” (REB Gen. 18:14). “Is anything beyond the LORD?” ^[71] “Is anything too marvelous for the LORD to do?” ^[72] “Is anything too wondrous for the LORD?” (JPST Gen. 18:14). “Is anything too wonderful for the LORD?” (NRSV Genesis 18:14). ^[73]

The words refer not only to the miracle for Abraham and Sarah, according to the Zohar, but also to that future day when the Lord will miraculously bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, the great renewal. ^[74] But the words also refer, according to Christian scripture, to the birth of Him who would make the resurrection possible.

Many centuries after the angel spoke to Sarah, another angel would speak to another beautiful Hebrew woman, Mary, about the miraculous birth of her son, and would then mention the imminent birth of John to her relative Elizabeth, an old and barren woman. “For with God,” the angel would declare to Mary, “nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:36–37) — an intentional allusion, says scholars, to Mary’s ancestor Sarah and her miraculous birth. ^[75]

And if Mary’s faith would be bolstered by the allusion to her ancestor Sarah, Sarah’s faith was bolstered by the Son to be miraculously born to Mary. In fact, it was Sarah’s faith in the Son of God, her future descendant through the son she would soon bear, that effectuated the miracle allowing Sarah to become a mother. “Neither at any time,” says Moroni, “hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God” (Ether 12:18). Sarah’s belief in Jesus opened the door for her to become the mother of Isaac, and hence foremother of Jesus.

Accordingly, as stated in the New Testament, the blessing of Isaac came on the strength not only of Abraham’s faith — “who against hope believed in hope” (Rom. 4:18) — but also of Sarah’s, who “through faith ... herself received strength to conceive seed, and she was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised” (Heb. 11:11). ^[76]

And as faith opens spiritual vistas of new vision, so Sarah’s prophetic powers were such that as Jewish tradition remembers, she was also known as a seer; “she foresaw Israel’s history, and prayed to God to assist them in their tribulations.” ^[77] Meanwhile, in her long wait, she showed her faith by her works in “her unabated zeal in gathering converts,” for which God rewarded her with the desire of her heart. ^[78]

It was the mutual faith of Abraham and Sarah in the Lord Jesus Christ that qualified them to become parents of Israel (see Heb. 11:12; and Rom. 4:16–22). Indeed, the blessing left that momentous day by the three visitors from Zion was effective for both Abraham and Sarah: Jewish tradition remembers that Abraham was healed from his circumcision. ^[79]

Moreover, according to the Zohar, the blessing left upon them actually looked forward to the day of resurrection, when they would be restored to their pristine youth. ^[80] Only then, as latter-day revelation makes clear, would they ultimately realize the promise of posterity as innumerable as the stars in heaven and the sand on the seashore (D&C 132:19–37).

The blessing left on Abraham and Sarah was thus an affirmation of their eternal marriage covenant, which is of more than historical interest to Latter-day Saints who enter into that same covenant with the same promises. For as George Q. Cannon, member of the First Presidency, reminded the Latter-day Saints in general conference,

God has ... promised us that we shall sit upon thrones, that we shall have crowns, and that we shall have a posterity as numerous as the stars in heaven, as countless as the sand upon the sea shore; for, said He, “I seal upon you the blessings of kingdoms, of thrones, of principalities, of powers, and of dominions. I seal upon you the blessings of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. I seal upon you the promise that you shall come forth in the morning of the first resurrection clothed with glory, immortality and eternal lives.”

These are the promises that are made to the Latter-day Saints. The Lord promised unto Abraham that as the stars of heaven were innumerable in multitude, and as the sand on the sea shore was countless, so his seed should be. That same promise has been sealed upon your heads, ye Latter-day Saints who have been faithful. ^[81]